HOT TUB

BY LEWIS TRESTON

BELVOIR ST THEATRE, SYDNEY (2024)

★★★★ CRASS, CRAZY AND THOROUGHLY ENTERTAINING… THE REAL STAR OF THE SHOW IS DIRECTOR RILEY SPADARO

— CULTURAL BINGE

★★★★ EXPECT MORE CONFETTI CANNONS THAN YOU’D EVER THINK ARE NECESSARY, SURPRISE KARAOKE SING-A-LONGS, AND YES – EVEN A CRAFTY STAGING OF A ROOFTOP HOT TUB

— TIMEOUT

Like, don’t get me wrong, I love the beaches. And, the shops look great. Love the shops. I just, you know… hate the Gold Coast.

Winner of the prestigious Patrick White Playwright’s Award, this kooky tragicomedy was considered unproducible for close to a decade — “too outrageous,” “too depraved,” “too expensive” — until now…

Set on the sun-drenched Gold Coast during Schoolies Week, this modern-day fable begins when Dido, a sad girl from North Queensland, rocks up at her estranged family’s deteriorating residential high-rise building ‘The Great White’ to ask a favour.

But when Dido’s father refuses to loan her the cash for weight-loss surgery in Brazil, she must team up with her cunning twink stepbrother who knows how to make money from men online.

Meanwhile, Eunice, the White family’s ageing matriarch, has found out that she is the prime suspect in a criminal investigation, but refuses to do the one thing that’ll keep her family out of jail: sell the building.