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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Distant and remote: The Dark Room @theatre503


Angela Betzien’s hard-hitting play The Dark Room at Theatre 503 explores the underbelly of neglect and violence in outback Australia. Or the Northern Territory to be precise. But this isn’t the Northern Territory famous for its obscure newspaper headlines. This is a much darker, isolated place where the people meant to protect vulnerable people mistreat them instead.

It’s billed as a disturbing psychological thriller but the resemblance to real events makes it feel more like a horror show. Betzien wrote the play after witnessing first-hand the shortage of accommodation for children in care in these communities. In the end you leave the theatre feeling shocked and numb from what you’ve seen.

Set in a run-down motel room, a series of characters come together to tell the story of stretched resources, limited patience and a tyranny of distance. Time moves forward and back as this bleak plywood motel room as each character recalls another.



It opens with youth worker Anni (Katy Brittain) bringing a disturbed young girl to a motel to stay the night on the way to an unknown location.

The girl (Annabel Smith) enters the motel room  wearing a hood. The scene in reminiscent of the the hoods authorities forced aboriginal youths to wear in the Northern Territory.

She’s filthy and needs a wash. She’s experienced something horrific but it’s unclear what that might be. There’s a large knife and lots of dirty talk. Between outbursts and fits of rage a story begins to emerge.



This piece attempts to tell a bigger story about institutional neglect. But it’s these two characters that create the biggest impression. Both performers create a tense and uncomfortable dynamic. Brittain’s portrayal of Annie is also the closest to a sympathetic and understanding character in the piece.

Directed by Audrey Sheffield, The Dark Room is at Theatre 503 until 2 December.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Alex Brenner

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