Bladderwrack, at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory - 60 minutes

Poppycock and balderdash. That sums up the theatre of the absurd production that is Bladderwrack at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory.

It is errant nonsense – a fruit loop pantomime with a few operatic interludes.

Inspirations include Spike Milligan and The Goon Show, so we shouldn’t be surprised.

Photos by Steven Mitchell Wright

Bladderwrack starts with some light-hearted banter and audience interaction.

Actors David Tredinnick and Oscar Munro introduce themselves as Sheridan Anguish and Peregrine Scattergood respectively.

They are 1940s radio stars with tickets on themselves.

Very soon, after running through a few dad-style jokes, they are changing into pirate garb.

Complete with accents, Tredinnick is now Saucy Jack, while Munro is Bagfoot.

They proceed to weave an all but incomprehensible story involving a shipwreck, monsters in the deep and bad tasting fish, while plugging a book of the play.

The latter is something they do throughout the show. At least the first two times, it brings with it mirth because of the way they do it. To say any more would be to spoil the surprise.

Complete with vivid sound effects and evocative, outrageous puppetry, the pair tells of being trapped undersea in a sunken galleon.

At various junctures, they morph into other characters – Trednnick pirate journalist Saltpetre Cragshank and Munro Slobber and the Editor.

This is a flight of fancy, such that most of the time, I had no idea what the players were on about, save for the fact that Saucy Jack had a penchant for fishing.

What he caught wasn’t always palatable.

He and Bagfoot had clearly been stuck in the bowels of the vessel for a considerable time. Mind you, the timeframe is decidedly illusive.

Writers and directors Trednnick and Adam Browne have crafted a bizarre hour of entertainment, complete with a few laughs and much puzzlement.

That includes the longest fart seen on the Antipodean stage.

One of the performers sums all of this up with the single word “gibberish” in his close … and that it most certainly is.

You can catch this orchestrated mayhem at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory until 15^th November, 2025.