1 – 3 June        

This might sound bold, but rest assured, you have not seen a show like this ever before in your life. STARS is more than rare; presented by co-producers Tamasha and ICA, this piece of theatre feels genuinely individual. You may half-expect stumbling across a less polished variation of STARS in an alt backstreet venue of a city’s Fringe festival, probably not in the Old Rep. Thank our lucky stars it came this way. 

This is the story of an 80-year-old mixed race woman from South-East London – the ‘throwaway baby of a runaway English wife and a Black American GI’ – searching for her orgasm in outer space, reflecting on her life’s key moments, and so much more. Ancestral aliens. Harmful traditions. Star Trek. Chips and curry sauce. 

It’s a tricky show to review as it feels vital you don’t know the whole story before going in. Part of the wonder is seeing how everything clicks together, and how writer Mojisola Adebayo has made this queer, feminist, afrofuturist, experimental, poetic script soar without ever feeling alienating. It’s a little bit breath-taking. 

A one-woman show with two people on stage, conveying the complex narrative of STARS rests on the shoulders of Debra Michaels, playing as lead Mrs and almost every other character. Accompanied by the transporting live stylings of DJ Son (Bradley Charles), Michaels is a force. 

It’s tough to pick out the best of her many characters as each, even if present only for a moment, is well-considered and distinct. But a special shout out to Maxi: “They call me ‘intersex’ and I say too right I am into-sex! Heheyyyy!” The way Michaels can bounce from the vivacity of Maxi to the burgeoning selfhood of Mrs to little Maryam amid a bevy of other roles, accents, idiosyncrasies. Superlatives fail me. She’s a star. 

There’s a lot of learning here – at least, for me, and those audience members around me. New ideas, old histories, bits about Jupiter’s moons, bits about Evangelicism, bits about people’s bits… You leave the theatre educated, without feeling pontificated. 

A note to say the integrated captioning and visuals are an extra ace in the hole for this production, helping coalesce the team’s vision and making the experience more accessible for all audience members, regardless of disability. And they’re beautiful. 

It takes a moment to come back down to earth after seeing STARS. I’ve not yet. Quite happily, my head’s still up here.