Delay

Lin, an astronaut, speeds towards a distant planet. He's on a pioneering solo mission to create a new home for humankind.

His only human contact is an exchange of voice messages with his lover, Silas, back on Earth. But thanks to the laws of relativity, Silas is ageing so much faster than Lin. Days for the astronaut will be decades for the lover left behind.

As disaster befalls the spacecraft and planet Earth falls apart, Silas and Lin's love is tested to the limit.

Timothy X Atack's DELAY is a love story. A suspenseful, heartwrenching yet hopeful queer sci-fi stage play about saying what you mean and saying goodbye. It was first performed at Bristol Old Vic in 2025.

Timothy X Atack is a writer, composer, and sound designer.

His work for the stage includes DELAY (Bristol Old Vic, 2025) and Heartworm (winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2017).

Audio dramas include Forest 404 for BBC Sounds (WGGB and ARIA awards for best audio drama 2020), The Morpeth Carol, The Stroma Sessions and Beethoven Can Hear You.

He wrote and directed the award-wining short film All My Dreams on VHS.

He co-founded the production company Sleepdogs with director Tanuja Amarasuriya, and is a resident at Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed.