The setting – a Supanova Comic Convention – and the language are the stuff of right now, but in many ways, Brisbane playwright Lewis Treston’s IRL harks back to the twisty-turny romantic disguise plots of Shakespeare’s comedies.

Brisbane teenagers Alexei (Andrew Fraser) and ‘T’ (Thaddeus, played by Leon Walshe) have been flirting online for months. There’s a spark. This could be a thing.

The problem is, they’ve never actually met in person – which means Thaddeus doesn’t know the full extent of Alexei’s romantic anxieties, or his preference for full-time Disney princess cosplay. On top of that, Thaddeus has yet to come out to his family.

A meet-up at Supanova feels like the right ‘safe space’ strategy for Alexei – one that allows him to covertly check Thaddeus out while in comely disguise. But nothing goes quite to plan.

One issue is that Alexei doesn’t know what Thaddeus looks like (they’ve never shared images). Another is that Thaddeus has just fallen prey to a scam that’s cost him all his clothes. That’s an easy fix for...