Performed by Frank Handrum, Nicholas Rasche, Sophie Kneebone, Kathryn Tohill, Chris Tomkins, Mark Woodward, and featuring the voice of Bob Franklin
Written and produced by James Hazelden and Nicholas Rasche
Lighting and sound design by Allan Hirons
Directed by James Hazelden
Photo and marketing by Chris Tomkins
Image design by Mark Woodward
A thrillingly silly new adventure from the makers of Mystery Radio Theatre, Incognito! and Denouement!
“A sublimely silly and frenetically farcical comedy…”
– Peter Green, The Melbourne Observer
“… a surreal journey that only builds in ludicrousness. The
script is witty and fresh, keeping the audience guessing and
trying to understand the absurdities that take place – only
to be surprised.”
– Lucinda Naughton, Theatre Travels
SEASON 19 – 24 April
TIMES Tue – Fri 7.30pm
Sat 4pm & 7.30pm
Sun 4pm
VENUE La Mama Courthouse
349 Drummond Street, Carlton
LENGTH Approx. 55 minutes
TICKETS $30 Adult | $20 Concession
BOOKINGS 03 9347 6948 or www.lamama.com.au“
This Melbourne Comedy Festival, La Mama and the makers of Mystery Radio Theatre, invite you to a delightful comedy about monsters, horror and death. James Hazelden and Nick Rasche spent the sunny days of their youth watching dark thrillers like Das Boot, The Thing and Alien and zany comedies like Blazing Saddles and Flying High. When it came to writing a new comedy play for the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Hazelden and Rasche smooshed all these ideas together to create, ‘Subhumans’.
Subhumans is a farcical action/horror comedy set during the Second World War. The crew of a British submarine start dying one by one as an unseen beast attacks and devours them. A hapless crew try to overcome their paranoia and incompetence long enough to work together and stop the creature. They must discover the traitor in their midst in time to escape an unstoppable evil.
Subhumans is a loving spoof of horror movies and uses sound and lighting design to transport the audience into the claustrophobic world of a submarine in hostile waters.
“The audience will be drawn into a dark and shadowy world of suspense and dread, but the characters are funny and don’t belong in this world at all. As an audience, you get to laugh at them as they realise they are way out of their depth, and then delight as they get violently killed, one by one”, says Hazelden. “We wanted to write a comedy play that would have been our favourite movie to rent o VHS, and I think we have”.
Subhumans is being performed at La Mama Courthouse for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It runs from 19 April to 24 April, with shows at 7.30pm, and 4pm shows on Saturday and Sunday.
La Mama Theatre, 205 Faraday Street Carlton VIC 3053 Australia | info@lamama.com.au | +613 9347 6948 | www.lamama.com.au
La Mama is financially assisted by the Australian Government through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government
initiative, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Creative Partnerships Program. We are grateful to all our philanthropic partners and donors, advocates, volunteers, audiences, artists and our entire community for helping us rebuild La Mama. Thank you!
