AD Astra: To the Stars | Adelaide Fringe 2022 review

This immersive sound and light show soars past planets, comets and nebulae to give you a sense that space is big. Really big.

AD Astra.

AD Astra: To the Stars

Music/Immersive

Rating ****1/2

Adelaide Planetarium

Until March 6

Space. The final frontier.

Unless you have flown there recently with a billionaire, the next best thing you can do is to go along to the Adelaide Planetarium for this immersive sound and light show that takes you soaring through space past planets, comets and nebulae.

It gives you a sense that space is big. Really big. You may think it’s a long way to go to Mawson Lakes to see this show, but that’s just peanuts compared to space, and it’s worth the trip.

The show is created by an intrepid Adelaide duo – Darren Curtis and Bradley Pitt – called Sacred Resonance. That has New Age overtones, and sure enough some mandalas and the like do crop up.

Actual overtones are based on the ratios of the harmonic series and amplified by the unusual acoustic properties of a circular room with a hemispherical ceiling.

I can imagine this show being truly awe-inspiring if they had a bigger sound system – eight channel surround would be ideal – but they do remarkably well with their stereo set up.

This is a show for everyone – who doesn’t love space? It’s good to be reminded how insignificant we are and how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big space is.