In 1815, Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo. In 1974, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo. And in 2026, performer Bron Batten battles with herself in her production Waterloo.

No Napoleon or ABBA references are included, but there is lots of balloon popping to make up for it.

“Is my vagina a secret fascist?” Waterloo is full of one-liners that are funny, poignant – sometimes both. Batten is calm and confident as she carries the quiet preview-night crowd through her relationship with a high-ranking military official. The show’s dialogue straddles poetic and melancholic storytelling and biting social commentary.

Bron Batten in Waterloo. Photo © Lucy Parakhina

There’s also a bunch of visual stunts that may have something to do with the PTSD military personnel and veterans experience, but they went over this reviewer’s head, and likely the audience’s too. Batten notes an abnormal lack of applause after the show’s biggest stunt as we wait for her to link the stunt to a reveal, outcome, argument or other point, only to find that the stunt is a full stop on whatever idea Batten was playing with.

Without clarity, the moments taken up with balloons and ping-pong balls seem to be shoehorned into Batten’s story. So too does the audience participation. It’s introduced directly, with no coy set-up. It’s jarring to the flow of the story, especially as the participation mostly relates to dealing with balloons. But this is forgivable due to Batten’s skill as a performer.

For example, with only one line on a screen telling people to sing, the audience jumps into a sing-along. Such easy engagement from the audience is rare. Even though the path we’re on unfurls slowly and not always clearly, we’re with Batten every step of the way, eagerly waiting to hear what happens next.

This is in part, as previously mentioned, due to her sense of control over the space, but also due to her honest and vulnerable self-reflection about her left-wing values: how could she fall in love with someone who has killed others, for example?

Is there a place for the defence force in society? Is there any ethical excuse to be in the military? Wrangling with these questions and sharing her life experience so earnestly puts us firmly on her side.

Batten doesn’t have the answers to her questions, which have changed as the world has during the show’s seven years of touring around the world, nor does she apologise for her actions. While these dense topics are only touched on superficially, it’s still an interesting quagmire to be included in.

Waterloo plays at Trades Hall, Carlton until 18 October, part of the 2026 Melbourne Fringe Festival.