Thought-provoking and violently funny, Cut & Run Productions made their debut with Kathryn Marquet’s environmentalist black comedy The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek at PIP Theatre.
In an isolated location in a Tasmanian national park, Dr Georgina Templeton has been working for years to study and protect the endangered Tasmanian Devils. Sharing the off-grid hut with George is Ranger Harris, responsible for culling the feral dogs that threaten the Devils, but most often stoned, distracted, and eating chicken nuggets. George and Harris are waiting for a supply drop, but they receive two unexpected visitors instead: now there’s an angry Irishman with a head injury tied up in their kitchen, a teenaged Girl Scout seeking refuge in the hut, and over the course of the evening things get way out of hand.
The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek had its world premiere in 2018 at Brisbane’s La Boite Roundhouse Theatre, and it was interesting to see the small shifts in the script since its original season. The play captured the zeitgeist of that time – Trump’s first presidency, Pauline Hanson’s election to the Senate, Greta Thunberg and the first School Strike for Climate – but largely holds true in 2025.
Coursing beneath the high-stakes action unfolding within the hut are complex ideas about morality, conviction, compassion, and self-justification, as well as messages of conservation and consequences. Do the ends justify the means when you are trying to save the world (or your soul)? Marquet’s writing contrasts intellectual arguments about conservation, religion, climate change, veganism, and more against the animality of blood, vomit, and violence.
Directed by Darcy Jones, this pressure-cooker play kept turning up the heat, stretching ideologies until they twisted into hypocrisies and unfurling each character into their full messy, multifaceted, human glory as the play progressed.
Production design by Michaela Faux, who also starred as George, included costumes, props, and a set made of 100% recycled or upcycled materials in keeping with the play’s themes. Skeleton scaffolding outlined the boundaries of the ranger’s hut, although the door latch seemed to malfunction occasionally.
Lighting design by Claire Yorston delineated the moonlit wilderness outside from the madness inside, and also indicated when a character had shifted rooms in the small space. Sound design by Hannah Page added elements of the natural world and an alarm, connected to a desktop screen showing surveillance-style video from outside the hut, contributed significantly to the storytelling. The play was haunted by the spectre of the Thylacine, the fate of the Devils foreshadowed by the iconic black-and-white footage of the last specimen to die in captivity, pacing its enclosure in parallel to the confines of the ranger’s station.
Faux played passionate, hot-headed Georgina Templeton, consumed by her work and following her own moral compass. George monologued her beliefs to the audience within the cabin and the theatre, ricocheting between helpless anxiety and self-righteous fury.
In contrast to George’s zeal, Jett Robson played easy-going Harris Rob, hapless and melodramatic, with excellent comedic timing and barely-contained hysteria. Malika Savory held court as overachieving, overconfident Girl Scout Destinee Lee. Savory was wide-eyed with certainty as she lectured her new companions about a different vision of the apocalypse, and sulked indignantly or cowered in fear when they disagreed.
Matthew Filkins was extraordinary as Mickey O’Toole, veering between clear-eyed moralising, deranged violence, and hysterical emotion. Despite the dark depths of Mickey’s character, Filkins had the audience empathising with him at every turn.
As a whole, the cast kept the play’s tension stretched taut, punctuated by black humour and strong emotion that escalated believably. Fight coordination by NJ Price crafted some memorable struggles, immaculately executed and made even more breathless by the intimate setting of PIP Theatre.
Foul-mouthed, razor-sharp, and slippery with blood and vomit, The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek reminds us that perfection is the enemy of progress, and we cannot go far if we go alone.
The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek was performed at PIP Theatre, Milton, from 9-12 July 2025
For further information, visit the PIP Theatre website
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