I can’t remember the last time I loved the experience of watching a show but had to concede on its weaknesses. The opposite is far more common but Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre’s production of Pier Lorenzo Pisano’s Carbon saw me suck in the night time air, catch a hint of jasmine on the breeze and even appreciate the way the leaves of a plane tree (a much maligned tree species in Naarm) contrasted with the dark sky as I left the theatre, despite the play’s shortcomings.

Simply put, Carbon made me feel pure and joyous gratitude for existing. But I can’t promise this will be a universal experience for all showgoers.

Carbon’s narrative sits within science fiction, imagining, as so many do, what would happen if aliens arrived on Earth.

Caroline Lee and Pantazi Terzian in Carbon. Photo © Sarah Walker

A, performed by Caroline Lee, questions B, performed by Pantazi Terizan, about his experience engaging with the first alien to land on Earth. Getting answers out of B is like pulling teeth and it’s an arresting albeit drawn out mystery for the audience to find out why.

Woven throughout this is a performance lecture where Lorenzo Pisano shares his outlook on life through the character of Voice, performed by Conor Leach.

It’s an outlook that sits between spirituality and philosophy; tossing you into existential angst and then slowly, with elegance and tenderness, offering a way to find meaning despite feeling like a speck of dust in a vast universe. If you agree with the ideas Lorenzo Pisano puts forward, Carbon is sure to be an evening of affirmation and connection with him. If you don’t, you’ll be hanging on until the third act for anything substantive to happen in the narrative.

Caroline Lee and Pantazi Terzian in Carbon. Photo © Sarah Walker

Unusually for Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, it’s the writing that shines, followed quickly by Anna Cordingley’s wonderful set design. Lush coffee toned velvets dress the stage, creating a set that’s straight out of retro talk shows like Parkinson or This Is Your Life. This moves the audience from the story’s interrogation room setting and adds emphasis to A’s and the whole world’s need for answers from B.

Cordingley’s set matches the elegance of Pisano’s writing in the way it escalates a sense of impending alien contact with some wonderful effects. Being in a room with stage effects that seem real tickles the brain in a way special effects on a screen never can.

Conor Leach and Caroline Lee in Carbon. Photo © Sarah Walker

However, the performances of the cast take a while to warm up. It’s only by the third act that blocking and line delivery feels natural and lived in, though one could argue that A’s job as a psychologist means rehearsed responses are truthful to the character, but even then there is a strange choice of physicality at the show’s climax; Lee and Terizan’s faces and voices denote heightened emotions but their bodies suggest they’re sharing a twilight embrace overlooking a serene view. It dampens the excitement of an otherwise wonderful third act.

I’m so happy I saw Carbon but a script that is slow to build and an energy on stage to match is not an easy crowdpleaser.

Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre presents Carbon until 6 December.