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“ McDowall masterfully plants ideas that grow until they explode into extraordinary shapes. Filthy humour breaks down into a cracked algorithm of letters and loss … a play that will gnaw away at you. It's sci-fi – and theatre – at its best.” The Stage
Billions of miles from home, the lone research base on Pluto has lost contact with Earth. Unable to leave or send for help, the skeleton crew sit waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting long enough for time to start eating away at them.
To lose all sense of it.
To start seeing things in the dark outside.
X premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016.
This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Dr Cristina Delgado-García.
Billions of miles from home, the lone research base on Pluto has lost contact with Earth. Unable to leave or send for help, the skeleton crew sit waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting long enough for time to start eating away at them.
To lose all sense of it.
To start seeing things in the dark outside.
X premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016.
This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Dr Cristina Delgado-García.
176 pages, Paperback
Published February 11, 2021
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127 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 6, 2021
Waiting for Godot 2 -- Space Version: Let There Be Carnage
May 16, 2016
I find it difficult to review reading a play when plays are, by their nature, meant to be watched. As such, I can't say that my being intrigued by the text would necessarily transfer to loving a stage production- and indeed, it would require quite a good directorial hand and capable cast to pull this off, which I have heard was the case for the Royal Court production I was not lucky enough to see. I can however say that it was a page turner, and I was sufficiently disturbed, while also wanting to know how it would all end. It ultimately leaves you with more questions than answers, which I imagine must be the playwright's intention- and that can be somewhat frustrating- but the written establishment of tension, disintegration of time, and the possible loss of self was excellent.
June 15, 2022
Ansiedade!
January 2, 2022
Not my favourite Alistair McDowall play, but the guy is amazingly talented. X becomes quite a powerful symbol, not only of a horrible incident, but also of the unknown...
As in algebra, some information is missing from this play and this is actually surprisingly menacing. In many ways, you are left in the same position as the characters: stranded, uncomprehending, somehow a feeling of isolation from the audience's shared lack of knowledge / comprehension. I have no doubt that I would have enjoyed this particular play more live. I'm particularly interested in how they would have staged a particular incident. What a strange and thought provoking play...
As in algebra, some information is missing from this play and this is actually surprisingly menacing. In many ways, you are left in the same position as the characters: stranded, uncomprehending, somehow a feeling of isolation from the audience's shared lack of knowledge / comprehension. I have no doubt that I would have enjoyed this particular play more live. I'm particularly interested in how they would have staged a particular incident. What a strange and thought provoking play...
July 10, 2021
I constantly return to this play. It does so much to experiment with form and shape. Truly excellent.
February 4, 2022
what in the arrival-annihilation-waiting for Godot
December 6, 2025
Dark, moody, mildly haunting. This is quite the pageturner that feels inspired by Moon, Silent Running, and a few other scifi classics.
I would love to see this on the stage. It reads as inventive and unforgettable.
I would love to see this on the stage. It reads as inventive and unforgettable.
January 14, 2023
Spoilers ahead:
So we'll start with the good, which there definitely is a fair amount of in this play. I honestly think McDowall is really responding to the decline of the theater in the face of cinema in an interesting way. The incorporation of cinematic visual imagery (i.e visual that would be very hard to do on set) along with the plays with time, the playful use of the little girl ghost trope, and the setting on a spaceship all come together in a unique way. It feels like a very sensory play which I think is one of McDowall's strengths, he has a very clear vision for the spectacle of the show. I also think the mood created through the sparse dialogue, use of repetition, confusion of the characters, and the time jumps is all very effective at creating something unique to the live theatrical space. I have not seen this show, but I have seen Pomona, done in the round actually, and I think that really helped me appreciate just how much more the McDowall has to offer when you have an ambitious production team willing to get this thing off of the page.
With that said, I don't think this is the best we can do as a medium, and I'm sort of surprised by the amount of positive critical attention McDowall has gotten. I've ever more surprised by the supposed themes mentioned both in the introduction and by critics. To me, McDowall is best thought of as someone with an interesting vision for spectacle who shouldn't be taken too seriously on the thematic front. That's not to disparage him, I just think he maybe sometimes gets an undue amount of credit for taking on more than he actually does, which is a disservice both to the actual strengths of his play and to the supposed themes being explored.
