Local playwright sets sights

Devonport resident Luke Thornborough is eager to achieve blast-off with his scifi thriller play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

But before the writer-director can take the play Alone across the globe to Scotland, he and its two cast members and technical designer have to raise enough money to get there.

What awaits is a coveted opportunity to stage the award-winning production for a month-long run in August.

It’s the sort of chance no budding theatre talent would want to bypass.

Kiwi stars Flight of the Conchords, Taika Waititi, Rose Matafeo and James Roque are among those who built their names with festival performances.

Thornborough reckons Alone is innovative, topical and entertaining enough to stand out.

It is his first full-length play, but the 32-year-old has honed his creative skills making documentaries and advertising campaigns.

He hopes the trip will provide exposure and opportunities, not just for him but also for his long-time actor friends Kat Glass and Courtney Bassett.

Alone is an exploration of climate change, feminism and David Bowie, seen through the interaction of two “diamaterically opposed” characters on a long space journey, he says.

One (played by Glass) is a scientist intent on returning with an alien micro-bacterium to make Earth habitable; and the other (Bas- sett) is the spaceship commander charged with getting her home.

The trip takes them to the edges of the universe and human nature, with the story unfolding over an intense 90 minutes.

Thornborough reckons it would translate into a decent Netflix mini-series or a movie.

“It’s in the not-so-distant but terrifying future,” he adds.

The actors have worked closely with Thornborough on developing the play in the four years since he wrote it at home in Devonport.

Bassett emerged from Auckland Theatre Company’s youth programme while Glass is a familiar face to North Shore audiences through regular work with Tim Bray Theatre Company.

Alone debuted at the Auckland Fringe Festival in 2020, toured around Covid disruptions, and then ran again at the New Zealand Fringe Festival in 2021, winning awards at both events.

On the back of this, it was taken to the Sydney Fringe Festival last year, where it won positive reviews, before returning for a summer season at Auckland’s Q Theatre.

Securing selection from leading Edinburgh venue operator, Assembly, was a coup.

A season awaits in a near 300-seat theatre in George Square, in the heart of the festival area, where talent scouts often attend shows. Plays such as Fleabag, which became a television series, came out of Fringe, Thornborough notes.

To have any chance of similar recogni-