If you want to come to this party, you have to follow the rules. Using the red-amber-green traffic light system, you dress to express your romantic availability: Red means ‘committed’; amber means ‘it’s complicated’’; and green means go, go go. 

But as anyone who has spent time in Sydney traffic will tell you, not everyone has the same understanding of the rules. We’re a city of habitual amber-light racers and red-light runners.

Traffic Light Party. Photo © Jade Bell

Playwright Izzy Azzopardi uses a ‘road rules’ conceit to spotlight contemporary romantic culture in a play that charts the party’s messy evolution in a series of increasingly wayward vignettes.

Scarlett (Meg Denman) opts for red. Her partner of five months isn’t up for meeting her friends and has stayed away, however. Gender-fluid Sunny (Renée Billing) wears yellow; Claire (Grace Easterby) is wearing green but that doesn’t mean anything goes.

Amber (Caitlin Green) and Samson (Isaac Harley) are in a situationship that has yet to evolve into something exclusive – at least in Samson’s mind.

Phoenix (Travis Howard) turns up in a red singlet insisting he didn’t get the memo about the dress code. His...