WHEN the cinema tackles an epic subject, it tends to look for a huge budget and a cast of thousands.

The theatre does it differently. So two young actors, Oliver Hollis and Robin Hemmings, tackle the space race and the Moon landings of the 1960s with cardboard boxes, an Anglepoise lamp, a filing cupboard and other bits and bobs.

Playing a range of characters, they present a fast-moving and funny 40th anniversary homage to the missions which climaxed in Neil Armstrong’s famous: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

I saw the play – an hour’s worth of verifiable fact delivered with a winning blend of energy and daftness – in the company of a young audience who revelled, naturally, in all the silly noises.

The Apollo missions lent themselves to silly noises, from the emotionless, robotic commands from Mission Control to Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, taken as the theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey which came out at that time and was used heavily by the BBC.

On tour from Oxford Playhouse, One Small Step can be seen today at 10.30am and 7pm, and on Saturday at 1.30pm and 7pm.

A neat little show, it covers a lot of ground with charm and ingenuity.

David Whetstone