Revival – September 2019
The concept returned for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, with four different sets of cast, director, tech designer, and stimulus material.
Directors Jesse and Lucy Velik concocted a cunning ruse: Actor Justin Hosking opened by confessing that we hadn’t succeeded at the challenge. Instead, he’d give a talk on his research into early childhood development, aided by young actor Elsa Cirugeda.
Elsa was none too pleased, gradually growing agitated and uncooperative toward Justin’s requests. Just as the audience started to squirm in discomfort, the tension ratcheted up when Justin suffered spontaneous (special effect) bleeding, the lights cut out, and the academic slideshow twisted into garbled, gory sounds and images.
Elsa briefly reappeared wearing a painted doll’s mask before dragging Justin offstage to an unknown fate.
