Jules Hart

Sun Wine and Arts present Boy Slaughter and Magda’s Fascination with Wax Cats as a double bill from Brisbane-based playwright Maxine Mellor. The two plays present similar themes of the Australian gothic, rural isolation, escapism and outsider characters constrained by their small-town culture. Each play uses a rural township as a backdrop to examine isolation, fractured family dynamics and the struggle to confront the status quo.

Boy Slaughter opens with Jimmy Slaughter (Vince Lapore) directly addressing the audience engaging us with reflections on his life, upbringing and the difficult and toxic relationship he endures with his father, the local butcher. Jimmy’s neighbour Nell (Daena Rae) serves as his shining light and one true friend amid the play’s darker themes. Jimmy yearns to pursue his artistic side, while escaping the stifling constraints of the small-town, at the hand of his father Brute’s alpha male brutality.

Director Carter Firmager utilises a warehouse style black box space to create an intimate space for this four person play. Set design was simple, highlighting Jimmy’s artwork collaging the walls like oversized Post-it notes. Complimented by a dining table alternating as a butcher’s block, and art space, allows us to focus on the intense emotion and storyline. A tripod style art easel also rotates to become a meat hook. Refrigeration hum sounds, along with softer lighting helped build tension, giving us the immersive experience of a butcher’s cold room.

Alex Sturdee (as Brute) leans into his character’s intensity and menace creating a haunting stage presence. His wild-eyed predatory gaze was more than enough to create a strong sense of unease from the audience. Mary Veitch compellingly plays Rosie; Brute’s new girlfriend having met at anger management classes. Rosie serves to give Jimmy welcome space from his overbearing father but equally stirs up discourse between Jimmy and Brute.

Overall, through Jimmy’s eyes, we witness the challenges of pursuing one’s dreams in an environment resistant to change. It’s his determination that empowers him to begin carving out a future on his own terms.

While Boy Slaughter explores the impacts of violence, masculinity and the oppressive culture of a small rural township, Magda’s Fascination with Wax Cats propels us into a more cerebral experience, trading external drama for a feverish internal struggle.

In a parallel rural town, Magda opens the second play with a frenzied lyrical outpour, as she grapples with identity, trauma and isolation. Maxine Mellor’s well-crafted monologue-driven play is delivered with rhythmic vigour by Rose Swanepoel, the first scene clearly establishing her fragile psychological state.

Magda cycles us through the fractured maze of her mind, each mini-monologue punctuated by the numbing chant “and that’s Magda.” The repetition emphasises how her third-person narrative conceals her trauma and provides a fragile framework for getting through everyday life.

Delivering Magda’s psychological torment with such stamina and energy is true testament to Rose’s ability to sustain such an intense role.

There’s an apt starkness to the intimate space entirely draped in white sheets, a bed and side table effectively mimicking a psyche hospital ward as Magda’s assumed home. Other props such as the use of a straight jacket and a wheelchair intensify the confines of her environment. Rose effectively uses the stage space to express Magda’s physicality keeping her constantly in motion and incorporating a nervous tic—adding a textured layer to her portrayal.

Under the thoughtful direction of Hamish Chappell, the three supporting cast function largely as configurations from Magdas’s psyche, leaving the audience to question if the scene unfolding is real or imagined through her coke bottle lenses.

Sophie Duck (Magda’s older sister Ellie), Taigh Saville (Rob), and Ben Kasper (Billy) deliver compelling performances, functioning less as anchors and more as antagonists within Magda’s fractured world.

The turning point in the play is the stripping back of the 3rd person narrative and Magda’s rude awakening after witnessing something brutal forcing her to confront her lived reality.

As a viewing experience and with the utmost respect to Mellor, neither of the plays seek to employ the convention of a happy ending or a tidy resolution. Instead, they leave the audience with an unnerving sense of relief as the stage finally blacks out—a testament to the power of the writing and the emotional weight of the stories being told.

Notably, Sun Wine and Arts continue to explore nuanced characters and complex stories without breaking a sweat, and this production was no exception.

Boy Slaughter and Magda’s Fascination with Wax Cats is performing at Studio 1 Yeerongpilly, Brisbane till the 13th June. (There is the option to see the plays as a double bill or individually.)

To book tickets for this double bill please visit: Maxine Mellor Double Bill

To book tickets to The Maxine Mellor Double Bill, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/maxine-mellor-double-bill.

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