The Flood

The Flood is a black absurd comedy set in 2011 around the Brisbane flood. Four young housemates at an existential crossroad of their lives share an old Queenslander on the Brisbane River. Glenn a corporate lawyer and Karl a photographer who writes pretentious food and coffee reviews are interrupted in their efforts to get stoned by Sandra and Damo returning home from holiday. All hell breaks loose when Sandra sees the mess the house is in and that the guys have eaten all the food in the pantry. She goes to bed and the guys go back to their bong and philosophising about the state of the world and corporate-greed. When they wake in the morning the house is awash with water. There’s no food to eat and when Glenn selfishly takes a shower and screws up the water supply, there’s nothing to drink.

That’s the premise of this original work by Tim Horgan which holds interest for its 100 minute running time by his plot manoeuvres and his naturalistic dialogue. The introduction of a crocodile into the house paves the way for the indigenous Dano to spear it with the Ikea lamp shaft to kill it, and then roast it on the fire, whilst the late act appearance of a rescue lady provides multiple laughs.

Cliff Ellis was good as the privileged prick Glenn who finds some humility when he rescues Walter the neighbour. Jack Murphy’s Karl worked hard at trying to keep his and everyone’s moral compass on point. Briellen Juracic gave a big ballsy performance as Sandra, whilst Bernard Mina’s Damo was ferociously funny killing the crocodile. As the old-timer Walter, Robert J. Mussett added his share of angst to the plot, Peta Zivec was a delight as the Rescue Lady, and the non-speaking crocodile (Mitchell Cobcroft) slithered about the set with more humour than menace.

The problem of showing the house under water was ingeniously solved by covering the furniture and set pieces with brown calico to denote the filthy effluent. The production was rough and at times difficult to understand in the acoustically challenged venue, but the sound effects were excellent from the squishing water every time someone moved to the digeridoo and clap-sticks soundtrack.

The play was originally performed in an Audio Drama version in 2016 and vestiges of that form remain (narration to set the scene and time was clunky), and Horgan would benefit by having an editor or dramaturg on board, but there’s no denying he’s a writer to watch.

Peter Pinne     

Images: Geoff Lawrence of Creative Futures Photography