Break of Day review | Malthouse Theatre

Every night, Pam clocks on at the world’s largest online retail warehouse, packing parcels in a town where employment prospects are increasingly scarce. It’s a thankless, low-paying and dead-end job, but most residents in Burra Creek have no other option. In Steve Rodgers’ Break of Day, we follow Pam, her daughter Rae and others, as they fight to avoid becoming invisible in a place where they have been forgotten.

While Pam works away at the warehouse, Rae is desperately trying to complete a high school essay on Lolita. With no internet, a computer on its last legs, a boyfriend more focused on his own dreams and a drunk grandfather to contend with, completing her assignment feels almost impossible.

Marginalia review | fortyfivedownstairs

There are few things more absurd than a man discovering that his nose has left his face, taken on a life of its own and somehow become more socially important than he is. Yet Marginalia manages to make Nikolai Gogol's The Nose seem almost restrained. Pummel Squad's wildly inventive adaptation takes the story and throws it into a blender, transforming its inherent ridiculousness into something visually extravagant, manic, and unruly.

The production wastes little time establishing its unique rhythm. Tyler, a barber, spends the entirety of Fatboy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now" running in circles around the stage, completely committed and visibly present. When the music stops, he turns to the audience and speaks about the tension between his career as a hairdresser and his passion for art, clearly setting the tone for what is about to unfold.

CreepyPasta review | Dancehouse

Once confined to internet message boards and YouTube narration channels, creepypasta has steadily entered the mainstream, most recently through the release of Backrooms. These eerie tales of liminal spaces, conspiracies and inexplicable horrors have become a defining form of modern folklore. Harrison Hall's CreepyPasta draws on that tradition, using dance, sound and media to examine the anxieties lurking beneath our constantly connected lives.

CreepyPasta opens with a striking sequence. A lone performer (Nikki Tarling) is tethered to a rope that disappears into the darkness above. She moves with slow, precise fluidity under a solitary spotlight. Shiv Geaney's lighting sends red laser beams slicing through the space towards the audience, while Mat Spisbah's pulsing, heartbeat-like soundscape builds a sense of foreboding. Tarling's body is the only human presence in an environment consumed by screens, attempting to resist invisible forces pulling at her. Harrison Hall soon joins her, with the pair navigating various physical and multimedia encounters that push the boundaries between dance, performance art and digital installation.

Saplings review | Arts Centre Melbourne

Young people rarely enter the youth justice system because of a single bad decision. More often, they're shaped by circumstances beyond their control, the adults who fail them, and institutions that struggle to offer the support they need. Hannah Belanszky's Saplings - which is drawn from workshops and interviews with incarcerated youths - places those realities centre stage, inviting audiences to reconsider the labels and see the people underneath.

The vignettes introduce us to different young people in different situations, yet they are all intrinsically connected. A teenager is questioned by police after breaching his bail to buy instant noodles, while another group of friends who have just broken into a house cling to doli incapax, the legal principle that children under a certain age are presumed incapable of understanding right and wrong.

Funeral Flowers review | Red Stitch

Seventeen year-old Angelique dreams of becoming a florist, sparked by the creativity and tenderness of crafting stems and petals into something extraordinary. Yet while she learns to cultivate beauty, she must navigate a world shaped by poverty, racism and the care system. Inspired by the life of Tottenham community leader Gina Moffatt, Emma Dennis-Edwards' Funeral Flowers transforms a deeply personal story into a rich portrait of the people and relationships in Angelique's life, filled with vivid storytelling and sharply observed characterisation.

Told from Angelique's perspective, the script depicts an entire community from a single voice, introducing family members, carers, teachers and friends with assured clarity. It balances humour and heartbreak, making room for warmth and optimism to flourish without diminishing the harsh realities of Angelique's circumstances.