The Stage

Mirror, Mirror

Published Monday 25 July 2011 at 10:21 by Sally Stott

‘Nostalgia for the future’ is a fitting strapline for this new production of Robert Calvert’s 1979 sci-fi drama, which depicts the year 2030 through a kaleidoscope of psychedelia and silver fabric, in a charmingly innocent vision of what we once all thought the 21st century might look like.

A scene from Mirror Mirror at Pentameters Theatre, London.

In her minimalist home, filled with metallic decor, technological wizardry and swirling artwork, pill-popping trophy wife Eleanor stares into a mirror designed to reflect how others see her, like a female version of Dorian Gray transported into an episode of The Jetsons. Her husband sees her ‘incorrectly,’ so she calls a robotic Mirror Technician and tries to seduce him, but he isn’t interested.

Godfrey Old’s set has the home-made appeal of an early Doctor Who episode, while Eva Gray (Eleanor) and Christian Devellerez (the Mirror Technician) capture the polite formality of a bygone era, contrasted by a ‘psychechromic’ dress which reflects Eleanor’s increasingly desperate mood.

First performed in 2008, the script - part narrative, part poetry - has been extended due to extra material found in the shed of Calvert, who was perhaps best known as the lead singer of the band Hawkwind and died in 1988. His friend Leonie Scott-Matthews (director/producer and founder of Pentameters) has championed his work since the sixties and, wearing an outfit she describes as “futuristic”, she both introduces the play and forms an integral part of its fascinating world.