Todd Kingston’s METRO is an ambitious, impressionistic dive into the private storms that rage behind public stillness. Set within the confines of a Melbourne train carriage, the play captures a familiar urban ritual and turns it into something uncanny and emotionally charged as eight commuters cross paths or silently orbit one another.
Kingston’s structure is bold: four narrative threads that echo the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, and depression – culminating in a quiet, tentative release that gestures toward acceptance.
These stories don’t announce themselves; they unfurl in fragmented moments, overlapping voices and pauses, glances and internal ruptures. The result is a theatrical experience that oscillates between everyday mundanity and dreamlike symbolism.
The ensemble: Boaz Hulme, Henry Vo, Sophie Graham, Alex Chiareli, Declan Magee, Alanis Grocott, Natasha Bowers and Esther Waddington Nastri meets the challenge of the script with sensitivity and restraint. Their performances feel textured rather than theatrical, grounded in lived emotion rather than dramatic flourish.
Staging is minimal but purposeful. Effectively lit by Oscar Lanigan’s lighting, Maisie-Mae Minors’ set design conjures the cramped, confines of a train carriage with remarkable economy, while Amy Thomas’ costumes capture the everyday camouflage of city life.
Where METRO succeeds most is in tone – a fragile balance of grief, surrealism, and unexpected tenderness. Kingston resists tidy catharsis and rejects the myth of grief as a clean, ascending arc. Instead, the play offers a mosaic: disjointed, raw, and recognisably human. At times, the script’s ambitions outpace its clarity, and the emotional stakes could be refined with sharper dramaturgy, but its core is resonant and compelling.
Independent theatre thrives when artists take risks, and METRO is a risk worth taking. Kingston emerges as a playwright of instinct and curiosity, unafraid to sit with discomfort and complexity. With further development, this work has the bones – and the heart – to evolve into something special.
METRO
Studio Theatre – Gasworks Arts Park, 21 Graham Street, Albert Park
Performance: Wednesday 8 October 2025
Season: 7 – 11 October 2025
For more information, visit: www.gasworks.org.au for details.
Image: METRO – photo by Aartichoke Studios (Alana Aphoy)
Review: Rohan Shearn