Werewolf | Binge Culture
From the very outset of Werewolf, I was enthralled. Receiving a series of audience guidelines in the foyer? Thrilling. An unconventional on-stage entry through a quasi-containment-chamber plastic screen? Absolutely on board. Being greeted by armbanded ‘Wardens’ who look like the outdoorsy camp counsellors of my teenage crush dreams? Strapped in. And all of that was before I'd even read my seat allotted instructional card…gasp! (if you know, you know)
Homegrown | Loose Tooth Theatre
Writer Sarah Esser has achieved what I had previously thought was impossible - a horror play that is genuinely uncomfortable and upsetting. While many stage additions to the genre sit within psychological or gothic spaces, Esser leans deeply into the 70’s-80’s filmic space of puppetry oriented body horror and religious trauma (à la The Fly or The Exorcist) in a way that shines on PIP’s sleek indie stage.
Eat Slay Zombie | La Boite Theatre
Don’t let the title or the zombie masks fool you – this is far from a typical horror-comedy. McGrady brilliantly channels the chaotic framework of a zombie outbreak as a sharp, clever metaphor to deliver a powerful message about colonisation and First Nations survival in contemporary Australia.
Maho Maho Magic Bar | Broad Encounters & Darkfield | Realscape Productions
There’s nothing like being stumped by a magic trick and some of them blew me away. I was racking my brain to work out how they were pulling off those tricks and I doubt there is anyone who could keep a smile off their face while objects disappear and then reappear inside a completely in-tact orange.
Ruby Moon | Ad Astra
Ruby Moon is an important work and was inspired by the headlines of missing children in the past. When we think of the tragic news of Daniel Morcombe and William Tyrell, and how today we live in a world where media plays such a big role in our lives that when a story like that happens it becomes almost unavoidable to not get caught up in the anxiety or feel the grief of their family. I think it does a great job at exploring the corruption of innocence and how our perceptions can drastically change after such incidents.