REVIEW BY BRONTE LEMAIRE
EDITED BY EMMA PARFITT
It’s always a pleasure rocking up to the Motley Bauhaus, especially during a night buzzing with theatre festivities. At 9pm the place is packed with Netherworld Festival shows. There’s a guy with wings at the bar, Snape is wandering around telling dad jokes, and I’m pretty sure someone’s upstairs with very little to cover themself–or perhaps nothing at all. But I’m here to see a show out the back and I’m still not quite what I’m about to walk into. Something about it being immersive…?
In 5 Locktin we follow five siblings as they arrive at their deceased mother’s secret estate, a home none of them have ever stepped foot in. Abruptly, the door locks and we find out this isn’t going to be a family reunion where relational tensions are set out and conflicts are resolved, but a fight for survival. The title might be making sense right about now.
The show comes packaged with a delightful twist: 5 Locktin is a choose-your-own-adventure style show, where us (that’s right, the audience!) get to decide what happens next. Left or right? Narrator (Vin R Quach) gives us a choice and whichever one we feel our gut believes is right–or rather what choice we think is going to be the most entertaining to see play out–we cheer for the loudest. On my night, some choices the audience made were unanimous, others were neck-and-neck. One choice came so close, Narrator had to ask me to be the decider. My answer was in fact correct, I’ll have you know–at least in terms of preventing death! But this isn’t improv, it’s a painstakingly long script that we only get to see a glimpse of. I was told afterwards that there are approximately 77 unique routes.
We first meet Narrator, played by Quach, who is our host for the evening. Quach is an incredibly charismatic and fun host who can banter with us through our choices and occasional heckles from the excited crowd. He explains the rules and introduces us to the family.
We get Cherry, played by Dezi Kydas, the feisty teen who’s quick to get pissed off and slow to forgive. Next, we get Benson, the gaming obsessed tween who has the same level of situational awareness as a rock, played by B. Kiki Wickramasinghe. We get Nora, played by Imogen Perrett–don’t worry about her, just the middle child, not much there Narrator says–who can’t get noticed or remembered by her siblings despite any efforts. We get Henry, played by Sarah McNulty who I unfortunately didn’t get to see much of for reasons that might become clear, but who holds a strong leadership position among the siblings. And finally, we get Liam, played by Eddie Sims, the oldest and estranged sibling who hasn’t been back to town in a decade.
Immediately there’s tension in the room from Liam’s arrival, most noticeably with Cherry–he wants to reconnect and no one’s quite ready for it. Nothing like a haunted house filled with traps to ease familial issues! Upon arrival–and after a poor audience decision–we immediately lose a sibling and we are thrust into a game of life or death, where every choice we make could have disastrous consequences. The traps themselves are illustrated by Alana Molyneux-Cole as and Sunday Williams-Starkie who hold up levers, thrust forward snakes, and become spooky figures that go bump in the night. Their moments are aptly aided by Oscar Lanigan’s lighting design, aiding the audience in understanding precisely what level of danger our characters are in.
Though the literal content of the show is quite dark, it is kept light throughout. Because of the extreme undertaking of the show behind the scenes, (how you could memorise so many versions of the same scene and not get them confused is truly a mystery to me) the script and direction by Sabrina Lee is stripped back to give us an easy-to-follow show. We don’t have quite enough time to get attached to the siblings enough to care if they die so it’s strategically played for laughs. We’re not meant to take it super seriously, especially since we need to scream at the top of our lungs every other moment, so it becomes instead a quick round of fun and drama.
Though each character is quite archetypal and straight-forward in their intentions, the acting itself is incredibly strong throughout. The characters each feel fully realised, with both distinct physicality and delivery despite the simplicity. The whole audience is immediately endeared by Wickramasinghe’s Benson, who wants to turn back and save his family as his knowing siblings grimace at the fact they are long gone. Kydas’ Cherry is understandable in her anger, and does well in playing out the sibling with a fuse so short you can anticipate her anger before she says a word. I became the most attached to Sims’ Liam who is desperate to earn back the love of his family even if it means throwing himself into danger. He truly commands the stage and as the night unravelled, I often forgot I was watching an actor at all.
On top of the acting prowess, there are simple but magical moments of staging. There isn’t much room to do visual spectacles in the theatrette, especially when the stage is being filled with up to eight people at a time. They use the layout well, making sure to utilize the stage door the Motley has as well as the pathway through the audience. There is one scene in particular that struck me which is when they descend through a trapdoor. Instead of attempting to mime it realistically or just doing the classic everyone-jumps-as-a-group-and-says-we’ve-made-it-down! they line up, and one takes a step forward then is joined by the next and so on. It is simple yet extremely clean.
5 Locktin is a blast of a time that will keep you laughing throughout. Who you get attached to–and who you get killed–will completely differ each night. In theatre we like to say you can never see the same show twice, but here you truly won’t. Now I’ll forever wonder what would have happened if we had picked left…
5 Locktin played September 8th – 11th as part of the Netherworld Festival at the Motley Bauhaus.
Photos are from a previous production of 5 Locktin.
BRONTE LEMAIRE (any) is a writer and theatre maker who loves witnessing what emerging artists can achieve. Bronte loves analysing and picking apart what makes art work and function (or not!) in order to learn and steal some inspiration for herself.
EMMA PARFITT (she/her) is the Dialog’s head editor and has written Dialog reviews alongside studying towards her science degree for the past two years. She is a production manager, stage manager and producer on the Melbourne indie theatre scene and a veteran of student theatre at Union House Theatre.
The Dialog is supported by Union House Theatre.
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