When there’s a queer arts and culture festival that spreads its tentacles as far as Midsumma, it is simply tradition that one must go fishing for the most obscure, oddball piece of programming to procure a ticket for. Right?

This year, Robert the Octopus has that brief nailed – hook, line, and sinker. It’s a surreal farce that follows one woman’s ill-fated mission to woo a colleague by half-heartedly adopting a pet octopus.

Mich McCowage in Robert the Octopus. Photo @ Darren Gill

Delightfully playful and a smidgen messy (much like the characters we meet), Robert the Octopus is a promising new offering from emerging playwright Alex Duncan (Malthouse Playwright in Residence) brought to life by Melbourne’s award-winning queer physical comedy collective, PO PO MO CO (Stickybeak, Rakali).

This one-act three-hander bobs and floats in a small ocean filled with curious physical comedy, cringe humour, adorably vibrant set dressing, and uncomfortably relatable commentary on dating, pet ownership, and the anxieties of modern social isolation – snagging some hearty laughs along the way.

We meet our high-strung protagonist, Sadie (Mich McCowage), inside her...