Any devoted science-fiction fan will pick up on the cues in “Constantine Aboard the Constantine,” the original stage play by brothers Jack and Charles Wefso.
The one-man show slated to run from Nov. 16 to Nov. 25 at the Aurora Fox theater is full of them. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” check. “Star Trek,” of course.
The story, which takes place entirely on the deck of a futuristic starship, offers the kind of dry, British humor that made the television series “Red Dwarf” a cult classic. Mark that on the list too.
“I’ve always described this show as a love letter to all things science fiction,” said Jack Wefso, who stars as both lead characters in the 70-minute show. “If you don’t know anything about sci-fi, it’s still entertaining. But the more you know, the more little bits you’ll get … We definitely tip our hat to pretty much every trope that you’ve ever seen.”
The tribute is one of the Wefso brothers’ many creative collaborations. The pair have worked together on films and short stories, narratives rooted in their shared love for everything from comic books to obscure British films. But most of those projects have remained in the realm of imagination or low-budget podcasts. For “Constantine,” Wefso drew on connections and resources he’s built up in the past several years as an actor in the metro area. A veteran of the Aurora Fox stage, Wefso saw an opportunity to bring the story to life in one of his favorite theaters.
The production started as a short story by his brother, progressed to a staged reading at the Fox earlier this year and will end up as a formal production in the theater’s studio space for two weeks.
“The entirety of the show takes aboard the E.S. Constantine, which is the largest, faster-than-light ship that mankind has ever built. It’s the first ship that’s going to leave our solar system to colonize another planet,” Wefso said. “On this journey, the play follows two men who never meet each other and who are both in different ways thwarted and manipulated by the artificial intelligence that runs the ship.”
It’s a straightforward premise, but bringing the show to life on stage has included plenty of guesswork for Wefso, who is also directing the piece. From wrangling odd props to working on an unorthodox set design, Wefso has had the final word in all phases of the production.
“It’s an intense amount of pressure, but it’s personal pressure,” Wefso said. “It’s difficult because it’s not the kind of pressure where everyone is counting on you. It’s the kind of pressure that’s more like, ‘Are you going to live up to yourself?’”
Some of that pressure has been tempered by a devoted crew. Lighting designer and stage manager Karin Carter has worked with Wefso to finalize the feel and design of the production; she’s tweaked lighting design and toyed with a flying projection effect to give the stage the feel of a starship zooming through the distant cosmos.
“I’m having a lot of fun playing with the lights. We have this ship character, so I’m trying to make the room a ship, in some ways,” Carter said.
That effort includes playing with the idea of the computer’s status lights to give the ship its own voice and presence. She’s hoping that such touches will give Wefso a compelling setting for his one-man show, an ambience that transports the audience to the far-flung reaches of outer space. Still, the action will be close enough to earth to include inside references to Captain Jean-Luc Picard and HAL 9000.
“Most of the shows that we do are geek-themed,” Wefso proudly admitted.