Concrete Playground

From plot summary alone, it may not be easy to understand why this script would be awarded the Most Original Work at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Playwright Duncan Graham draws on one of the great industry standards – money-motivated businessman from the big smoke vs wild country boy – in a new adaptation of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. However, beware ye old and cynical: the brilliance of Graham’s work is in his ability to seamlessly blend the real and the surreal, holding the audience hostage to their own expectations for the drama while making them believe every second of it.

Graham, together with innovative Adelaide theatre company floogle, is undoubtably producing some of the best work that Australian theatre has to offer. Ollie and the Minotaur, another Graham/floogle collaboration which played at Belvoir Downstairs earlier this year, was similarly honest, unique and brilliant. Anyone even mildly interested in new theatre should head along to this production, and keep an eye out for future work from this pairing.