Apocalypse Perth

As a celebration of the Nexus Theatre’s 30th Anniversary, students from EGL 353 and Murdoch theatrical alumni presented Kate Rice’s very Perth based verbatim theatre piece, Apocalypse Perth.

 Dr Melissa Merchant comments in her director’s notes that in 2008, she (like most of Perth’s theatrical community), "watched with a mix of fascination and horror as a simple request for a review on the Theatre Australia website turned into a flame war that just seemed to keep growing”. When the fighting came to an end, playwright Kate Rice, then living in Perth, asked for “Critics and Defenders” of the musical in question, Rock Apocalypse to contribute to a verbatim theatre play that she was writing about the forum - in turn sparking another heated debate.

Enough water has passed under the bridge to admit that Stage Whispers was in the audience on the opening night of Rock Apocalypse and decided not to publish a review (a very rare occurrence). As a result, we may have inadvertently sparked the debate. Sorry. At least we ended up with this very good play.

This production, a decade and a half after the original Blue Room performance of this play, takes us back to 2008, with projections of the original posts, and a program that is reminiscent (except in color) of the original website design.

The cast (including a surprise appearance from an audience member, play cast and production team members from Rock Apocalypse, as well as contributors to the Theatre Australia Forum.  The cast really lean into the emotion - with a particularly poignant performance from Channing Whitworth as the much-criticised actress Kelly, with whom we come to sympathise. Kudos also to Jasper Prestage as angry young director Tim, firing back with vitriol. Jasper manages to give depth that takes us beyond “angry young man”.

Well-paced, nicely researched, with a cast that really understood the multi-faceted aspects of the story, this 70-minute play really flew, with well-coordinated movement and some clever "chairography” adding to the storytelling. Great work from all in this ensemble cast, for fabulous teamwork and well played characters. 

Katie Southwell’s lighting design and well-chosen production music helped in this emotional journey/

Interesting to see some of the original cast and crew from Rock Apocalypse in the audience as well as the current administration of the theatre company involved, JETS,= (now going from strength to strength). No need to “lose” thus review. A great show that left lots of food for thought.

Kimberley Shaw

Photographer: Tiffany Banner