To me, this is a superficial play if we're looking for anything about how to better understand the world. It doesn't really offer any complex questions or explorations. It isn't really saying anything about class, the future, time, or horror/sci-fi as genres that hasn't been said before. (I found Thorton Wilder stuck in a similar trap where he had really wonderful production in mind, but it was ultimately a gold-paved road to nowhere). Compare this to writers like Ursula LeGuin or Kim Stanley Robinson or Octavia Butler who use Sci-fi to explore really interesting social phenomena and actively create new possibilities from disparate elements of the present. Or to bring it back to playwriting, even something like Sarah Kane's 4.48 psychosis or Lauren Yee's Hookman that uses very similar horror conventions but is ultimately driving more towards a central theme. The lack of strong themes in McDowall's work stems, in part, from his writing style which tends to be sparse and allergic to the kind of "this is the point" monologues which are more a staple of more traditional theater. The show leans heavily on what might generously be called "subtext". That can be a strength if we think about theater less as a way of exploring deep themes and more as a unique, multisensory experience.
Some relevant themes I felt were missing include: the ways technology intermingles with the social, race, genuine explorations of the lives of climate refugees, futures of labor, nationalism, and really big picture ideas on how Time functions. To me nothing felt connected, the characters felt thin and superficial, the world didn't feel fleshed out, it was all in service to, effectively, creating a vibe. Which is fine. Good art sometimes is literally just figuring out how to use your medium to get to a feeling or mood. But it makes each element of this play feel inessential. You could have written a very similar story about a group of sailors or lighthouse workers in the 1800s (The Lighthouse anyone?) and you would have lost very little. Even the titular X motif seems kind of superficial and isn't really explored. It's almost like a placeholder that became imbued with meaning after, but in a kind of half-hearted way.
I think I've been pretty even-handed, but I have to say, the introduction to this play should be removed. It adds nothing to the play and instead relies on academic jargon to make the reader/director think there's more to it than there is. It feels like a series of 2-page essays written by a student in an intro Media Studies class. Coating the play in this patina of bullshit makes the art look bad (alienating, pretentious, narcissistic) while also trivializing genuine points of critical academic study (the nature of work, the construction of national identity, the social work of constructing futures, invisibilized/gendered labor like housework, etc). No idea why it's there.
And on a more personal note as an artist, I'll also say for me, to see McDowall, a male white Briton who fails to engage critically with any kind of systemic analysis, to see him held up as a paragon of contemporary theater is a little disheartening for the medium as a whole (or rather the critical apparatuses and the theaters that shape a lot of the mainstream theatrical currents). As fewer and fewer artists come from working class backgrounds (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...) I feel like the whole art form suffers but there doesn't seem to be an institutional recognition of the trend. Just the opposite in fact. It's just like, there's a really limited amount of space in terms of who gets to write plays professionally and I feel like it should definitely be better than this if it's receiving the kind of attention X and Pomona have. Like, this is a fun experimental play to put on at a store-front or maybe an edgy larger theater that can really do a jazzed up production-heavy version, but it's not really breaking any new ground. Even aesthetically it's nice but not particularly original or virtuosic in the scale of its vision.
I'll also say, as someone interested in directing, it seems like despite a lot of ambiguitity in the dialogue, there's not a ton of ways to do this show. Like, I think of revitalization of Shakespeare I've seen that find new settings, focus on particular usually understated characters, work in elements of queerness or gender-bending, incorporate contemporary themes not explicit in the text, really delve into complex psycho-analysis of characters. All these interesting things you can do with a really big, really explicit play. You can't do any of that with X. Certain production elements can be different and actors have a bit of wiggle room to imagine their characters but ultimately it doesn't feel like something I would be interested in seeing more than once. Not a play I personally would ever be interested in directing both because of the text itself and the sort of cultural connotations it has.
