The Fire at the Edge of the Earth
Reviewed by Socks Whitmore
Eight Ball Theatre at The Hudson Guild Theatre
Through July 30, 2023
RECOMMENDED
“I think the future could be so much better than the present… if we get it right.”
On the tiny stage of the Hudson Guild Theatre, two lovers on the precipice of their relationship (and the top of a legendary mountain) reckon with their very nature. The Fire at the Edge of the Earth is the inaugural production of Eight Ball Theatre, a start-up collective founded by the 8 members of USC’s Acting BFA Class of 2023 and committed to “accessible theater that tells stories from fresh perspectives.” After a successful run at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the two-man play by company member Zack Rocklin-Waltch brings a story of queer love and perpetual human heartbreak to Los Angeles for its U.S. premiere.
The novelistic title and the minimalist set may appear unassuming, but what lies within is a complex and intelligent journey through myth, memory, and the present moment of two men in love scaling the mountain from the legend of Prometheus. Titans and gods are not the focus of the trek, however, but rather the profound contemplation that the Prometheus of myth was never meant to give fire to humankind—and that the defiance of fate in the name of progress created the mess we’re in now. The epic allegory compares the Promethean feat to the queer experience; when the predetermined timeline of one’s life is rescripted by the impossibility of who they are, the “titans of intellect” must make their own way. This reflection on human evolution is woven through both everyday conundrums and mythical quests, bearing witness to Pluto and Vector (playwright Rocklin-Waltch and Michael MacLeod, respectively) as they shift from tender and soft to tense and codependent. Watching the pair lovingly describe one another and their love story is especially warming, just as Pluto’s displayed anger and rigidity is stiffening.
The piece largely dwells in a conversational, intimate space as it unpacks these concepts in detail. The first 15 minutes rush a little too eagerly into philosophical discussion and physical stagnancy, and the interspersed flashback scenes don’t quite set up solid narrative ground for Pluto’s sudden emotional shift on the mountaintop. But even for these minute flaws, The Fire at the Edge of the Earth can leave one touched with a deep understanding that the “edge of the earth” is also a historical precipice: we were never meant to reach this moment, but we’re here now and capable of change… though perhaps not alone.
Eight Ball Theatre at The Hudson Guild Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Opens Sat., July 8; Sat., 8:30 pm, Sun., 2:30 pm; thru July 30. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/eightballtheatre/945851# Running time: 70 minutes
