Australian-American artist Holland Brooks makes their playwriting debut with Unnatural, presented by The Blue Room Theatre. Billed as “Australian Gothic meets queer revolution”, Unnatural invites us into a supernatural world depicted through six interwoven monologues performed by Jacinta Larcombe, Gabriel Critti-Schnaars, and Marli Jupiter, directed by Andrew Sutherland. Unnatural‘s speculative fiction fable framework allows artists and audiences to confront critical socio-political themes through its evocative imagery, dark humour, and psychological horror.
I’ll refrain from going into a detailed overview of each of the six stories told in Unnatural, as this would be a woefully inadequate distillation of each wonderful little piece. I say little, but that’s a misnomer – each tale is fierce and mighty in its own right and requires big things from its director and performers. Sutherland needs to have a green thumb; he must lay the right soil to enable this unruly garden of forbidden fruits and transforming beings to flourish. Larcombe, Critti-Schnaars, and Jupiter must commit; they need to immerse themselves so wholly into these ‘unnatural’ worlds that we, the spectators, never once doubt the truth of its existence.
And so they did. Larcombe is a sight for this reviewer’s sore eyes; it’s been years since I’ve seen her perform, and her return to Bluey is long overdue. In Unnatural, she’s given the opportunity to show depth, wisdom, and serenity as a storyteller; she puts us at ease as we enter the show’s universe and delivers the final words with gentle mercy. There was a very late casting change that brought Jupiter to the scene; they intermittently referred to their book during the performance, but this actually worked quite well within their character’s given circumstances, and it certainly didn’t get in the way of their dynamic, physical performance. Critti-Schnaars, a gifted performer who also happens to be gifted with a stutter, captivates with his unique voice and beautiful way of speaking, giving his words and emotions a singular gravity.
The visual environment designed by Cherish Marrington sets a folk horror tone, with cryptic sigils decorating the walls, weathered black wooden platforms, and remnants of the familiar. Sound by Abi Russell and lighting by Jasmine Lifford complement the eerie, otherworldly atmosphere but allow the stories and the performers to remain in the fore.
Each monologue is a provocation that demands we accept a strange, hallucinatory narrative whose path leads to uncomfortable places where the narrators describe violence, loss, and metamorphosis. Brooks raises questions about parenting, disability, queerness, otherness, and bodily autonomy; they examine love, acceptance, shame, and rejection, and demonstrate how often these are all deeply intertwined at the root. Many of these questions remain open-ended, but as with most good horror tales, there is reckoning, reclamation, and renewal. Brooks, Sutherland, and the performers strike a satisfying balance of light and dark within each story and the production overall.
Unnatural is a bold, haunting debut play from Brooks, full of unearthly delights tenderly told by a group of individuals that teems with uncommon talents.
CICELY BINFORD
Unnatural by Holland Brooks runs at The Blue Room Theatre from 5 – 23 November
