Sound of Space by Morgan Touch Productions, playing virtually at the 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival, sets course for an out-of-this-world short film, but can a short timeframe make the landing?

Sound of Space revolves around Captain Isa (Hilary June Hart), who is running a months-long solo mission to Mars with important cargo. Her only companion is the concerned AI Mac (Leo Mates) who runs her mental health checkups, makes her meals of potatoes, and updates her on the status of the mission. Three-quarters of the way to Mars, an unanticipated loss of pressure leaves Isa with severe hearing loss.

From there, well, not much changes.

I mean, there is more to the story, like the fact that Isa misses her son. Or that the cargo is super important. And that Mac also develops some technical difficulties.

Or maybe he doesn’t.

Confused yet?  Because I was. Have I mentioned this is a 12-minute show? That’s a very short film.

No matter how much love went into Sound of Space, the production has too many ideas and not enough room to breathe life into them.

I think it needed to be longer. 

For example, Hart is good as Isa. She’s smart, grounded, genuine, but I couldn’t connect with her. I had no idea what her story was, what exactly her emotional arc entailed. And while Hart does what she can with the role, the last scene left me feeling like Morgan’s direction didn’t think the audience would connect with Isa either.

Sound of Space is clearly a labour of love. I was excited about the sci-fi set up, but I did not expect such a high production value. Think BBC science-fiction aesthetics, somewhat fake looking, but in a way that adds character to each scene.

Director Tyler Morgan and Videographer Raymond Tuquero keep their camera angles close, focusing on the core action with claustrophobic intensity. Not surprising, their creative vision is right at home with the story.

Sound of Space is at its best when it’s a feast for the eyes, with its fun special-effects, and cool props, and beautiful lighting.

As a story, it wants to be a full-length show, not just a snippet of something larger.

Details

• Sound of Space is playing on-demand at the Virtual 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival.
• Purchase a $5 Membership to access the On-Demand programming on the Fringe website, then Pay What You Can to each show as you go,  with the suggested price of $13 per show.
• Memberships can be purchased here.  View the virtual on-demand show listings here.
• Accessibility notes:
  • On-Demand shows: videos are closed captioned, transcripts are available for all audio content, documents are screen-reader friendly, and all digital images are provided with alternative text descriptions. These access supplements have been generated by the company and reviewed by the Festival. They may vary slightly from company to company.
  • Fringe Primetime presentations will feature Auto-Transcribed Captioning.
• Content Warning: abrupt cues, strobe lighting.

Photo of Hilary June Hart in Sound of Space by Raymond Tuquero.