Broken Toys Theatre presents Star Killing Machine

It is not often capital region audiences receive the opportunity to enjoy an absurdist musical comedy that tackles the idea of whether human existence has meaning.

However, playwright/director Clinton Carew’s Star Killing Machine: A Musical Comedy About the End of the World does indeed examine some weighty issues.

A project of Broken Toys Theatre, Star Killing Machine is part of Azimuth Theatre’s Emerging Company Showcase and opens Jan. 19 at the Backstage Theatre.

Carew’s world takes place just south of the Arctic Circle at a remote research facility where scientists, engineers and data entry clerks are tasked with trying to create a machine that will destroy the world.

Everyone goes about their daily routines knowing that if they succeed, their jobs will end along with everything else. Failure is a big option.

Casey is the only genius scientist focused on doing his job and came very close to destroying the world before suffering a violent mental breakdown. The play opens with Casey’s return to the facility and a second imminent apocalypse.

Luc Tellier, a former St. Albert Children’s Theatre artist whose most significant role with the company was Peter Pan, now addresses the role of a mad scientist.

“On the first day, everyone is thrown by Casey. He’s a nice guy – smart, friendly, nerdy, but he has a side that is vulnerable to destroying the world. Casey pieces together what happened and gets the anti-particle cannon that can destroy the sun started,” Tellier said.

The musical’s genesis was born through a song, Our Place in the Sun, that Carew had written years ago and that sat on a back burner.

“I presented it to Azimuth and they got behind the napkin sketch idea to a full scale production,” said Carew.

The multi-talented artist took on the book and lyrics pairing up with composer Kris Schindel to write the music.

But the play’s environment came about from journeying to two remote locations. At one point Carew lived in a northern work camp for about 10 months.

Later he visited CERN in Switzerland, home to the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator that gives physicists, scientists and engineers clues about the laws of nature.

“My brother worked there and I went to visit him. I was struck by how a million dollar laser was sitting next to something made of tin,” Carew said.

“Not a lot of people get clearance to visit and I was struck by the scientists’ quirkiness and their interests.”

In presenting Star Killing Machine, Carew hopes to make people think about the world.

“It’s a play of ideas, it’s beautiful and I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it.”