So we'll start with the good, which there definitely is a fair amount of in this play. I honestly think McDowall is really responding to the decline of the theater in the face of cinema in an interesting way. The incorporation of cinematic visual imagery (i.e visual that would be very hard to do on set) along with the plays with time, the playful use of the little girl ghost trope, and the setting on a spaceship all come together in a unique way. It feels like a very sensory play which I think is one of McDowall's strengths, he has a very clear vision for the spectacle of the show. I also think the mood created through the sparse dialogue, use of repetition, confusion of the characters, and the time jumps is all very effective at creating something unique to the live theatrical space. I have not seen this show, but I have seen Pomona, done in the round actually, and I think that really helped me appreciate just how much more the McDowall has to offer when you have an ambitious production team willing to get this thing off of the page.
With that said, I don't think this is the best we can do as a medium, and I'm sort of surprised by the amount of positive critical attention McDowall has gotten. I've ever more surprised by the supposed themes mentioned both in the introduction and by critics. To me, McDowall is best thought of as someone with an interesting vision for spectacle who shouldn't be taken too seriously on the thematic front. That's not to disparage him, I just think he maybe sometimes gets an undue amount of credit for taking on more than he actually does, which is a disservice both to the actual strengths of his play and to the supposed themes being explored.
To me, this is a superficial play if we're looking for anything about how to better understand the world. It doesn't really offer any complex questions or explorations. It isn't really saying anything about class, the future, time, or horror/sci-fi as genres that hasn't been said before. (I found Thorton Wilder stuck in a similar trap where he had really wonderful production in mind, but it was ultimately a gold-paved road to nowhere). Compare this to writers like Ursula LeGuin or Kim Stanley Robinson or Octavia Butler who use Sci-fi to explore really interesting social phenomena and actively create new possibilities from disparate elements of the present. Or to bring it back to playwriting, even something like Sarah Kane's 4.48 psychosis or Lauren Yee's Hookman that uses very similar horror conventions but is ultimately driving more towards a central theme. The lack of strong themes in McDowall's work stems, in part, from his writing style which tends to be sparse and allergic to the kind of "this is the point" monologues which are more a staple of more traditional theater. The show leans heavily on what might generously be called "subtext". That can be a strength if we think about theater less as a way of exploring deep themes and more as a unique, multisensory experience.
Some relevant themes I felt were missing include: the ways technology intermingles with the social, race, genuine explorations of the lives of climate refugees, futures of labor, nationalism, and really big picture ideas on how Time functions. To me nothing felt connected, the characters felt thin and superficial, the world didn't feel fleshed out, it was all in service to, effectively, creating a vibe. Which is fine. Good art sometimes is literally just figuring out how to use your medium to get to a feeling or mood. But it makes each element of this play feel inessential. You could have written a very similar story about a group of sailors or lighthouse workers in the 1800s (The Lighthouse anyone?) and you would have lost very little. Even the titular X motif seems kind of superficial and isn't really explored. It's almost like a placeholder that became imbued with meaning after, but in a kind of half-hearted way.
I think I've been pretty even-handed, but I have to say, the introduction to this play should be removed. It adds nothing to the play and instead relies on academic jargon to make the reader/director think there's more to it than there is. It feels like a series of 2-page essays written by a student in an intro Media Studies class. Coating the play in this patina of bullshit makes the art look bad (alienating, pretentious, narcissistic) while also trivializing genuine points of critical academic study (the nature of work, the construction of national identity, the social work of constructing futures, invisibilized/gendered labor like housework, etc). No idea why it's there.
And on a more personal note as an artist, I'll also say for me, to see McDowall, a male white Briton who fails to engage critically with any kind of systemic analysis, to see him held up as a paragon of contemporary theater is a little disheartening for the medium as a whole (or rather the critical apparatuses and the theaters that shape a lot of the mainstream theatrical currents). As fewer and fewer artists come from working class backgrounds (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...) I feel like the whole art form suffers but there doesn't seem to be an institutional recognition of the trend. Just the opposite in fact. It's just like, there's a really limited amount of space in terms of who gets to write plays professionally and I feel like it should definitely be better than this if it's receiving the kind of attention X and Pomona have. Like, this is a fun experimental play to put on at a store-front or maybe an edgy larger theater that can really do a jazzed up production-heavy version, but it's not really breaking any new ground. Even aesthetically it's nice but not particularly original or virtuosic in the scale of its vision.
