Cameron Sinclair Harris shares their stories behind this space odyssey.
What inspired you to create PLANETS!!! and how did you come up with the concept of playing all eight planets?
PLANETS!!! was born in May 2023 when I was on the Soho Theatre’s Comedy Labs Plus course. Our course leader was the fabulous Alison Thea-Skot, and when doing a session on character, she told us that you can create a comedic personality out of anything. An armchair? A cotton bud? A staircase? There is comedic potential in literally everything, yes everything. So on the tube home after that course, I was writing stuff down & a thought just came to me out of the blue; what if the planet Uranus was a person? What job would they have? What is their gender? Do they get embarrassed by their name? What about Mars? Venus? What about all the planets? How do they feel about humanity? How do they feel about each other? And soon enough, the unshakeable thought that I had quite a good show idea stuck with me the whole day. That notebook was soon full by the time I got home.
Your show explores both childhood wonder and existential dread—how do you strike a balance between humor and deeper themes like climate change and universal grief?
At first, the show was basically just a series of loosely connected sketches, but each performance revealed a little bit more to me over time. I realised that there is something really meaningful to be said here, that I could use the framework of a journey through space to tell a narrative of coming to grips with my own planet’s inevitable demise. I still remember the day I learnt that the Sun would swallow the Earth in the year 5 billion, and it was the first time I felt a sense of dissociation, that this truly is it. I must have been 6. And then I remember the day I learnt about climate change, I think I was 10, it was through reading National Geographic Juniors (do they still make that magazine?), and I remember feeling sad but also a bit cheated. Like, we already know the ending, why are we rushing towards it? Why are we doing what we know is bad for us, why don’t the people in charge care? And then my mum told me to stop talking as I was bringing down the mood of this screening of Shrek the Third.
Of course, things have gotten so much worse since then. You only have to look at the news to see how climate change is gradually affecting us all, the LA wildfires being an incredibly recent and harrowing example. I want to address these subjects in a way that doesn’t feel like a lecture, that grounds it with humour in a way to reach out to people rather than to ignore everything. It’s radical silliness, it’s a universal language; I’m using my own climate anxiety as a way to connect with others who feel the same way, and I’m going back to my own childhood feelings about space as a way to make us realise that we can’t pacify our inner nihilists. We can harness that inner curiosity & imagination we once had and create a new system that doesn’t end up destroying us all.
As a performer, comedian, and writer, how has your creative background shaped this unique blend of character comedy and cosmic storytelling?
PLANETS!!! has unintentionally informed me a lot about the way I create things. I will take something that’s quite relatable, i.e existential dread and find the most silly & outlandish way to dramatise it, i.e a journey into space where I play every planet in the solar system. I envy stand-up comedians who can effectively translate relatability, I channel it through pretending to be the planet Mars and gorge a Mars bar on stage in excruciating detail. My sets, props & costumes are very Blue Peter, very DIY, very “here’s one I made earlier”. I will find what I can and make a galaxy out of it. Kind of like a Womble really, making good use of the things that I find. Once I establish the world (or worlds in this case), then the writing comes next. Usually the organic moments of play between myself and the audience influence the script more than anything, and everything else is written around that. Before I got into the comedy world, I was a musician for a good chunk of my life, so of course PLANETS!!! had to have music. There’s the vaudeville music hall stomp of Mercury’s number & Saturn’s diva dancefloor hit, as well as the incorporation of the kazoo, melodica & accordion. I bet Holst’s Planets didn’t have a kazoo solo, did it?
What can audiences expect from PLANETS!!! in terms of style and performance? Are there any particular moments you’re especially excited for them to experience?
As with most clown-adjacent comedy shows, PLANETS!!! is a participatory event. The audience are just as much a core element as everything else, which has made each different show such a fun & unique experience. Without giving too much away, one audience member is given a vital role in the show, and it’s been such a joy seeing how different people have interpreted the part, particularly during the ending. I’m so excited for those moments of anarchic stupidity, just as I am for the moments of stillness, when we can bask in the atmosphere we have created. I just adore audiences in every form they come in. I started last year performing this show to six bewildered people in Leicester and ended it performing to a sell-out crowd on my birthday in Waterloo, and I wouldn’t have sacrificed one to get to the other quicker in any world. Those moments in the former were just as magical as they were in the latter, and I cannot wait to experience them at the Soho bloody Theatre! Pinch me!
How does your identity as a non-binary performer influence your creative work and the themes you explore in PLANETS!!!?
At the moment, it definitely influences my body a lot more than it influences my words. I feel like there’s a deep frustration at the very core of my being; my non-binary identity contains multitudes unfathomable to the naked eye. If I were to try and describe my gender, I would give you a 2000 word essay matched with a piece of artwork of Princess Diana shredding a guitar solo in front of thousands at Glastonbury; yet on the surface, I’m only ever going to be seen as a twink. Unless you do a deep dive, unless I literally tattoo my pronouns on my forehead (they/she for those curious), people see my height, they hear my voice and instantly see me as “effeminate male” rather than femme-leaning gender menace. I will never escape the twink allegations. If people can put you in a box, they can and they will. PLANETS!!! is quite a multidisciplinary show; it’s character comedy, it’s clown, it’s storytelling, it’s theatre, it’s musical, it doesn’t necessarily fit into one genre. When I perform, I don’t have to mask, even if I’m playing a larger-than-life character, it’s all very true to myself; I don’t have to conform to anybody’s gendered expectations of who I should be, or how I should act, I don’t have to even be human. I can be eight planets if I want. It’s great. I can just be me.
As a creative in the trans community, I feel there’s some pressure, perhaps internal, to make my work somehow about the trans or queer experience. PLANETS!!!, despite being made by a trans person, is not a show about being trans. If you want that, there are so many brilliant shows about the trans experience, specifically the transfeminine experience, out there. They all put those thoughts and feelings into words better than I could right now. PLANETS!!! is influenced by my non-binary identity in the sense that this is a show about space written and starring a non-binary person, thus it is non-binary to its very core. Like the core of a planet. Wink wink.
If you could have a conversation with one of the planets you portray, which would it be and what would you ask?
Neptune. I’d ask “what’s next? What can you see out there? How far does it go, all that space, all that nothingness? When was the last time you checked in with Pluto?”
PLANETS!!! will be performed at Soho Upstairs at 25 Feb.
For tickets and information, please visit https://sohotheatre.com/events/cameron-sinclair-harris-planets/.