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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

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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