Traffic Light Party

There’s an assumption that relationships were easier before the advent of technology and social media and possibly they were, but the ability to “connect” and to “read” the stability of relationships has never come easily for everyone. Being “dumped” hurt just as much in 1960 as it does in 2026. Estimating the strength of a relationship is often just as hard at 70 as it is at 17 … or unfortunately, sometimes even at 7. As for trust …

Izzy Azzopardi interrogates “society’s subconscious hierarchy of relationships” and the hazards of “relationship etiquette” through the analogy of a Traffic Light Party. According to the Urban Dictionary, this is a party where “guests wear the colours of the traffic signals to denote their relationship status: green means they’re single, red means they’re taken, and yellow means their relationship status is “complicated … and … at a red light … everyone starts dancing like crazy”.

But in life, signals are not always clear, messages are often misinterpreted and in Traffic Light Party Azzopardi explores “what happens when the lines between right and wrong, love and friendship, desire and duty begin to dissolve. When the need for clarity clashes with the reality of emotional chaos”.

The play mixes realism and absurdity in a long 90 minutes of choral work, movement, loud music, lights, strobes, party silliness (frothy spray?) interspersed with well written scenes exploring the complications of loneliness, friendship, commitment, self-interest, desire, consent – and how ‘messy” they can be. It is fast and loud at times, soft and reflective at others.

Director Brea Macey sees the theme as “our youth longing for the sense of relationship and community they’ve lost in this new age” of devices and systems that isolate them. She sets it surrounded by a multiplicity of traffic signs and signals, broken yellow lines, a set of real traffic lights, and a series of symbolic Perspex panels, that close the actors in or cut them off from each other.

Nine young actors are the party guests. Ivy (played by Azzopardi) is single and feels neglected by her best friend Scarlett (Meg Denman) who is now in a long-term relationship. Sunny (Renée Billing) is in a same sex relationship marred by consistent bickering about seemingly inconsequential issues. Chloe (Grace Easterby) recently single, is looking for commitment; and Amber (Caitlin Green) wants reassurance of the status of her five-month long relationship with Samson.

Samson (Isaac Harley) is flirtatious, narcissistic and loathe to commit to one person and is going on exchange next year anyway. Reid (Jordy Stewart) is a rugby player who is afraid to admit his attraction to gentle Phoenix (Travis Howard). Hunter (Caleb Jamieson) watches always, ready to sympathise, advise … or take advantage.

Macey’s direction is tightly contemporary in the transitions and ‘party’ scenes, which are carefully choreographed and timed, though in this new iteration of the play (winner of the 2025 Sydney Fringe Festival ‘Best of the Festival’ Award), some of those scenes, and the constant moving of the Perspex panels, become distractions from the sensitive issues portrayed in between the “red lights”, where Macey’s subtle perception as a director shines.

In the scene between Ivy and Scarlett, Macey uses shifts of distance to highlight tension as Azzopardi and Denman portray the difficult constraints between the friends – Ivy’s feelings of loss, rejection and loneliness; Scarlett’s struggle to understand Ivy’s pain whilst still in the throes of negotiating the complexities of her relationship with her partner.

Ivy’s vulnerability is accentuated in a brief scene with the arrogant Samson, who takes advantage of her loneliness – and demonstrates his own fickleness and self-absorption.

The playwright’s insight into the humour in relationships is shown in Sunny’s falling out with her partner Ash over whether “peanut butter should be stored in the fridge or the pantry”. Macey uses Renée Billing’s vocal range and comic timing to highlight the maturity, and humour in Sunny’s character and the warmth that makes her an adviser and peacekeeper.

One of the most difficult scenes to direct (and possibly to write) is that between Amber and Samson. Caitlin Green and Isaac Harley find the growing tension in the situation, she as she seeks the words to ask his real intentions, he as he tries to avoid answering. It is made even more heartbreaking by Amber’s naivety and Samson’s callous insensitivity.

Similar insensitivity and coercion are played out when Hunter seeks to take advantage of Chloe’s need for affection – and ignores her rejection of his advance. It is a short but difficult scene in which Grace Easterby and Caleb Jamieson are directed with care to portray the issue of consent.

The difficulty in the budding relationship between Pheonix and Reid is portrayed with subdued tension and emotion by Travis Howard and Jordy Stewart. It’s a scene that has been played out on many stages, and Azzppardi’s tightly written words give it the impact, sensitivity and hope it deserves without labouring the hurt or frustration of either of the characters.

Traffic Light Party in this iteration retains the vision, pace, colour and appeal that won it acclaim at the Fringe last year. Its messages are clear, it’s characters real – though does seem a tiny bit too long!

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Jade Bell