Fallout

Overview

This little piggy went to market (crack of a knuckle),
This little piggy stayed at home (that goes crunch under teeth),
This little piggy had roast beef (with the rip of tendons),
This little piggy had none (and a scream in vain).
And this little piggy... (rivulets of blood drain from a grinning mouth).

The lights go out.

Kip Williams' Fallout, written by Maree Freeman, is replete with gore and psychologically disturbing human interaction contained in a disoriented and anchorless location. Intensity skyrockets as three teenagers — Alpha (Lizzie Schebesta), Bravo (Gabriel Fancourt), and Charlie (Amanda McGregor) — head full-throttle on a mission to "get better" by striking out violently at the fourth character, Delta (Michele Durman). By focusing on anger and physical expression of such emotions on her as a human punch-bag, they suppress any form of human emotion, in particular, empathy and sadness.

This hideous denial of humanity seems to be well appreciated by the thousands of faceless aliens peering down through a central shaft of light above the stage. The teenagers believe that their abhorrent behaviour might well afford them escape from this underground dirt-box. When they are not roaming in a constant daze of boredom — skipping ropes, drawing animals in the soil, dreaming of the sky, and reciting nonsensical riddles — they are plotting to win the appreciation of the aliens and be granted exit.

Fancourt and McGregor each perform chilling monologues for their captive audience with verisimilitude. As comic relief, McGregor exudes an infectious raw energy as she immerses herself in the character of a trapped and confused young girl, full of naive hope and premature sexuality. Pitted against this, Durman carries herself with cool calm and a natural self-possession, while Schebesta is the ultimate harsh alpha female who pulls all the puppet strings.

The sharp swings between the banal and the shocking are punctuated by powerful spells of darkness, like chapters in a book. You can feel time passing them by; their youth, their memories, their pasts — all drifting away from them like clouds in the sky. What they'll do to try to escape will break some hearts or cause others to faint from the sheer violence.