THE GIANT PACIFIC OCTUPUS MARITIME SCHOOL (Forty-Five North/Ellie Keel Productions)****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.forty-fivenorth.com/the-giant-pacific-octopus-maratime-school

Available until: Unknown

A lot of people wonder what might happen if it wasn’t possible to live on Earth anymore. The usual solution which people come up with is that we should all get into a spaceship and find another planet to live on but The Giant Pacific Octopus Maritime School has another idea. We should all go and live underwater.

Priya lives underwater with her mum (when her mum’s not at work) and her personal assistant Emma, who is a bit like a more advanced version of Alexa or Siri. Alexa and Siri are supposed to do as they told (though Jack says Alexa ‘goes a bit rogue’), but Emma can think for herself and tell other people what to do.

Every day, Emma makes sure Priya gets up and goes to school where she meets her best friend Ilya, who is a girl too (like Ilia in Idomeneo). On the way, we get to know what their world is like. It is similar to our world in lots of ways but there are differences and it’s fun to listen out for them (this is an audio play).

There are lots of things I like about this story but one thing that makes it really good is the way it is a proper story with a plot and characters but all the details of the maritime world have been woven into the story cleverly so we take in the new information a little bit at a time. We find out a lot just from listening to the conversations the different characters have. There are bits when a character does give them information about the history of the maritime world, but only people like teachers and scientists whose job it is to explain things like that to people.

I really love the way Jaclyn Backhaus has written Priya and Ilya as characters we can identify with. The way of living has changed but human beings are still the same. They still have to get up and go to school and manage public transport and then panic because they have forgotten to revise for a test. These are all normal everyday things which happen to us now in the 21^st century too.

The plot is really enjoyable too. I won’t give the whole story away but there are some really exciting and even slightly scary bits where Priya and Ilya get into a really difficult situation.

I wanted to talk about the octopodes because I think that is a really lovely plural but there was only one octopus. (Octopuses is correct too but octopi is wrong because octopus is a Greek word and putting an I on the end is a way of making a Latin plural. My other favourite plural is sphinx – the plural is sphinges! I get excited about some very unusual things sometimes.)

Director Jessica Rose McVay has worked really hard to give us a real sense of what it’s like living underwater just from listening. The scenes are set with lots of different sounds which are created by sound designer and editor Elisheba Ittoop. Some of them are very familiar sounds which we know from our own lives. Some we know from TV. Some aren’t so easy to recognise but they sound really exciting. When I think about the story and how it made me feel, I feel quite surprised I didn’t actually see it because it’s audio only but it was put together so well, it felt like I could see everything in my mind.

Amita Suman makes Priya into a really lovely character. She is a lot of fun and quite daring. I like the way her friendship with Ilya works. Sam Crerar makes Ilya seem really sensible but still able to enjoy herself. She worries about Priya but she only nags her in a friendly and caring sort of way. Andrew Gower plays Guy the teacher and he seems very easygoing and intelligent. The kind of teacher who knows exactly what is going on but he does let you get away with a certain amount. Manjinder Virk is an authoritative rebel (if you listen to the play, that will make more sense) as Seema. Adjoa Andoh finds a nice balance between saying Emma’s lines in a mechanical way and giving her a personality.

The Giant Pacific Octopus Maritime School is a really enjoyable play which really makes you think about important scientific subjects like the future of the Earth and what life would be like under the sea. (Probably literally in an octopus’ garden.)