musical

The Beep Test follows Jane, Zach, Cooper and Sandra in their year 7 beep test and Sir, the PE teacher enforcing this hell upon them. The show explores the pressures and high stakes of high school, the importance of finding your own worth and what an absolute nightmare the beep test is, all in a short and sweet 60 minute run time.

At the first toll of the titular ‘beep’ you could practically feel the shiver that went down the spine of every audience member. Sat beside a friend of mine from high school, she gripped my arm, bracing for impact. Such a clever concept to take one of the most hated Australian school activities and draw it out to interrogate the themes that affect teenagers of this age.

Like high school, the stakes feel ridiculously high, the perfect vessel for big laughs, which The Beep Test delivered on at every point. The show crammed as much comedy as it could into its 60 minute run time, milking every second of stage time and every ounce of physicality to ensure our cheeks hurt by the end. With a full audience, not a single joke didn’t land. Through this, what I most admired was how each emotional beat still landed. Neylon and Peele balanced the stakes for these characters while keeping us laughing, but never at the expense of rushing through appropriate character development. It was almost pantomime how quickly the show had the whole audience uproariously laughing, to then cooing with a sea of “aww’s” as the romantic storyline progressed, or as another detail was revealed about a student’s depressing home life.

Each actor really shone as well, hitting the comedic beats and every note. The vocals were particularly impressive from the leads Sara Reed and Axel Duffy who portrayed Jane and Zach respectively. Similarly, I adored the chemistry between Sebastian Li, who played Cooper and Carly Jaz, who played Sandra. I was hook, line and sinker for every moment of their storyline. With the exception of the musical number ‘Zachiarah Nicholson’, the songs between these two characters won my heart over every time.

The staging was great. The back wall of the school gym was riddled with graffiti and secret silly details, and my friend and I spent each moment before the lights went down and as the lights came out pointing out to each other and giggling. It was a really well-executed use of space, immersive and simple, with essentially the only key props being a bench seat and the cones the characters had to run between.

There were a few aspects of Jane’s storyline I wanted slightly more from. For me, she was the character who had the least backstory, and her motivation felt a little one note. Sara Reed performed as Jane fantastically; however, with so much of the dialogue in the show putting her down for being a girl, with that simple term being used as an insult, I wanted more rage from her character. It’s clear she wants to beat Zach to prove to herself that she can, but I almost feel like there was further possibility for comedy in pushing that motivation further and tying it into the playground misogyny that is consistently thrown her way.

The Beep Test is an undeniably charming comedy musical bursting with passion, heart and consistent laughs.

To book tickets to The Beep Test, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2025/the-beep-test.

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