Secrets of Space – wonder and perspective, music and maybe even a wee tear (Cahoots NI at Cityside Retail Park until Sunday 28 September)

Cahoots NI have turned their base in Cityside Retail Park into a theatre space with a rich programme of shows running between now and Christmas. There’s no permanent children’s theatre venue in Belfast although the city is blessed with a children’s festival and theatre makers with international reputations like Cahoots NI and Replay Theatre.

Down at Cityside, The Musicians of Bremen Live! will get its local premiere at the end of October along with the world premiere of magician Caolan McBride’s Unlocking Sherlock full of deduction and deception, all part of Belfast International Arts Festival. And then throughout December, audiences can step inside The Secret Bookshop and discover the mystery, mayhem and magic inside.

Before then, Cahoots NI’s Secrets of Space is back. I caught its first run back in 2019 and it was a delight this week to once again be enchanted by its most recent incarnation.

Teenage Mae lives in Tennessee and has spent a month each summer visiting her cousin Suni in Belfast. The pair are space mad, and over the years, Suni’s bedroom has become a collection of model rockets, telescopes and even an international space station.

Philippa O’Hara (Suni) and Kellee Broadway (Mae) giggle, tease each other, and get on like the best friends they are portraying. They make the Earth rotate around the Sun, discuss the planets in our solar system (much to the delight of young space geeks in the audience), and voice the mission control commentary counting down the Apollo 11 launch that would first land humans on the moon. By the end they are – somewhat ambitiously – explaining travelling at the speed of light and the effect on time.

There are so many moments that create a sense of wonder and perspective – there’s a song with the lyric “I saw the whole world breathing … like one living thing” – that may bring a tear to your eye. And none more so that Suni and Mae harmonising along with Chris Hadfield’s reworked version of Space Oddity which he recorded while up on the International Space Station (and which David Bowie described as “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created”). The easy blend of O’Hara and Broadway’s voices throughout the hour-long performance adds to the spellbinding nature of the show.

Charles Way’s script is full of gentle education about the concepts fundamental to astronomy and space travel. A whole host of creative input then brings the ideas to life through song (musical director Peter J McCauley), intricate props (Diana Ennis), video wonders on the circular screen (BNL) and artistic director Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney’s ability to leave audiences young and old wondering – often out loud – “how did they do that?” Children’s theatre benefits from repetition and it’s beautifully woven into Way’s script which introduces concepts that the show will then return to. “Nothing lasts forever” say the girls, but the 60 minutes spent experiencing the show feel very short.

Elegant effects and tricks are performed so casually that they hide the hours of planning and rehearsal to get them tight. The shadow effect while ‘walking’ behind the LED wall is dropped in without any need for fanfare. A silent motor moves the sun up and down with pinpoint accuracy. Gravity is explained, and then its absence is demonstrated with Suni effortlessly floating into space (cue some of the audience humming Defying Gravity from Wicked into themselves). And I’m delighted that the dinosaurs still come, and then go with a flick of a hand into a box of many tricks.

Suitable for children from the age of seven and over, Secrets of Space is a production made in Belfast that has toured internationally. If sitting with a grin on your face at the end of a performance is a sign of quality and success, then don’t miss this chance to see it in Belfast before it inevitably jets off to far flung places. And sit near the front to catch the astounding detail in the miniature prop that finishes the show.

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