Space exploration is the dream of many a small boy (or girl), So much so in fact that the desire to be an astronaut when one grows up had become something of a cliché - like wanting to be a train driver or pilot. While for the current generation of youngsters this may have been replaced with footballer, pop star or TV presenter - this childhood dream of ‘astronaut' may well still hold a place in the heart's of those approaching middle age.

Using a highly physical and stylised presentation to impressive effect, Theatre O's Astronaut , tells the story of an average family, the father of which- a prosthetic leg salesman- is selected by lottery to take part in the European Space Agency's ‘Mission to Mars.' A kind of reality TV scenario pushed to extreme. While his family begs him not to leave, drawn by the excitement and glamour he leaves them to go off to a 10 year training program.

Through expertly executed physical action, the company explore the relationship, daily routines and later dissolution of this, originally close family unit. Each character has their own style of movement of set of actions that reflect both their personalities and role in the family. For instance the Father portrays the harassed and hurried movements of his commute to work and inanity of his 9 to 5 existence. The mother too reflects an unexpressed desire to break free of her immediate domestic environment by her constant rearranging of furniture and domestic chores which she executes with a dance like elegance.

These routines are then repeated, varied and toyed with to portray the evolution of the various family relationship and the changes that occur as a result of the father's absence and then reappearance

On a simple but effective domestic set with inventive use of strobe lighting, Astronaut is funny, entertaining but also rather saddening, containing striking visual effects and tableau.

The astronaut X never goes into space but in this 'domestic odyssey' we witness the dissolution of a conventional and reasonably happy family. There could be many factors that contribute to this kind of breakdown down, the final image of a space ship in crisis does, however, provide a pertinent image of a family relationship left in ruins.

At 1and half hours with no interval it was perhaps slightly indulgently long, with a series of repetitions but on the whole an impressive, expertly performed and exciting piece of visual physical theatre.