The set (designer – Sam Knox) comprises a bare stage floor, painted with a fascinating map of the Middle East as it was in 1890. Wooden pallets and sandbags stand at the side. Rear stage is a long canvas tent, with a central entrance. Katie Southwell’s lighting design was low key, adding to the drama and misery of the situation. Jess Serio’s sound design was impressive.

Jess Bennett-Hullin’s costume design was complex and varied. With help from John King, as Military Adviser, Jess had to ‘equip’ a modern day army, fighting in Iraq, along with ancient Greek warriors complete with tabards, chitoniskos and greaves. All combatants were complete with weapons.

       With a golden spear in her hand, the goddess of war and wisdom, Athena (Chloé Laffar) enters and explains how distressed she is by the behaviour of military hero, Ajax (Rhys Hyatt). He is slowly losing his sanity and killing animals, thinking they are Greeks being led by his arch enemy, Odysseus – also known as Ulysses (Hock Edwards). Ajax has a few faithful warriors (Shannen Precious, Tay Broadley) but most have deserted him.

     We jump forward a couple of millennia as a platoon of American soldiers wearing night sights enters the same desert scene.

     There is Debbie (Cat Perez) back for her fourth tour in Iraq, then there is a sex-starved sergeant (Launcelot Ronzan) who ‘using’ a young female recruit, AJ (Sam Knox) for his fun. In the evenings the women try to avoid the males by playing cards. Rugged soldier, Sickles (Amanda Ferguson) looks after the innocent recruits, whilst the chaplain (Luke Gratton) provides for their mental care and the nurse (Claire Tebbutt) tries to cope with the injured.

     At one stage, in a very moving speech, Constance Mangus (Tijana Šimić) tries to explain what the war is doing to the soldiers, but finds it hard to justify the suffering and skirmishes. How little war has changed over the years.

For Thomas Dimmick, this was a particularly difficult play to direct; he had to convincingly show the ancient lifestyle and aggression of the Greek troops, with a contrasting modern narrative of today’s soldiers with their advanced weaponry, and yet retain the playwright’s clever use of parallels. The actors were required to give powerful and assured performances, as no one is fooled by a set of wimpy soldiers. On the whole – with Harriet Fettis’ movement choreography – the tension and horror of the situation held up very well for the whole 100 minutes of this drama.

With material gained from interviews with Iraq war veterans and their families, the script is poignant. Once again several of the actors stood out as they ‘lived’ the wretchedness of the soldiers. Cat Perez as the grieving soldier, riddled with guilt at not stopping the suicide of her friend; and Sam Knox, as AJ, who was horrifyingly raped, by her sergeant, just as Cassandra had been raped by Ajax, both gave particularly convincing and moving performances.

Rhys, as Ajax dripping in blood (great makeup) perfectly captured the madness of this ancient warrior.

This production was – due to the subject – very heavy going, but it had numerous qualities not often seen in student productions of this complexity. Great team work.

Aged nineteen, Levon directed a trailer for a bogus Bollywood Kung Fu film, which became a finalist in Margaret and David’s ‘At the Movies’ 25^th Anniversary trailer competition.

This riotous 150-minute show runs each night at 7.30 pm until the 21^st March in The Nexus Theatre, Murdoch University, near car park 3.

Ally Snell’s set is a dark, bleak forest in Huntersville in 1880. The music in the background is Credence Clearwater’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’, a hint as to the wacky humour to come. Set builder, John King has brought Ally’s creations to life. Many of the sets were flies, operated by Tay Broadley.

The superb costumes were created by Melanie Buchanan, and had lots of little extras and trims to ensure an authentic look.

The forest scene was lit by LEDs at ground level, emphasising the creepy effect. Good lighting design by Scott McArdle, with precision timing by operator, Katie Southwell. The quality soundscape had a huge amount of work put into it by Jess Serio, with crisp lively effects.

The excellent fight scene was most convincing, congrats to Launcelot Ronzan.

         There is a full moon, and a young priest, Father Hank Grimby (Thomas Dimmick) is walking through the woods, when a bloodcurdling sound is heard. In terror he flees, but is caught and mauled by a creature.

        When he awakes, he finds himself in the home of Mayor Gainsborough (Timothy Brain) being attended by the maid (Cat Maree Perez), and more affectionately by the Mayor’s beautiful young daughter, Brooke (Harriet Fettis). His scars are being examined by anatomy researcher and family quack, Dr Talbot (Jason Dohle).

       After a worldwide search, the Mayor has found a suitable husband for Brooke, explorer George Waggner (Joshua Towns), a legend in his own mind. This rumbustious and loud swashbuckler loves to tell stories of his journeys around the planet and of his many passionate affairs on the way. However, Brooke is in love with another, will she really have to marry this braggart? On his arrival in the village, George meets yokel Farmer Brandybuck (Michael Casas with a hilarious accent, coached by Shona Beringer), Missus Hornblower (Kiah Van Vlijmen) and Tabitha (Bella Doyle), and foolishly asks them for directions.

       When a local farmer (Andrew Dawson), his wife (Claire Tebbutt) and daughters (Shannon Rogers, Maggie Clark) are all attacked by the illusive werewolf, bold George takes on the help of the village yokel, Tomas (Phillip Hutton) and seeks revenge  – and a replacement girlfriend, the innocent Angelique (Tijana Simic).

Directing his first major production is Keaton Howe. Keaton has done a wonderful job; the actors were charged up and perfectly cast. I first saw this play at the Blue Room and the more intimate setting worked better, as the scene changes were quicker – less distance to carry the furniture – and the actors kept up the pace better in the changes. The Murdoch Workshop may have worked better in some ways, but of course does not have the technical qualities.

The acting was very good, with a perfect, straight delivery; but at times a hammier, tongue in cheek genre could have been better. Some of the lines had double-entendres, or were designed to have pauses mid-sentence, to hint at another meaning, this was often missed. Nevertheless, the overall effect was creepy and frightening; the performances were assured and the singing melodious. Even the gory scenes brought a laugh. People squirmed a little, but there was always a smile at the end.

Levon J Polinelli’s clever lyrics were comical, with subtle hints at famous films and musicals. Musical director and composer, Ash Gibson Greig, has blended into his score some special sound effects. Hats off to Harriet – a divine voice – and to Joshua, whose singing and musical performance was well on the way to that of Hugh Jackman.

An all-round night of entertainment, with quality singing, horror and visual excitement.

A really good night at the theatre, presented by a talented team.