Tripped – Attic Erratic

Overview

Attic Erratic have just wrapped their first show of this year’s Melbourne Fringe, with The City They Burned playing to packed-out houses (and bulging waiting lists) for the last three weeks. Tripped looks like a slightly more light-hearted offering than Fleur Kilpatrick’s searing update of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it’s a comedy with the same kind of darkness at its core.

Directed by the company’s joint Artistic Director Celeste Cody, Nick Musgrove’s Tripped sets an ambitious target — a darkly-humoured treatment of racial prejudice that sees its two protagonists, Norm and Ahmed, thrash out their differences (and similarities) in a minefield.

We’re hanging out to see whether Cody and Musgrove can walk the tightrope between the work’s heavy material and its mordant, comic sensibilities. But, now that the company have well and truly established themselves as one of the city’s leading independent companies, we’re sure they can pull it off. After all, what better time for a play that navigates the monstrous waters of diversity and suspicion to arrive in Melbourne?

Image: Sarah Walker