Review: SPUTNIK SWEETHEART at Arcola

As any schoolboy of a certain age will know, Sputnik - the name given to the first human built satellite put into space by the Russians in 1957 - translates as fellow-traveller. The miniature celestial companion to our lonely world acts as a metaphor for relationships which during the course of the play, are desired, formed, rejected, and reformed in other guises.

On the small, largely unadorned Arcola stage, an illuminated telephone kiosk acts as transporter to a world in which a young woman rejects love with her friend and male suitor, a teacher named K. She instead meets and falls for an older sophisticated woman who wants to employ her. Their short-lived experience parallels the satellite’s role as a transient companion. Along the way, the feelings and experiences of the two women (and a third, the mother of one of K’s pupils) are scrutinised and their lived experiences examined - partly through the man’s narration. It’s poetic and occasionally beautiful, often using abstract movement to convey interconnectedness, but the end result rarely manages to reach the emotionally substantive levels achieved in Murakami’s novels. However, if you are a fan of the great man’s works, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy seeing this genuinely considered attempt to traverse the gap between page and stage.

The five cast members are: Millicent Wong (Sumire), Natsumi Kuroda (Miu), Naruto Komatsu (K), Yuyu Rau (Mrs Nimura) and Sadao Ueda (Nakamura).