BLADDERWACK Comes to Explosives Factory

Premiering at the Explosives Factory in St Kilda, this November Melbourne audiences are invited to a science fiction pirate horror comedy like no other. Brought to the stage by renowned actor David Tredinnick and writer Adam Browne, this new Australian work promises a very big story, in a reasonably small setting.

A heady mix of opera, monsters, and pantomime, Bladderwrack is the  tale of two ancient pirates: Saucy Jack and Bagfoot. Dwelling in the chilldrippery of a sunken galleon, their lives are sustained by the ecosystem that has overtaken the bilge around them. Thanks to the bile-green phosphorescent bladderwrack that thrives in the ship's bowels, their air refuses to run out – and thanks to the eyeless, dark-adapted ghastlies that swim among those weeds, their food also refuses to run out. They have existed there for decades. But there's something still worse to come: the unveiled memory of why they're down there at all…

“As one of the writers, I was recalling the pirate stories of Lord Dunsany and Mervyn Peake”, explains co-writer and actor Adam Browne. “They're storybook pirates raised to literature. With Bladderwrack we were careful not to let the dialogue get too purple, but there are times when the pirates are transported by their madness to flights of high-style. It's dark but with a lot of classical nonsense and bristling ideas.

If this play was a marine invertebrate, it would be an ornate nudibranch. Like a nudibranch, it's mad and alienly beautiful. And like a nudibranch, it's on the shiver between grotesque and whimsical… but unlike a nudibranch, it's funny. It feels like so many plays around these days are incredibly earnest. This is the opposite. Unserious, but for grownups.”

Inspired by the likes of James Mason, Spike Milligan, and The Goon Show, this fantastical foray also lays claim to creating a new genre of dance, has Snuff Puppet-inspired creations for people to eyeball, and features the longest fart ever heard on the Antipodean stage.

“Bladderwrack is a love machine built out of two drowned pirates, an opera-singing figurehead, a overworked assistant stage manager, two shell-shocked 1940s radio stars, and some terrible-tasting fish”, adds co-writer and actor David Tredinnick. “The play is also just a thinly-disguised advertisement for the book of the play, which will be on sale at the candy bar.”

Proudly co-produced by Theatre Works as a part of the With Theatre Works programming, Bladderwrack will be the second last season in this stream for 2025. Running from the 5th to the 15th of November at the Explosives Factory, it will round out 18 supported productions across the year which showcased the work of hundreds of local, national, and International Artists and creatives. 

Looking to be a true treat on the Melbourne arts calendar, don't miss the opportunity to experience this rollicking, barnacle covered new Australian work. Tickets now on sale.

Australia - Melbourne Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL (Regent Theatre, Melbourne)

54.8% of votes

2. TWELFTH NIGHT (St Kilda Botanical Gardens)

18.3% of votes

3. MJ THE MUSICAL (Her Majesty's Theatre)

16.2% of votes

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