“APOLLO 13: Mission Control” with its clever combination of comedy, drama and aerospace engineering is back, at Downstage Theatre.

The theatre space has been stripped of its regular seating, with the whole theatre transformed into Mission Control. Audience members are seated at consoles (complete with blinking lights, switches and communication equipment) or up in the press gallery.

The show’s action is subtly underscored by music composed by James “Laurence Arabia” Milne, which turns a simple team roll call (“Guidance?” “Check!”) into a moving prelude to the lift-off.

Soon the Apollo crew inform Mission Control that “Houston, we’ve had a problem”, and the audience’s mission then turns into getting the astronauts returned safely to earth.

The cast members were impressive in their roles, staying perfectly in character with the dialogue improvised, including cheerful wrangling of audience members.

The audience seated in the console area cannot be passive. I had to work with the other people in my row, sharing information, calculating equations, and the occasional high-five for work well done.

The show seemed to be particularly enjoyed by the small boys in the audience, who were treated quite seriously as team members, passing on important information to the flight directors.

The computing power in the Apollo guidance system would be outgunned by any modern cellphone, but what saved the astronauts was quick and innovative thinking by humans.

And similarly, despite the impressive set, the show works because at its heart is a good story told well. The Hackman creative team has taken a reasonably well-known 20th century story and told it with simplicity and emotion. When the astronauts do finally make it (and I don’t think that’s a spoiler!), it’s hard not to feel genuine joy at their safe return.

The last Apollo mission was in 1972. Those of us under the age of 40 haven’t been through the thrill of those early days of man in space. “Apollo 13: Mission Control” lets audiences experience that. 
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With the coveted Purple Pin as well as the Gold Pin for the Best Installation of the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards for 2010 safely tucked in its nose cone, Apollo 13: Mission Control is back again for a second time at Downstage for another season of the most unusual interactive theatre you are ever likely to come across.

Not having been in Mission Control since October 18, 2008 when Apollo 13 was first launched at Bats, I was amazed at the transformation that has taken place in the much larger auditorium.

Now there are many more rows of consoles, winking lights, and two much larger screens on which we watch the thrilling launch, see and talk to the astronauts in the command module as objects slowly float by, and respond to the pompous (and funny) meanderings of TV news anchor Walter Cronkite (Nathan Meister) and his guests, one of whom had only an NCEA qualification but that seemed sufficient to be able to take a part in the rescue of the mission.

Still in control of the flight is the martinet Gene Kranz (Jason Whyte), who can’t be bothered talking to President Kennedy and who keeps everyone in the Console on their toes as they attempt to get the astronauts back to Earth after an oxygen tank ruptures and one of the astronauts falls ill.

If you don’t want to take an active part you can always sit in the safety of the Press Gallery and watch the proceedings where you may find some of the at-times frenetic action slightly less confusing than I did as Kranz and his team bossed us around and quarreled amongst themselves over the best way to proceed in getting the heroes home.

As a member of the medical staff I diagnosed measles, which in fact was the reason why Ken Mattingly (Kip Chapman) didn’t go on the flight to the Moon but assisted in the rescue from Earth. The others on the medical team sitting alongside me correctly diagnosed a tummy bug of some sort.

It’s unusual, it’s fun for young and old and if you are in the Downstage bar before the show you may be lucky enough to be elected as the third astronaut and be cooped up with the two professional astronauts Jim Lovell (Jack Shadbolt) and Fred Haise (Sam Berkley).

The Apollo 13 mission was termed a “successful failure.” Apollo 13: Mission Control is without doubt a roaring success. 
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This is the third season of Apollo 13 in Wellington – the first in Bats and the second earlier this year, also at Downstage. I am sure that many theatre goers were as excited and relieved as I that we had another chance at this show. How often in theatre does this happen? You miss a season and unlike movies, there is no subsequent DVD release.

This show is about audience participation in a way that leaves shouting, “He’s behind you!!” for dust. The heady mixture of AV, improvisation and actively working with an audience makes working with children and animals seem positively safe.

We enter the theatre, a motley crew of all ages and stages, take our positions behind quite remarkable banks of consoles, and of course start playing with the equipment. Chrome switches, dial up phones and flickering black and white video monitors all combine to remind us that Apollo missions were run with less processing power than today’s mobile phone. Brad Knewstubb’s award-winning design has all of the impact it is intended to.

Our excitement is soon harnessed and put to work by grounded astronaut Ken Mattingly (Kip Chapman) who exudes All American efficiency and professionalism. He is joined by Ashley Hawkins (Ashley Hawkes) who soon establishes himself as the kind of socially inept ‘brain in a jar’ that is now the star of so many forensic and crime programmes on TV, but in 1970 still had to watch out for the sand kickers.

Into this strides Gene Krantz (Jason Whyte) whose alpha-maleness is almost palpable. He barks instructions and deals with ‘lip’ with withering irony.

