Our Cosmic Dust at the Park Theatre – review

Grief is something personal. No matter what anyone tells you, your experience will be uniquely yours. For young schoolboy Shotaro (voiced by Hiroki Berrecloth), the recent death of his father has made him virtually mute and emotionally closed. His mother Yoko (Millie Hikasa) has tried everything to get Shotaro to be “normal” again and blames herself for making him like this.

Yoko’s husband was obsessed with astronomy, it was all he liked to talk about. Whilst she had scant interest in it, Shotaro became equally obsessive about the subject and it became his primary bond with his father. So when Shotaro asked his mother where his father had gone, now he’s dead, she said that maybe he’d become a star. That’s when Shotaro became silent. That’s when he started staring incessantly at the night sky, trying to see if any new stars appeared. That’s when he started writing down copious pages of his thoughts. And then one day he wakes up early and runs away.

Our Cosmic Dust follows Yoko on this fateful day, as she frantically searches for her son. She comes across a number of people, all of whom have seen and engaged with Shotaro and each has been affected by him, giving them a moment to reflect on their own ideas and experiences of death and the afterlife.

Written, designed and directed by Michinari Ozawa (adapted and translated from the original Japanese by Susan Momoko Hingley), Our Cosmic Dust blends live action, puppetry, animation and screen projections to create a visually arresting and immersive experience. Whilst the core cast are all played by actors, Shotaro is portrayed by a hand-held, lifesize puppet which, surprisingly, gives his character a stronger degree of emotional depth.

The backdrop is a huge LED screen onto which a range of drawings and animations are displayed. This gives the director the opportunity to vividly and immersively share the delights in the astronomical world and also help express Shotaro’s inner thoughts. The result is quite breathtaking, but it’s done in a way that adds to the narrative rather than being a showy gimmick.

All this said, there’s one significant misstep in the production, and that’s the story. It’s pitched in a way that sits uncomfortably between being aimed at young children and adults. The overriding story and some of the language suggest that this is for adults. However, the script and the way the performances have been directed suggest that its target audience is pre-teens. The overall way it plays out is a messy blend that feels like a version of A Monster Calls, but made for CBeebies.

Despite its confused identity, Our Cosmic Dust offers enough wonder and technical brilliance to justify the journey. Just don’t expect the destination to be as clear as the constellations Shotaro seeks.