THEATRE: QUACK

Taking the homespun Australiana of A Country Practice, the humorously haemoglobin-drenched A Shaun of the Dead, with Deadwood’s expansive western noir thrown in for good measure, Griffin Theatre’s Quack is sounding more satire smoothie than mash-up. “What is going wrong out there?” asks director Chris Mead, whose credits include The Modern International Dead. “People are obsessed with … eating everything … [which] sounds like a zombie!” While a common motif of the silver screen, it’s not often you see the living undead tread – or lurch – the stage. “That’s what theatre does well,” says Mead, citing the Theatre of Blood tradition, “It turns your stomach in a fun way in that proximity to violence, brutality, blood and gore.” In Quack, writer Ian Wilding has stepped back 100 years to an isolated rural outpost, where the townfolk are sickening … and eventually turning. A charming physician turns up (played by Charlie Garber, recently named one of the top ten actors to watch), with grand visions of inoculating the town. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong. “We used Broken Hill in 1888 as a template,” says Mead, “and actually there had been an outbreak of mysterious disease at the time.” How convenient. The foil amidst the inhumanity is Fanny (Aimee Horner), a young woman tired of her town’s poisonous obsession with money and mining. Again, we see the tainted thread of over-consumption weaving through. “We possibly had a bit too much fun with liquids and spillage,” admits Mead, “We’re slightly worried about people actually puking!” Perhaps skip the dinner before. This will be brain-food enough.

Sep 2-Oct 2, Griffin SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Darlinghurst, $26-45, 8002 4772, griffintheatre.com.au