Showing @ EICC, Edinburgh until Sat 24 Aug (not 13, 20) @ 20:00

Leaving Planet Earth is an experience that begins days before the audience arrive at the venue. All ticketholders receive messages and instructions to help prepare for the journey, so that by the time they arrive at their “departure point” and check-in at the EICC, there is a palpable sense of anticipation, edged with just a hint of anxiety. Such manipulation of the audience’s emotions, to create exactly the appropriate atmosphere is just one layer of this highly elaborate piece of theatre.

Grid Iron are truly pioneers of site-specific theatre, with past productions taking place in locations as varied as swing parks, morgues, hospitals and airports. And in the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, they have found a venue sufficiently large and dramatic for this epic undertaking. For Leaving Planet Earth, the arena is transported to another planet, to become The Acclimatisation Centre for New Earth.

The audience, or new arrivals, are led through the centre into different zones where we receive instruction on the acclimatisation process, the inherent dangers of the resettlement process, and the processes we will use to shape our new future. But we are also given glimpses behind the scenes which hint that the dangers are greater than indicated by the official party line, and the cost of this new start is likely to be much higher than is being acknowledged.

As we go on, it is impossible not to consider: what is worth keeping? What must be left behind? And what do we lose in the process? In our increasingly throwaway society, the answers demand to be examined. Leaving Planet Earth is a truly immersive and exciting experience, new and challenging theatre writ large amongst the more traditional offerings of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2013.