"X" by Alistair McDowall.

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

Billions of miles from home, the lone research base on Pluto has lost contact with Earth. Unable to leave or send for help, the skeleton crew sit waiting....and waiting.

As the crew waits, long periods of isolation cause time to distort, reality to unravel, and psychological terror to set in as they start to see things in the dark outside. And I'm sure that digital clock isn't quite right either!

As time goes by, the crew start to distrust the others and lack of contact from earth, in fact any outside communication, starts to play with their heads. Is there really someone looking through the window at them? Are their memories really playing tricks on them? And who is the person who keeps emerging from underneath the sink? Are we all really here at all?

Tom Pluse plays Clarke who carries poignant, mournful memories from Earth. In the claustrophobic void of Pluto, his emotional eloquence breaks. Alongside Gilda, his dialogue eventually deteriorates, but that's not all that fractures in this environment. Tom's character looks to be having the most fun out of them all. He is loud, brash and has some of the best comic lines, and this is a play which has a lot of humour in it, to my surprise, but humour can only carry a person so far before his environment starts to play tricks with his mind!

Malcolm Todd is Cole, an extreme mathematician. He realizes that the base's clocks are secretly resetting and that time is no longer operating as it should. He recognises the crew's doom, tracking the mathematical and temporal decay of their environment. Cole's short and long term memory is the target for whatever, or whoever is playing tricks within Cole's head. Malcolm also gets to deliver some explosive, and quite scary outbursts at times, a little like Gilda.

Mary Sullivan is Gilda. Constantly on the verge of tears and deeply stir-crazy, her mental stability unravels as time loops and breaks. Mary really makes you believe that the cracks inside her mind are turning into chasms, her, or I should say Gilda's, explosive and emotional outbursts are quite wonderful, reminiscent of many 1960's sci-fi shows that I used to love to watch.

Ally Saunders is Mattie, the systems manager, who spends much of her time maintaining the base's life support systems. Mattie sweeps in and out of the storyline until all of a sudden she's not there!

Richard Young is Ray, the oldest crew member and the only one with living memories of Earth's natural world. He represents a fading connection to true history and nature and burdened by impending doom and chilling hallucinations, which affects everyone else stuck in the Pluto station.

Megan Smalley is the Girl, and it's a bit difficult describing Megan's role in this story without giving too many spoilers. All I'll say is that when you get your tickets for this scintillating science-fiction based play, you'll see what I mean.

Laurence Bembridge, Wendy Silver, Ksenia Tsymbal and Guy Evans also make appearances, and once again, I'm not going to say why and when they appear but you'll see how they shape the outcome of this story, which is one that I hadn't even thought of, but did come as a really big surprise!

Directed by Nicole Driver, there's an awful lot of work put into this piece of theatre. There are echoes of the horror film "Carrie" in one section and also a Japanese horror flick from my youth called "The Ring". It kept the suspense going all the way to the end, with sections that you'd be able to hear a pin drop on a carpet. Even with the build up of the suspense, the ending is a very different scenario to any that I could have dreamt of.

The show is a very technical show, and that includes the timings of the cast and the stage manager, Jae Marriott, assisted by Guy Evans. The entrances and exit of the stage by the cast members makes for quite a cinematic effect, especially when timed with the lighting operation.

Responsible for the lighting design is Amy Burmuder, and that timing of the stage movements and the lighting design and operation created a stunning, as well as alarming visual group of scenes.

The sound design by Fred Baker also creates quite an unnerving soundscape, especially when combined with the lighting cues.

The set design, by Guy Evans, really encapsulates a room within a space station, especially with the large round window looking out at a pitch black exterior. The walls glisten, even more so in the second act, but no spoilers from me on that scene!

The digital clock is one thing that you'll only watch at certain times, but I found myself taking a quick glance every now and then and questioning the time that I'd been in the theatre, with minutes seemingly disappearing before your eyes. I actually felt quite worried with the clock's actions and ultimate visual appearance at the end of the first act. The Digital Design is by Laurie Owen with the Tech Operator being Jamie Clay.

If you're expecting big shiny suits with large helmets, then you may be disappointed, partly, because the costume design, by Maddie Gould, depict everyday clothes. None of the sci-fi style space travel wear here which also brings the horror of what is to come even more shocking because this isn't set in the far distant future, it could be something that happens in our own lifetime.

Props for this show have been provided by Ali Lit and Rebecca Steele, and some of these do represent a little of what you'd expect to see for a life in space.

There's one scene that makes this feel like a fairytale, dream scene with some eloquent choreography, bordering on modern ballet and contemporary dance, involving the whole cast. The positioning of this scene, and the choreographical style, really drives home the importance of this particular section of the storyline. Khaz Castle is responsible for the choreography and is Dramaturgical Support.

The lyrics of Marvin Gaye's big hit "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" state, "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, but I can't help being confused", well that could be the same with this play. Don't believe everything that you see to be the truth, and that confusion at the end is a twist worthy of any classic thriller! Xpect the un Xpected.

"X" is at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 3 October.

Photography by Kathryn Edwards.