Stabbing the Ghost

In an empty newspaper office, a frustrated journalist swears at his laptop. It’s the weekend, the lights are on a timer, and the server is down – but at least it’s quiet. At least, until another journalist bumps into the dark room and confronts him.

If I was to write down the opening lines of this play, it would consist solely of around a hundred asterisks to mask the swearing. It’s certainly a challenging start, and this ultra-shock is immediately uncomfortable. It doesn’t let up for the first few minutes, with the two journalists realising they know each other, and throw around not casual banter but vitriolic nastiness without restraint.

It’s only with the benefit of hindsight does this make more sense: this new play by SA theatre team Safari Street Creative dares to question our current relationship with the media, where we no longer care about truth, and we consume it voraciously for entertainment, not for information. Co-creators Spencer Scholz and Samantha Riley also play the two characters: Owen, who built a career writing about Culture; and Tahlia, who specialised in Travel writing. The reality of their professions is that no-one really reads what they write any more, at least not in its traditional form, and so Owen’s work is now about reality shows and insider gossip; and Tahlia has become a ghostwriter, reworking journalist’s pieces to satisfy the sponsors. The friction here is rubbed viciously because unknown to either of them, Tahlia has been asked to rework one of Owen’s articles.

Neither of them admits to what they’re doing at first, holding their respective realities close, but slowly (and loudly), the truth is leaked, explained, questioned, then explained in a different way. Amidst much, much shouting and violent indignation, there is a beautiful debate about how even strong values and well-meaning intent have been sacrificed for click-bait headlines that scream outrage but have little below the surface. This play is about much more than how we consume media – it’s how we deal with reality. Particularly, it’s how we handle being real in person after hiding so much behind out-loud pleasantries and curated electronic communication.

The dense dialogue comes fast, but it’s not just shouted: there are quieter moments too, where Owen and Tahlia lower their barriers enough to have a human conversation. Some of the joints between the play’s phrasing could be better oiled and Riley’s and Scholz’s characterisations of their characters are of superficially horrible people for the most part, so it takes a while to care about either of them.

But this is a play that challenges how we’ve accepted the way the world has evolved. It tells you bluntly that you’re complicit, and long after the loud voices no longer echo around the theatre, the intellectual volume remains at ten: you’re still thinking about this the day after.

Review by Mark Wickett

Click here to read more Adelaide Fringe 2025 reviews