Reviewed by: Glam Adelaide
Review by Simon Lancione | 02 March 2023
Dr Sarah Jane Pell is a communicator with a strong message; Space is cool. The human comprehension of what exists outside our solar system is fascinating and Dr Sarah Jane Peel is a proud ambassador for it with her show How to Survive on the Moon.  This family friendly performance is intended to engage the imaginations of people, especially the very enthusiastic children in the audience, about what it would be like to land a craft on the moon. But half way there the craft loses contact with space control so with a crate of equipment, she and the audience have to land and figure out what they would need to survive on the lunar surface. The combination of the worldly experience of some of the older members of the audience were balanced off with the imagination of the younger ones. The show is a collaboration piece with her and the Museum of Discovery (MOD) at the University of South Australia, an institution that marries the arts and sciences to promote the growth and inspiration of technology and space. As an accomplished performer and academic, Dr Pell is a respected member of the space community. Her dual role as an artist and her work on physical conditioning, Imagineering and astronaut simulations in aquatic environments, is where she has pioneered underwater acrobatics which she has named Aquabatics. The audience is treated to some glimpses into her use of space and creative visualisation by viewing a series of photos and videos of her time working on the MoonVillage project. The footage of her aquabatics is as fascinating as it sounds. Through the medium of her imaginated lunar environments and aquabatics, we see what it would be like to experience that environment humans will hopefully be exploring soon. If the one thing Dr Pell was intending to do was to get people interested in lunar exploration, then she achieved it.