All the Animals We Ate review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Arts House

Last year, James Tresise’s mother passed away. During that same time, Sean M. Whelan’s pet spoodle passed away after 13 years. In All The Animals We Ate, the two come together to grieve and mourn the passing of someone they love and to celebrate their life. Death may be the end of one thing but it not need be the end of everything.

There is a lot of heart in this show; it’s hard not to feel sadness as Whelan’s recalls the moment he found out his beloved dog, Cady, had died. Despite the show being predominantly about the loss of animals, we are invited to link these experiences to any sense of personal loss we’ve had, let it be animal or human. This empathy is created in part through the animal impersonations the two performers take on throughout, emphasising their connections to human beings.

All The Animals We Ate by Sean M Whelan & James Tresise - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that we love watching videos and pictures of cats and dogs. In their upcoming Melbourne Fringe show, All The Animals We Ate, spoken word poet Sean M Whelan and performer James Tresise explore the complex relationship between humans and animals and how we deal with love and loss. 

'The reason we started making All the Animals We Ate was because I was struggling to respond to the passing of my mother last year. I saw that Sean's beloved spoodle Cady had passed and that was the impetus for me to ask Sean to collaborate on a new work," Tresise explains. "We built this play from the ground up using a series of theatre games that I adapted to generate a written script. It was a really fun and lively way to deal with some of the more challenging themes we decided to tackle. It also became very evident that this work required both Sean and I to perform it, so excitingly Melbourne audiences will be treated to the acting debut of Sean M. Whelan!"