Girl In Space: Your BFF in Isolation
Sarah Werner’s Girl In Space audio drama podcast was the first indie audio drama I discovered on Spotify. It became a major motivation for me to start riding my bike for exercise. I’d lace up my tennis shoes, pop in my ear buds, and ride around my college campus while learning the mysteries and quirks of X, a girl in space.
In March 2020, I, too, was a girl in space. I left a bad relationship a few months earlier, moved into a tiny efficiency apartment in a new city, started an academic journey at a four-year university, and settled into a new job practically all at the same time. It was (is) the first time I’d been on my own.
And then the pandemic shuttered the world, and I was really on my own.
I was looking for something to inspire me, encourage me, and entertain me at the same time. I didn’t know it exactly, but I was looking for a role model — a young woman who is smart, authentic, independent, and perfectly comfortable with spending a lot of time alone.
Then I found Girl In Space, and I was home.
X, the titular girl in space, is a scientist and the lone passenger aboard the Cavatica, a research vessel in orbit near the mysteriously active planet Ra. Monologues, simultaneously casual and intimate, are recorded as audio diaries and drop referential breadcrumbs leading to the truth of X’s origin, her deceased parents’ top secret science projects, and the planet Ra. A button-pressing mishap introduces more characters into X’s life who are just as curious about her as the audience is, only some are more violent.
Sarah Werner is the star, writer, director, editor, producer, and all-around doting mother to this creation. She delivers X’s personality with authenticity and charm, and she’s crafted a narrative that’s as cute and quirky as it is suspenseful. The sound design is nicely demonstrative, and coupled with descriptive dialogue, seats the audience in close range of the action.
News was recently leaked that studios are in talks about a Girl in Space TV show, which put Werner in the awkward position of having to both confirm and deny these developments — a promising venture has stalled, but new conversations are happening.
For now, you can find Girl In Space on the website or any major podcast platform.
I wish all the best for Werner and for Girl In Space. It’s evident that she has invested a great deal of care and work into this fun drama. It’s certainly worth making it to the big screen, and smart studios will see — or hear — this fact.
As a fellow lone drifter in a world of mystery, tragedy, and adventure, I’m grateful to Girl In Space for showing me the ropes.
