Stars

We went to see Stars: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey at the Northern Stage on Tuesday, a one-woman show (mostly) about an older woman finding herself through her sexuality after the death of her husband. It blends pop culture, music, feminism, cosmology, and science fiction, and comes together into something special. Fair warning though, although it is indeed a “hilarious and moving mix of celebratory Black queer empowerment and arousal” it also deals repeatedly throughout with some very dark topics, quite graphically in places. The promotional materials only hint at it, but the venue had some content warnings which was nice.

One of the cool things was the staging, the small circular stage was tilted, and contained the bulk of the action in a compact but clever kitchen set – then off to the side was a booth where DJ played the tunes coming in through the kitchen radio. Meanwhile there were images projected onto the wall behind the stage, sometimes illustrating moments of narration, other times giving a sense of space and movement, and also providing captioning in an immersive way.