I'll also say, as someone interested in directing, it seems like despite a lot of ambiguitity in the dialogue, there's not a ton of ways to do this show. Like, I think of revitalization of Shakespeare I've seen that find new settings, focus on particular usually understated characters, work in elements of queerness or gender-bending, incorporate contemporary themes not explicit in the text, really delve into complex psycho-analysis of characters. All these interesting things you can do with a really big, really explicit play. You can't do any of that with X. Certain production elements can be different and actors have a bit of wiggle room to imagine their characters but ultimately it doesn't feel like something I would be interested in seeing more than once. Not a play I personally would ever be interested in directing both because of the text itself and the sort of cultural connotations it has.
May 3, 2016
X was a play I was thoroughly looking forward to. I'd seen Panoma last year and it was probably my favourite play of the year. I saw this one a few days ago and it didn't disappoint. It was mind alteringly good. The last part came across as a disease of language and felt like ritual magic. Things broke down and my brain starting buzzing in the way it does when I listen to Alan Moore read. But never something that's happened in theatre before.
After loving the play I really wanted to see it again, but the run was almost over. Instead I read the book. It helped sort out some of the confusions of the story. Answered some things. Asked more things. I just adored this and can't wait to see what his next play is.
After loving the play I really wanted to see it again, but the run was almost over. Instead I read the book. It helped sort out some of the confusions of the story. Answered some things. Asked more things. I just adored this and can't wait to see what his next play is.
June 7, 2016
McDowell is perhaps the most exciting and inventive playwright currently writing for the theatre. However, and it's a BIG obstacle, his plays seem virtually impossible to stage - even with a gigantic budget - and there are sections that I think would try an audience's patience (i.e., in one scene a character repeats the letter X about 300 times); hence a 4 instead of 5 star rating. This reads like a cross between Solaris and The Martian - but with McDowell's own idiosyncratic takes on memory, history, communication, etc. Wish I could have seen the inaugural Royal Court production.
May 1, 2016
This was amazing, however I think it would lose something if you just read it. The staging, especially the lighting and music really make this play. An inventive play about disintegrating language and memory in extreme circumstances, but also a rather brilliant sci-fi horror.
July 11, 2017
What a wild ride!
April 21, 2024
Brilliantly written, would love to see this staged or potentially work on a production of this play in the future.
January 10, 2021
I wanted to like it, but I didn't. I wish I could formulate a better answer.
I enjoyed Act 1 enough, but by the time I began Act 2 I was lost to say the least. The first act had some fun witty banter and while none of the characters stood out to me personally, I thought they had some engaging scenes, especially the one about time. In regards to story, I am someone who enjoys a more structured story line, less experimental. However that could be because this was definitely a play written to be watched.
I've always found purchasing plays online to be rather tricky, because you never know truly what you're going to get. In this case my naivete thought I was going to be reading a play about a crew stuck in space and haunted by something way more literal, like an alien or ghost. In my searches for something new to read I was looking something thrilling and possibly horror genre based, and while reading this piece left me more annoyed than thrilled, I do feel that watching this on a stage might have more of a visceral affect then reading it from my bed on a Saturday afternoon. I also can admit that I am not the right audience for this piece, but I'm glad I gave it try.
I enjoyed Act 1 enough, but by the time I began Act 2 I was lost to say the least. The first act had some fun witty banter and while none of the characters stood out to me personally, I thought they had some engaging scenes, especially the one about time. In regards to story, I am someone who enjoys a more structured story line, less experimental. However that could be because this was definitely a play written to be watched.
I've always found purchasing plays online to be rather tricky, because you never know truly what you're going to get. In this case my naivete thought I was going to be reading a play about a crew stuck in space and haunted by something way more literal, like an alien or ghost. In my searches for something new to read I was looking something thrilling and possibly horror genre based, and while reading this piece left me more annoyed than thrilled, I do feel that watching this on a stage might have more of a visceral affect then reading it from my bed on a Saturday afternoon. I also can admit that I am not the right audience for this piece, but I'm glad I gave it try.
