{"id":15676,"date":"2025-11-17T00:31:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/?p=15676"},"modified":"2025-11-17T00:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:31:37","slug":"observer-bladderwrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/2025\/11\/17\/observer-bladderwrack\/","title":{"rendered":"OBSERVER: Bladderwrack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Innovation and risk-taking in the theatre are always welcome and Bladderwrack at Theatre Works had both in spades.
Unfortunately, risk-taking is, well, risky and while the play certainly had several commendable features, the evening overall was one of disappointment.
The plot followed the travails of two ancient pirates who had lived in a sunken galleon for decades.
They were kept alive through the air provided by bladderwrack, a common type of seaweed that captures air in bladders for buoyancy.
Monsters and strange creatures of the deep keep the salty old sea dogs company as they ruminate on their situation.
Written by David Tredinnick and Adam Browne, the play was described as a science fiction pirate horror comedy with pantomime and opera thrown in for good measure.
While admirable in its ambition, these elements did not always sit well with each other; consequently, the story felt disjointed and piecemeal.
The world of the play was arcane and the language dense, full of metaphor and allegory. It was almost, at times, a literary work rather than theatrical; meant to be read rather than enacted.
In addition, attempts at humour often fell flat and there was little sense of drama or tension.
Despite this, the cast of five – Tredinnick and Browne joined by
Samuel Thomas-Holland, Harriet Turner-Browne and Oscar Munro gave spirited performances, full of fire and ardour. They mastered the potentially tricky language of the script and shared a good onstage rapport.
As well as writing and performing Tredinnick and Browne were co-directors.
They, along with their creative team of puppet-makers, foley artists and fellow performers, constructed a fantastical underwater world which was a feast for the eyes and ears, a true wonderland. Still, an outside objective eye would have helped highlight and address shortcomings of the overwrought script.
Unfortunately, unlike its namesake, this Bladderwrack suffered from a lack of buoyancy, notwithstanding the beautiful oceanic fairyland its creative team brought to life.
Venue: Explosives Factory, Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman St, St Kilda.
Review by Peter Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovation and risk-taking in the theatre are always welcome and Bladderwrack at Theatre Works had both in spades.Unfortunately, risk-taking is, well, risky and while the play certainly had several commendable features, the evening overall was one of disappointment.The plot followed the travails of two ancient pirates who had lived in a sunken galleon for decades.They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-observer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15679,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676\/revisions\/15679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}