Promising a deeply unsettling theatrical experience, The Irresistible takes us into the subconscious.

The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) has brought together innovative theatre companies Side Pony Productions and The Last Great Hunt for the premiere of a confronting new work, The Irresistible. A probing examination of unconscious bias and the quick assumptions we make about each other, The Irresistible unfolds in a series of interrelated stories, presenting a darkly humorous take on the world.

“The Irresistible is being made by three core collaborators – Adriane Daff, Tim Watts and myself,” writer and director Zoe Pepper tells Limelight. “At the very beginning of the process, we set out to explore unconscious bias. Understandably this has been a tricky thing to uncover, you know, you’re hunting for something that is implicitly hidden. Through the development of the work we’ve found different tools to help to dig this out. The show is very audio focused, we use a lot of voice modulation that allows Tim and Adriane to play a range of different characters of different genders.”

“And from there we’re looking to unpack how easily swayed we are by the gender of the character’s voice, and how the information presented...