Review: ONE SMALL STEP, Charing Cross Theatre

In a futuristic circular apartment (perhaps a little unfortunate in being reminiscent of Woody Allen's in Sleeper sans org*smatron) a married couple circle each other. That the set itself revolves underlines the nature of what is to come, as arguments fold back on themselves, resolutions come within reach and are then gone, dilemmas persistently unresolved. Two screens show simultaneous video of what we see in real life. That’s either irritating or heavy-handed - take your pick.

Despite the fact that Japanese culture is so strongly represented in the UK, especially amongst younger people - Manga, Anime, and Pokemon for instance - it's still a courageous step by Umeda Arts Theater to produce a new play on the West End stage by a young and, in this country at least, unknown writer, Takuya Kato. It's one thing relying on rock solid existing IP to make blockbuster shows like Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro, quite another to stage a high-minded drama about marital issues on the moon (almost). Even the critically acclaimed Your Lie In April, with music by Broadway veteran, Frank Wildhorn, closed early. To succeed, One Small Step must really stand out.

 It doesn't. Despite being just 70 minutes all-through, the two-hander's plot unfolds at such a pedestrian pace that it feels much longer - I could certainly have done with a cup of coffee from the chic onstage machine when the cast had one about 50 minutes in. 

Also taking on directing duties, Kato cannot inject the energy his writing needs, leaving Susan Momoko Hingley and Mark Takeshi Ota with some very flat material that they cannot lift off alone. Though they argue about the division of parental responsibilities and the different ways women's decisions about career progression are received compared to men's, the issue is handled simplistically, a binary choice, as it would have been in a Play for Today in the 70s or a soap opera in the 80s. It seems simply impossible to believe that, in 2030 or so, that such high-flying employees could face career-ending decisions just for a pregnancy.  

We seldom genuinely feel the stakes rising, as there is so little connection between the man and the woman that it's hard to believe they ever loved each other - at times, it's hard to believe they had had previous conversations. The issue of clandestine workplace marriages, to disclose or not to disclose and resultant conflicts of interest, recently covered in Chloe Domont's excellent feature film Fair Play, is repeatedly announced rather than analysed, leaving us with an ambivalence in mind rather than a firery sense of injustice. 

Perhaps even more disappointing is the almost complete disengagement with the possibilities offered by the set-up of two space scientists in a secret marriage on the way to colonise the Moon. Maybe the writer wasn’t that interested in this element of the plot, as the famous words that give the play its title are (probably, it’s disputed) misquoted in the programme and it’s certainly not possible to have online conversations from Earth to a moonbase without a delay on the transmission. In a show like this, these details matter.

Even accounting for the cultural differences and applauding the Charing Cross Theatre for its boldness in taking the project on, the absence of humour, chemistry and, dare I say, atmosphere, means that this moonshot of a production is left stuck on the launching pad.  

One Small Step is at Charing Cross Theatre until 9 October

Photo images: Mark Senior

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