Hard Cheese: Rat in the City: One Last Bite is a delirious descent into the cracked psyche of its rodent anti-hero, and a gleefully unhinged love letter to neo-noir theatre. The rat. The myth. The legend. Harland “Hard Cheese” Cheese is dragged back into the underworld of hard-rind police work for his most maddening case yet, led by an old friend-turned-enemy, experience a cat-and-rat chase that feels less like a mystery and more like a hallucinatory spiral.
Trauma from three years earlier gnaws at our hero as he searches for his missing true love, Alison Brie, the real-life actress. Guided by his most trusted investigative tools – a Magic 8 Ball rattling around in his pocket and a set of bones, Harland “Hard Cheese” fumbles through the city searching for clues. Call it fate, destiny or celebrity obsession; every rat has its trap, and this one snaps hard.
Presented at the Blue Room Theatre as part of Fringe World Perth, this Dream Simulator production is a design-led hour of fun. Cardboard sets lend a scrappy, comic texture to a world that is otherwise shadowy and dark, while exaggerated movement, stark lighting and clever shadow play evoke classic detective cinema with a surreal twist. Puppets, masks and props are used inventively, allowing scenes to flow with cartoon logic.
Absurd, confusing, dark and hilarious, Hard Cheese leaves you scratching your head and wanting more. The talented cast made up of Lachlan Ives, Tash Pearson, Ellien Warden, Natalia Myślińska and James Brooks, delivers committed, fearless performances. With this creativity and talent, it’s clear this crew have exciting futures ahead of them. Hard Cheese: Rat in the City is strange, lurid, and utterly compelling theatre. What great fun it was.
Hard Cheese: Rat in the City: One Last Bite is showing at The Blue Room Theatre until Jan 31st as part of Fringe World Perth.
To book tickets to Hard Cheese: Rat in the City: One Last Bite, please visit https://blueroom.org.au/events/hard-cheese-rat-in-the-city-one-last-bite/.
Photographer: Sean Breadsell
