Onstage: Review: Darkside

If Halloween reminded you that you fear the dark, think twice about seeing Northern Kentucky University’s production of Darkside, a 1985 script by theater professor Ken Jones, who also serves as director.

The play imagines an Apollo space mission to the moon that goes horribly awry: Two astronauts on the moon’s surface are trapped by a mechanical malfunction. The third, orbiting and awaiting their return for the trip home, can only listen as their oxygen seeps away and their efforts to correct the problem become more desperate. When the orbiter transits the moon’s dark side, he goes into periodic communication blackouts.

That’s when the play explores the dark side of human nature — anxiety and tension, lies and cover-ups, marital tension and unfaithfulness. Jones’ script portrays a terrific test of the volatility of human emotions. John Scheller is Bill Griffin, alone in the capsule, overwhelmed by second-guessing, guilt and remorse. On the moon, Gunner Smith (Timothy Rhoades) tries to contain his increasingly unstable fellow astronaut, Ed Stone (Charlie Roetting).

Bill is tortured by memories of his wife Beth (Samantha Wright), weary of playing the role of his smiling supportive spouse and of Gigi Stone (Emma Robertson). Ed’s wife is beyond weary; she’s trolling for something new — another man who’s less perfect than Ed. Her sights are fixed on Bill. It’s a bit of a predictable soap opera, but the characters and their responses are very human.

Darkside provides fine opportunities for its cast. Rhoades is especially believable as the straight-arrow mission commander. Scheller and Roetting convey the requisite anxiety, but they need more astronaut cool to let us see how far off-track they’ve gone. Despite a Pop tunes soundtrack (every “Moon” song you’ve ever heard), the tale ends just where you’d expect it to, in darkness.Grade: B-

This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2007.