STASIS

‘Sometimes it feels like there’s no air in here. Sometimes I think about where the air’s coming from and it makes the centre of my chest hurt. A lot of things make the centre of my chest hurt.’

A play for one woman, one hologram, and four stasis cubes.

After an unknown disaster, stowaway Ren is forced to put the injured crew of a spaceship into stasis, only to discover the ship is far from home and completely lost. With a two year journey ahead of her, Ren makes a companion of the ship’s emergency Hologram and tries to keep herself, and the crew, alive.

But as the ship starts to fall into disrepair around her, Ren must make an impossible decision about the lives of the crew, her own life – and the growing life of the Hologram.

STASIS explores loneliness, loss, strength, and isolation in the presence of – and caused by – technology.

Productions

2015, Encompass Productions, White Bear Theatre, dir. Liam Fleming
Original soundtrack by Alex Burnett

Reviews

★★★★ ‘Holyoake has taken the subjects of regret, loneliness, and artificial intelligence, and interwoven them deftly with the long-term effects of space travel…a taut, lean script that says much.’ – Female Arts

★★★★ ‘Stasis takes theatre to a place where it has not yet been. And despite its humble first home, it’s a giant of a play that, hopefully, it is just a matter of time before someone beams it up and transports it to a superior spacecraft.’ – The Upcoming

★★★★ ‘…a surprising and unexpected play about being human in extreme conditions: looking at longing, losing, and loving. Holyoake’s writing is pretty much flawless. One of the most astonishing and original pieces of new writing this year.’ – Grumpy Gay Critic

★★★★ ‘This new play from Emily Holyoake is a pretty classic piece of sci-fi, but try and pick apart quite why it works so well, and it reveals an emotional core that is rare in the genre…a strong, narrative-led drama.’ – I Am Boards

★★★★ ‘…a story of human emotions, which will strike a chord with any viewer…a dark, stark story that takes you to another world. It is a perfect showcase for brilliant acting for there is no place for error.’ – LondonTheatre1

‘….innovative and quixotic writing, real writing from a real writer…Holyoake’s extraordinary play is spare, uncluttered and unadorned. Its directness is deceptive, creating an immediacy and empathy which powers the drama. One of the impressive aspects of the play is what is left unsaid and unexplained, an object lesson in economical writing…’ – John Foster

‘…an excellent script…For a sci-fi play, Stasis is all about human connection. By the end I was totally invested in the characters, cared for  them and cared if they made it home. For a play to be set in such an unbelievable environment and yet achieve believability is marvellous.’ – A Younger Theatre

‘By far the highlight of the night…a spellbinding narrative saturated with imagination, sincerity, and (crucially) a touch of deadpan humour…Stasis never coddles the audience, yet it drips information consistently enough to where they never feel lost in the science fiction Holyoake deftly navigates…I honestly expect big things from this play.’ – Impact