For anyone who is weary of the usual feelgood festive films – Love Actually, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street and so on – a more offbeat offering involving a bunch of bus drivers and a joyfully amateur retelling of the space horror Alien may just appeal.
The documentary Alien on Stage tells the unlikely story of how the bus drivers, plus friends and relatives, decided that rather than put on their usual pantomime they would have a bash at Ridley Scott’s classic – and how, despite shaky sets, dodgy special effects and uneven acting (to put it kindly), they ended up in London’s theatreland.
The documentary has attracted a cult following at film festivals around the world and is available to a wider audience this Christmas on Apple TV+ and Prime Video and streaming services in the US and Canada.
Its makers, Danielle Kummer and Lucy Harvey, said they were delighted it had been released in time for Christmas and felt it had the ingredients of a seasonal feelgood film.
Harvey said: “One of the joys of Alien on Stage is how it unintentionally mirrors the UK’s beloved Christmas tradition of pantomime. You’ve got larger-than-life characters, unexpected comedy, a sense of community involvement and that playful mix of seriousness and silliness.”
Kummer said: “There’s something special about showing it to the people who will truly get the uniquely British humour and charm that runs through it.”
The amateur company Paranoid Dramatics put on its version of Alien in 2013. Theirs was a low-budget operation, with a cycling helmet as the basis for one of the alien costumes and fishing rods and lines used to animate the chest-burster from the movie’s most celebrated scene.
They meant to play for gasps of horror but their largely elderly audience at a community centre in the town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, reacted with bemusement. They were certainly not scared.
The company would have put it down to experience and moved on, but its intriguing poster – “Alien the stage adaptation – an amateur production” – was spotted by two hardcore sci-fi fans, Kummer, a videographer, and Harvey, a stylist and lecturer. They went to see the play in Dorset and saw a “spark of madness and genius”.
They decided to book the 430-seat Leicester Square theatre in London and it sold out.
The London show began in suitably amateur fashion when the actor playing the voice of the spaceship’s computer accidentally swore at curtain-up. But there was applause, laughter and whoops at key moments such as the chest-bursting scene.
Kummer and Harvey filmed the buildup and the show and turned it into a documentary that premiered in the UK at FrightFest in London and was unveiled to the world at the SXSW festival in Texas. It has screened at 60 film festivals and won seven awards.
Kummer and Harvey said: “Fate and curiosity took us from London to their small show at the Allendale centre in Wimborne. We were so convinced by the genius of what we saw, we knew everyone should see it.”
They said they had been inspired to make the documentary by the fearlessness and creativity of the amateur actors. “Like them, we had never attempted to do something on this scale before and like them we just said yes. Let’s do it. We borrowed all the equipment and started filming.”
Jacqui Roe, who played Ash in the show (in the film, the part is played by a man), said: “I’m so excited about the doc being available in the UK. Finally able to enjoy with family and friends. I am incredibly proud of my involvement and so grateful to everyone that made it happen.”