The set-up is well paced, interesting and humorous, and lays a great foundation for the action to come. The dynamic among these three characters is essential to the drama that unfolds and helps to give us a sense of being a part of something bigger. We are then plunged into the action of the take-off sequence, given extraordinary credibility by vibrations that shake us in our seats along with the video link to the astronauts on board the ship.

The three actors in the spaceship are all new to this production. Jim Lovell (Jack Shadbolt) and  Fred Haise (Sam Berkley) also exude All Americanism and do an excellent job of portraying G force then weightlessness, convincing us that they really are in a tiny cockpit many miles above the earth, not somewhere else in the building. The third – known only as Tom and drawn from the audience – gives Bowie fans a few chuckles.

The other offstage stars of the evening are Nathan Meister and Rachel Forman. Meister picks up the part of Walter Cronkite for this season, and parodies the distinctive style of this iconic anchor man with great effect. Marilyn Lovell (Forman) makes a short appearance in an interview, giving us the moving, human side of the event and the men involved. It is a nice touch.

All goes well, with a few minor alarms set off to build tension. Then it all starts to go wrong; there will be no moon landing after all, and the mission becomes to get the three astronauts back to Earth alive. We are told to calculate the number of amps available (or some such thing) and I am scribbling third form algebraic calculations in my manual and hoping that my total inability with numbers won’t send them hurtling into the abyss. If only algebra had been this exciting in the third form!

The dual experience of knowing on the one hand that this is a theatre show and on the other that I am a part of Mission Control for the Apollo 13 is so much fun, all the more so for being a grown up being asked to play at make believe. The effect is heightened even more when we find ourselves alone and the astronauts are trying to make comms – will someone step in? It’s suddenly down to us, the audience, to determine the course of events.

We save the day, of course. How we do it I’m not sure anyone really knows, but somewhere between the switches, the manuals, the algebra, the pieces of paper being passed around and the Brylcream, we do it. Well, it feels like we did it and that is what counts in the end isn’t it?

Three is a magical number – it’s always the third wish, the third son or the third try that wins the day. This is Wellington’s third chance to see Apollo 13. If you missed outings one and two, don’t pass up this magic gift. And if you have seen it before, I doubt you will need any convincing from me to give it another whirl.  
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This fabled mission has come a long way since its Stab Season 08 premiere at Bats. Now Walter Cronkite (Gareth Williams) is live in the room, or the foyer/bar at least, to pick – along with Commander James A Lovell Jr (Michael Whalley) – the replacement for command module pilot Ken K Mattingly (Kip Chapman), who has been grounded by a bout of measles and will now participate, with the rest of us groundlings, from the serried consoles of Mission Control.  

Whalley has replaced Ryan O’Kane as Lovell and (as in the Hamilton and Auckland seasons) Lee Smith-Gibbons has replaced Rachel Foreman as the moustachioed lunar pilot Fred Haise (although Foreman still appears in recorded interview as the ever-faithful and trusting Marilyn Lovell). And Ashley Hawkes, who took over Whalley’s fictitious role of Michael Whallen, now has his own character name: Ashley Hawkins, the young know-it-all who doesn’t always get it right but does, in the end, have the only idea that might save the astronauts’ lives. Clear?

Gene Krantz, the man in charge of Mission Control, is –as always – Jason Whyte. And our participation (entirely voluntary) is absolutely essential to the progress of the plot. At one point – when all the bosses have left the room – if one of us doesn’t step forward to take the headset that communicates with the module, the entire enterprise will surely fail. Yes. That’s the way to do it: excellent!

Whether we have assigned tasks, volunteer for special tasks, or are (like the press corps) keen observers, we live and feel the unfolding drama. From the time bird-strike causes a gas to vent that’s observed from inside the module to which we have video access, problems evolve that threaten first the success of the mission and then the lives of the crew. We truly get to feel that their lives are in our hands, and the message-relaying, calculations, switch-flicking and filter-testing all register as vital elements in the drama.

I remember thinking, in the first season, that no-one at NASA would yell at each other the way those guys did and I’m delighted to discover all that has gone now. The intensity of their attempting to maintain professional integrity despite strong conflicts of opinion adds powerful tension, and credibility, to the proceedings.

A moral dilemma – do we lie to the crew to maintain their morale or tell the truth as the rule-book says? – generates an especially dramatic moment, surpassed only by the endless minutes of lost communication, monitored by Cronkite, when the module re-enters through the stratosphere.

All the actors inhabit their roles immaculately, always responsive to the immediate circumstances while keeping their eyes on the big picture and the major objective: to complete the mission with no loss of life. The drama of whole ‘make believe’ creates an amazing amount of humour, too, without once appearing contrived.

Downstage, thoroughly refitted for the show, is a perfect venue for Apollo 13: Mission Control. And it is fascinating to see the huge range of ages and types the show attracts. At last we have a show that lets us ‘play’ as adults in a way that’s usually reserved for children. And although children did volunteer with alacrity in the matinee I was at, there is nothing childish about this level of participation.

No-one should deny themselves the opportunity to participate in (go on, you know you want to), or just observe (yes, there is space for you too), Apollo 13: Mission Control. It plans to travel the world and it deserves to.
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