Joyously dark and devilishly hilarious, Bin Night is the debut full-length work of writer and director, Charlie Papps, and passion project of producer Emily Skipper. Presented by SUDS at the Cellar Theatre, the play is original, camp, and downright fun; a comedy that is acutely aware of its satirical insensitivities while leaving a profound emotional impact on the audience.
The play follows a trio of colourful housemates living in Redfern and their weekly tuning into Bin Night: a kids TV show hosted by a puppet, Mr Shingles, that teaches them about housing, gambling, relationships, and various other riveting ‘adult’ topics. Fans of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and analogue media spoofs will love the meta progression of Bin Night. Taking many unanticipated turns, the play creates a dark story full of raw emotion out of what initially appears to be a random comedy.
Bin Night isn’t just a play, it’s an experience, from the pre-show performance by the assistant director, Aiden Carter, to the ingenuitive use of hilarious pre-recorded ‘ad breaks’ in the shows episodic structure, to the transformation of the Cellar Theatre as a whole. The almost uncanny set design, also by Papps, perfectly evokes the feeling of an early 2000s children’s TV show while holding sinister adult elements in the midst of its nostalgia. Put simply by Amber Broadbent, the actor for the character Ava, “it’s Playschool if Playschool dealt with trauma… and did lots of psychedelics.”
Nat Jensen’s compelling performance gives Mr Shingles — the puppet teacher and quasi-narrator of the show — the power to fill the theatre with roaring laughter and then instantly silence it with emotional intensity and delicacy. As a first time puppeteer, Jensen’s skills were refined, successfully combining the physical capabilities of the puppet and his incredible vocal and facial expression to create such deep emotion. Jensen is an incredibly dynamic actor that guides the show with his range and power.
One of the major successes of the show was the characterisation of the trio: Ava, Issac (Tom Jenkins) and Roy (Matt Dorhay). Each actor balanced the other out like a kilo of bricks and a kilo of feathers: different, but equal. Their personalities pave the way for incredible moments of physical comedy and an ever-stimulating stage presence, bringing life to the written punchlines. Truthfully, there were intermittent overwhelming moments where the cast had timing and pacing issues, occasionally blunting the audience’s ability to receive the bits, but I would imagine with a cast of such calibre, such issues will smooth themselves out over the course of the show’s run.
In less competent actors and directors hands, these characters would likely overwhelm and scatter the story, but in Bin Night, each actor was able to combine their personalities with clarity and purposeful juxtaposition.
Tom Jenkins brings a sense of childhood joy (and stupidity) to the Cellar with his constant commitment to character and impressive voice work, not just just in accents but in his general expression and inflection. Matt Dohray is bloody funny as Roy, and every time I thought I understood the direction they were taking the character, they descended further into creative madness. Their presence on stage is so cheeky and playful, both countering and forwarding Jenkin’s Isaac. What grounds these two is Ava; Amber Broadbent delivers an emotional range while holding the power to find the punchline within the randomness of Roy and Isaac. A SUDS veteran, Broadbent truly holds this ensemble together.
But the trio’s accomplishment in balancing cohesion and difference is not entirely the work of the actors: the production team also deserves credit. The set’s use of levels is complemented by the costume designer’s (Sara Angelina) use of simple primary colours. Papps raves on about how the “cast made the show come alive” as “imaginative and collaborative people,” and this is an element of the performance that is so evident to the audience, crediting the actors as collaborators with the script, rather than subservient to it.
Jessica Lau’s lighting design beautifully interacted with the plot, transforming the space with its use of colour, creating a chaos of its own, and Papps’ sound design added a strange sense of melancholy in the few moments it was used. Of course, the stage management, courtesy of Matilda Holton — who has been dominating the uni theatre scene in recent months — was sleek and flawless from an audience perspective.
Bin Night is weird, wonderful, and strikingly well-written.
Bin Night is playing at the Cellar Theatre from 16 to 24 August. Tickets are available here.