January 17, 2021
McDowall has an impressive, original theatrical vision - so much so that it can be difficult when reading his work to imagine how it would be staged. It feels very filmic in its scope, in particular X and Pomona. With both of these plays, you're left questioning what it is you've just seen (or read!) In this play, understanding and language completely break down - I'm not quite sure how I would have felt sitting in the audience through several pages of "x's." He writes with absolute precision and understands the technicalities of theatrical form and structure. Well worth a read.
January 28, 2025
It’s thrilling! It’s a great example of how to keep something this abstract engaging, the thing holding it back for me is the very loosey-goosey implementation of themes. God damn can that man write, might i add. The little motifs repeating in increasing frequency throughout the play were AWESOME and I feel that they were the glue holding this fuckey-wuckey up time situation together for an audience. I would love to see a director with some sauce tackle this weird ass play.
February 19, 2025
Absolutely brilliant. The play gets weirder as you read on. Revealing plot twists and jumbling up events and making the characters seem like they have lost it. It teaches you a lot about some experiences in space and the way in which when you lose track of time, you have lost everything else. X = time. If you cannot find it out, you forget who you are. I loved reading this, and the writing style was amazing.
September 5, 2024
I absolutely loved this crazy play, but I have no idea how anyone could actually produce it on stage. Or rather, the theater companies most likely to be drawn to doing a show like this would never be able to pull off the special effects. It goes beyond clever stagecraft. A shame really, because it is fascinating and truly memorable.
January 1, 2024
I thought it was effective setting this on Pluto, with associated alienation. Others have said it reads more like a film than a play which I agree with but not sure entirely why. If I was staging I’d have a constant quiet hum gradually changing up through the scenes.
June 10, 2024
I read the premise for this and knew I would be obsessed. In the days after reading I have not shut up about it and explained the plot in great detail to pretty much everyone I know. One that I would love to see or act in this, not one to be on the prod team for (too hard basket.)
November 12, 2021
they're on plutooooooooooo
Read
January 24, 2022loved this play. so glad to finally revisit it through the script
July 30, 2023
so so intensely good. keeps you with the story whilst also, somehow, distressed and confused. really good example of affective writing to be staged and read.
November 5, 2023
4.5 ! waow ! what a time
i seem to be on an end of the world kick and this slotted in very nicely
very clever time
i seem to be on an end of the world kick and this slotted in very nicely
very clever time
March 19, 2025
Oh fuck I love a confident play!
What will we do when there’s nothing? Nothing to cling onto; no time, no people, no memories, no truth, no reassurance. No hope.
What will we do when there’s nothing? Nothing to cling onto; no time, no people, no memories, no truth, no reassurance. No hope.
December 10, 2025
act 1 is awesome, but the rest of it pefff
July 23, 2016
X was a play that I was really excited to read and a play that I wish that I had seen live.
Act 1 was a fairly enjoyable read. I found myself getting confused between two of the characters, Cole and Ray. I don't know if this was because I found their voices too similar or for some other reason. I think I envisioned them as being similar. There were hints to a world where nature had been destroyed as the characters kept talking about the last tree.
Act 2 for me was very confusing, although I think that it was supposed to be. References were made to things in the first act and it left me wondering what had really happened and if any of it had been real.
I think that by the end if the play I was definitely intrigued, but perhaps not all together satisfied that I had enjoyed the read immensely.
Act 1 was a fairly enjoyable read. I found myself getting confused between two of the characters, Cole and Ray. I don't know if this was because I found their voices too similar or for some other reason. I think I envisioned them as being similar. There were hints to a world where nature had been destroyed as the characters kept talking about the last tree.
Act 2 for me was very confusing, although I think that it was supposed to be. References were made to things in the first act and it left me wondering what had really happened and if any of it had been real.
I think that by the end if the play I was definitely intrigued, but perhaps not all together satisfied that I had enjoyed the read immensely.
January 1, 2017
A gripping and intriguing slice of sci-fi horror. I really wish I'd seen it on stage, something is always a bit lost in translation with a playtext. Really looking forward to seeing what Alistair McDowall does next!
March 17, 2017
The crew stuck up at Pluto with no signal from Earth. Then, most weird things will happen.
Very good sci-fi play, love to see that live.
Very good sci-fi play, love to see that live.
February 6, 2017
I think it's brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews