A dramatisation of the Challenger space shuttle disaster from Mad Men writer Jane Anderson is the new Masque Theatre production next week.
Defying Gravity is at The Playhouse Theatre, Clare Street, from Tuesday to Saturday.
It uses fictional characters to explore the events around the 1986 disaster in which Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space and six other astronauts, perished in an explosion just after launch.
Julia Langley who plays Elizabeth, a character representing Christa’s daughter Caroline, said: “It is not a chronological retelling of the story. It looks at the whole event so there is sadness but there is also lightness and hope too. There is a lot more to it than you think. I have to switch between adult Elizabeth and five year old Elizabeth.
“Megan Lucas picked the play. She is an architectural designer by profession but she also has an incredible number of skills as a sound and lighting engineer.
“I don’t think Clare Street Theatre has ever had such an ambitious sound and lighting plan for a production. It is going to be quite something.
“Megan is a complete space nut and so when she discovered there is a play about the Challenger mission written by such a great writer it was like it was destined to be. In the play Christa gives her daughter a little toy plastic space shuttle and Megan even had one that she was given as a girl.”
You can buy tickets here or you can phone 07783531542. They are £9 or £8 concessions.
