★★★★☆ A mix of sardonic wit and visual spectacle that tells a contemporary story with retro charm.

Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide
March 9, 2016

We may be a civilisation that embraces the latest mod-cons, but man has long suspected the potential machinations of advanced technology. From Skynet to the Matrix and Kubrick’s sinisterly genial Hal, science-fiction has repeatedly predicted a grim science-future, usually culminating in the human race being annihilated by the very machines created to serve us. But perhaps the tech apocalypse is a more insidious foe: if Golem, by British theatre-firebrands 1927, is anything to go by, the enslavement of the human race is already well underway.

Co-opting the Jewish fable of the Golem – a giant clay man, brought to life to serve its human master – this production tells the story of Robert Robertson, a dorky, dull but gentle chap. Set in a simpler time, when people used pencils and ate aspic jelly with corned beef, Robert and his family lead a basic, no-frills existence. However, Robert’s bland life is suddenly transformed when he purchases a Golem from an old school chum of a similarly geeky ilk. Despite the immediate advantages having the Golem offers, soon the...