The colossal scale and hallucinatory qualities of Metropolis – Thea von Harbou’s science fiction novel of 1925, later made into the epic silent film by her husband, Fritz Lang – immediately suggests the operatic, a cast of thousands.

A small-stage chamber musical? More difficult to imagine, perhaps. But Sydney independent company Little Eggs Collective have come up with an intriguing adaptation that condenses von Harbou’s vertiginous depiction of a world run by corporations into a dramatically satisfying – if not entirely moving – two acts.

For the most part, the original story is all there – that of Freder (played here by Tom Dawson), the son of city overlord Joh Fredersen (Joshua Robson), who falls for Maria (Shannen Alyce Quan), a politically active young woman whose hopeful message has earned her a following among the oppressed.

Horrified by his father’s indifference to the workers’ plight, Freder trades places with a traumatised machine operator and throws his lot in with Maria’s vision of a non-violent reconciliation between the classes.

Meanwhile, Freder’s father enlists a sinister scientist, Rotwang (Thomas Campbell), to subvert the looming threat to the status quo by building a robotic doppelgänger of Maria under Fredersen’s control.