Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
October 9, 2016

Geelong-based company Back to Back, which features performers with an intellectual disability, has justifiably built an enviable reputation for making bold, unique, group-devised work, with shows like Ganesh versus the Third Reich and Small Metal Objects winning international acclaim.

With their latest production Lady Eats Apple, which has its world premiere season at the Melbourne Festival, the Company really pushes the boat out in terms of the adventurous staging, but the play itself feels disappointingly slight.

^{Lady Eats Apple. Photo by Jeff Busby}

It starts promisingly. Gathering in the stalls foyer, the audience is led down a backstage corridor to squeeze into the venue one by one through the slit-like entrance of an inflatable structure. Inside, we find ourselves in a small, black-lined performance space within the concert hall. In a wryly amusing opening, Scott Price and guest actor Brian Lipson instruct us to put on headphones and introduce the show using storyboards.

Devised by the company of actors with Artistic Director Bruce Gladwin, Lady Eats Apple then unfolds over three very different acts. The first entitled An Insecure God draws on the creation story in The...