Alien on Stage (2021 | United Kingdom | 86 minutes | Lucy Harvey and Danielle Kummer)
When a group of Dorset bus drivers made the very unconventional decision to abandon their holiday season pantomime in favor of a homegrown theatrical adaptation of Alien, Ridley Scott’s revered science fiction horror film, the response from local audiences was predictably muted. Accustomed to turning up for audience participation, songs, and slapstick comedy, the community theater troupe’s typical audience was baffled by the change of direction and the play’s ticket sales plummeted. However — and luckily for the rest of the world — the show’s amusing posters did attract the attention of a visitor from London who told a few friends, make the three-hour drive to see the play for themselves, became so obsessed with it that they convinced a West End theater to grant the show a one-night-only performance, and committed the whole thing, rehearsals and all, to film.
The resulting documentary is a true delight of small scale theater, capturing the amateur actors, writers, designers, and an often exasperated director executing their creative vision to achieve a dream they probably never dared to dream. Much of the production is a family affair, built around the nexus of director Dave Mitchell whose father took the lead on production design, wife got the leading role, sons wrote and stage managed, and a son’s girlfriend gets pulled into costume design. The rest of the cast, drawn from the local transit agency range, from clever craftspeople to staffers who dreamed of the dramatic life in their younger days as well as somewhat bemused older drivers who don’t quite know what to make of this change of pace and brush with attention.
Wisely, the early parts of the documentary focus mostly on rehearsals, complete with questionable dedication to memorization and timeliness, and only glimpses peeks at the homemade set and costume designs. It’s not until the crew gets to London, with just hours to haul in their own sets and learn the theater’s technical configurations, that we get a sense of the show itself. Along with all the backstage anxieties, we get to watch the highlights play out as if we were among the lucky few who scored tickets to the sold-out show. When some of the effects are revealed, including an appearance from the Xenomorph itself, we get to both participate in the crowd’s uproarious reaction as well as getting to see the crew’s pride and relief in the execution of their hard work. The result is an endearing portrait of small town camaraderie and a celebration of homespun ingenuity; it’s also a gift to those of us who didn’t have the opportunity to marvel at the show ourselves and to be a part of its well-deserved standing ovation.
Alien on Stage premiered at SXSW in the Documentary Features Section. It is seeking distribution. (Header image, credit: Danielle Kummer)