PioneerIn the not too distant future, an attempt is being made to get humans to Mars. It’s not the first attempt; the Mars mission of 2025 mysteriously went missing. There’s something head honcho Shari Dasgupta isn’t telling us. Meanwhile two Russian brothers travel from Moscow to Siberia in a Lada Sputnik 1.3 in search for the birth of space travel. Sci-fi thriller Pioneer is a story of space exploration, subterfuge and the never-ending human quest for knowledge.

Curious Directive is the promising young company behind Pioneer, which is its largest piece to date. Engineered by a long list of talents, its cinematic staging is a feat in and of itself, with live recording on stage blown up on screens elsewhere on the set, and large moving structures used to create the multitude of settings needed in this multilayered story. In a landscape of videophones, slick screens and airlocks, it all makes for very futuristic viewing. But make sure you get a seat smack bang in the centre to get the most out of the interlocking projections and mobile sets; it’s a very face-on kind of show.

Beneath its clinical sci-fi exterior lies warmth and emotion, most notably in the story of Imke and Oskar, separated when Oskar ventures off into deep space. Imke’s dark descent into distraction without him is very troubling. This is all helped a long by an evocative score comprising mechanical sounding electro, soft, tug-at-your-insides piano and even Bartok’s eerie Hungarian folk songs.

It should also be mentioned that it’s refreshing to see so many well written female characters in Pioneer – an astronaut, a marine biologist and a NASA hot shot – something that sci-fi doesn’t always treat us to.

Thematically it juxtaposes the natural with the synthetic, and links technology with theology in thought-provoking ways. With its breathtaking visuals, Pioneer is an intelligent and innovative piece of theatre.

Pioneer plays at ZOO Southside until 25 August 2014 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information and tickets, visit the EdFringe website.