Daniel is a climate scientist occupying space on a busy and dying world. This busyness plays out on a minimally-set white stage designed by David Fleischer, and we are fluidly bussed around between scenes and settings that gradually intensify: a stressed and underappreciated work life buoyed by Chum Ehelepola's laconic portrayal of a colleague; an anxious exchange with a female (Ash Ricardo) in the abrasive red light and muddy hum of dance music outside a club; the girlfriend she becomes; an all-too professional insurance inventory worker (Rachel Gordan) whose life grows as complex as Daniel's own…
The most impressive result wrought from the ebbs and flows of these carefully orchestrated and interweaving storylines and moments in time – handled deftly as they are under Sam Strong's direction – is the cumulative effect of all; the way they raise the stakes and the weight of the world, and put Daniel's anxieties uncomfortably within reach of the audience.
When it becomes too bare and the cracks in the hull break and begin to leak all on stage, Ian Meadows' Daniel is at wits' end (his performance across the 100 minutes of the play, which he penned himself, is stunning), and Ricardo and Gordon are both confused and concerned in their own ways – Between Two Waves then reaches its stunning denouement.
Meadows' and Strong's secret apocalypse is beautifully affecting, offering both the adrenaline of a thriller and the quivering tingle of a truly heart-warming, personal story.
Running at SBW Stables Theatre until Saturday 17 November
