This play is an artful encoding of a message about inclusion and connection embedded in the conversations, years apart, of two sets of chance-met couples who will change each other's lives.

This was the kind of play that I might go and see at my local community theatre: basic set, four-person cast with only two people on set at a time, a Science Fiction setting that might as well have been Prospero's island.

As I always do with this kind of play, I found myself being a little distant and hard to please at first. I raised an eyebrow at some of the humour and wondered if this was all going to be that kind of instantly forgettable facile Fringe wit or if something more interesting was happening. Then, bit by bit, the characters drew me in.

Yes, I was curious about how the two sets of couples were linked and whether they would meet and the social and political context that they were operating in, but what made me sit forward in my chair and engage was the impact the people in each pair had on each other. They started as strangers with agendas that normally have set them against one another. They had very little in common either in life experience or in personality. And yet an intimacy of sorts developed. Not one based on mutual attraction or unresolved sexual tension but one that was linked to the constraints each of them lived under.

By the end of the play, I understood the title and the message that was encoded in the dialogue and I admired the craft in it and the elegance of the structure. Perhaps it was all a little too tidy but if it had been less tidy, how would I have read the message? And anyway, I liked the people and had started to believe in them.

If this had been a play at my local theatre, I'd have been applauding happily at the end. ( )

Not normally something I would read/listen to. However, I found myself laughing many times. This was like a sample of a book that could have so much potential… ( )

I liked this, but because it was a short story and wholly told in conversation, it was hard to feel like there was much character development.
If this story is continued, I will absolutely read more of it, though! ( )

This was a surprisingly good and compelling short story. ( )

The Messengers by Lindsay Joelle is a really sci-fi gem! Very clever and witty. Two pairs of space travelers, each have a story, but each have secrets. The stories are told with humor, a bit of dark humor, and each seeking survival.
Various people as narrators. ( )