The Vanishing Horizon

Idle Motion have a real propensity for prop work. The Vanishing Horizon set is one of the show’s most interesting features, being both theatrically innovative and thematically expressive. In this devised piece about modern flight and the female pioneers of aviation, we find everything we need in a series of suitcases. Modified cases become aeroplanes, light boxes, cars, drawers and even a rather charming en-suite bathroom. The world is packed up and taken along for the ride in this romantic, nostalgic vision of travel. 

Stories of daredevil early female aviator are spliced with a narrative about hapless heroine, Anna, who flies to South Africa as her mother and grandmother did before her. But it's the slow-paced unfolding of Anna’s plight that lets the show down. Although her grandmother’s letters help to create some emotional complexity, there isn't enough.  

The company would have done well to devote more time and energy to those early aviatrixes (who we actually learn very little about) – women who forced back oppressive social norms as they did airborne frontiers. While Anna frets in airports and sobs down the phone to her boyfriend I found myself wishing that a bit more of their feminist energy had rubbed off on her.