Wolf Creek The Musical
If songs about wristies, murder and rape sheds don't strike your fancy, this isn't the show for you.
Overview
If songs about wristies, murder and rape sheds don't strike your fancy, this isn't the show for you. I realise that's a strange way to start a review, but it's also entirely necessary to state. This low-budget re-make of the 2005 horror film, Wolf Creek, takes an axe to the throat of both British backpackers and political correctness in one fell swoop.
Moral complexities aside, it's great to see something like this at the Comedy Festival. In a month of charity galas and international acts in neatly pressed suits, it's exciting to see young comedians that aren't afraid to build their props out of cardboard, don a blonde wig from the $2 shop and go after an Australian classic. It's a total pisstake (in the best way possible).
Unsurprisingly, the story follows the basic gist of the original film. Doe-eyed tourists undertake hostile road trip through the outback, foreseeable trouble ensues. Though there are some alterations of course. The male backpacker is now a Greek aspiring wrist-model who can find kebabs in the middle of the desert; the cast is momentarily supplemented with small appearances by dreamtime animals; and there are numerous inclusions of clams due to the vested interests of the play's fictional financier (just go with it). Pushing both genre and character into the absolute absurd, the show offers up deadpan black humour with perfect timing and original writing that hits every mark.
But, with risky humour like this, it's good to know you're not alone. So if you're feeling a little iffy about it, take solace in the fact the show has had hit runs in both the Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals. It even snagged Best Emerging Comedy at the former. To be on the safe side, take a friend with a similar sense of humour to your own and leave the parents at home.
Written by comedian James McCann and RAW Comedy winner Demi Lardner, this is a show for those that appreciate the unconventional. It's like the best primary school play you've ever seen (assuming all the children involved had serious social and behavioural problems).
