Writer, director and producer Con Nats’s new play ‘Starry Comet Night’, was one of the more imaginative works showcased at this year’s inaugural Sydney Fringe Festival.

There have been many productions on stage and screen on the theme of Armageddon. The convention is that the end of the world comes abruptly and with a bang. Nats’s play attacks the subject from way left field.

In ‘Starry Comet Night’ the world will end with a bang, the bang of a comet crashing into earth, but the explosion doesn’t come out of the blue. In this scenario leading scientists have come to the conclusion that a comet will explode onto the earth in a whole five years time. The information is fresh and the authorities are trying to keep a lid on their findings going public. The repercussions would be enormous if the information is made public. How will people react to such news? Would people go to pieces…become like animals…would there be mass looting and the like? Or on the other hand would they seek the refuge of religion or spirituality?

Things happen in pressure cooker situations and that’s exactly what happens in ‘Starry Comet Night’. Leaks take place, and the authorities are getting nervous and aggro. Somehow Stanley (Matthew Blackwood Hume) gets hold of the information and the powers that be are after him. The angst ridden Stanley lives in a shared inner city household with three flatmates; Tim (Lynden Jones), Suzy (Barbara Gouskos) and Natalie (Kym Parrish). The household also gets visits from a very freaked out pizza delivery courier (Matthew Stewart).

‘Starry Comet Night’ comes across as an intriguing and very busy play, a self declared work in progress that has a lot of potential but needs plenty of fine tuning, The narrative suffered from being cluttered, over ambitious, and obscure, and as a result the piece lacked the resonance it should have had. It’s a great idea, hopefully it’s next staging will achieve better results.

The cast worked well with the play’s first public performance. Lynden Jones, one of fringe theatre’s most reliable performers, impressed as Tim, Barbara Gouskos was a tough Suzy, Kym Parish a sensual Natalie, Matthew Blackwood Hume played the freaked out Stanley and Matthew Stewart a left field Delivery Man and Fireman.

‘Starry Comet Night’ played the Boiler Room Factory at 108 Illawarra Road, Marrickville on dates between the 12th September and the 24th September, 2010.