“Is anyone out there? This is Egon Tichy. Does anyone copy, over?” Egon Tichy is making a solitary voyage somewhere near the star, Betelgeuse. STARLOG: MONDAY. “I appear to be outside range. Finally some peace and quiet.” The astronaut (Joshua William Gelb) stands in a narrow, recessed doorway bookended by panels to storage and passages elsewhere. A vertical window looks out between two horizontal video screens.
The ship is placidly cruising when a meteor the size of a lima bean hits it, taking out the “rudder” and speed control. Egon curses, citing extensive experience – including a REDACTED telling of saving the universe – that should prepare him for accidents. He dons an orange spacesuit – the only flash of color -and exits to external repair.
We hear echoed heavy breathing (Original Music and Sound Design – M. Florian Staab) and see a tiny Egon at the edge of ship blueprints. Stylized visuals depict space. Scenic Designer Peiyi Wong’s schematics show us where the protagonist is throughout. Combination of flat art and video
(Jesse Garrison) is inspired.
Alexa, or whatever audio manual he’s using, instructs that a simultaneous manipulation of opposite points is a two man job. Egon is alone. “I don’t want a copilot! I don’t need a copilot!” As this sector of the galaxy is practically vacant, he decides to sleep on it. We see the actor bed down vertically in person and horizontally on video. Juxtaposition of the two works beautifully.
Half awake, Egon is warned by another manifestation of himself to get up and fix the rudder before it’s too late. “I am you in the future. This is the vortex. I promise it’s not a dream.” In the morning, consultation of a star map and his copy of The Theory of Relativity doesn’t help. The ship lurches going through another vortex, and another. Other Egons appear.
Pushing the boundaries of contemporary actor/video collaborations, this imaginative play never loses itself in technical expertise. The concept of worm holes/vortexes in which simultaneous time exists appears in classic science fiction and is explored in more recent string theory.
Physicists accept that our universe contains three spatial dimensions. Einstein’s theory of relativity intimately links space and time. String theorists argue for the existence of extra dimensions. In essence, what we’re experiencing is hypothesized as also going on in a past and a future. Episodes of Star Trek come to mind.
So what happens when repeated jolts into a web of the time-space continuum creates human duplicates, when Monday’s Egon faces Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, when the future confronts the past? Egon Tichy is extremely clever in depiction of the issue, argumentative problems it creates, and ultimate solution.
Joshua William Gelb is focused, acting with screen versions of himself as well as embodying endless variations. Physicality is realistic and darkly droll.
Director Jonathan Levin takes a bag of jigsaw puzzle visuals and devises a coherent trajectory. The Egons have different points of view, while the original hero never loses his distinction.
‘An entertaining trip whose story is equal to, not, as is often the case these days, swallowed by wonderful tech.
Photos by Maria Baranova
Rod Serling was the creator and host of The Twilight Zone, a science fiction anthology series, originally from 1959-1964.
The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy
Director/Co-Creator – Jonathan Levin
Playwright/Co-Creator – Josh Luxenberg
Performer/Co-Creator – Joshua William Gelb
Based on the story by Stanislaw Lem
