Like a lot of great theatre, the plays at Red Stitch often move you in ways you don’t expect. There are tears. There are roars of laughter. And then, in Luke, Chris tells Olena, “I’m grateful every day to be part of dismantling the dominant, white, heterosexual, male culture that pervades society.” As the audience groans and laughs, you can almost feel your own hands at your throat, choking yourself with disdain rather than endure another word of his moral grandstanding.
It’s been about ten years since Chris (Will Lonsdale) last saw Olena (Olga Makeeva). Back then, Chris was only 19, having started working at his old school as a rowing instructor, with Olena and Damon (Dion Mills) among his former teachers. Chris wrote a popular book about that time called Luke and has returned to try to gather enough material for a follow-up.
Written by Angus Cameron, Luke comes to us as a product of Red Stitch’s Ink program, an initiative where playwrights work collaboratively with the company’s ensemble, dramaturgs, and directors to develop and produce new plays. Ink has brought many terrific contemporary and challenging works to the stage. With direction by Iain Sinclair, Luke is a more than worthy continuation of that pedigree.
There’s a charming The Play That Goes Wrong-ness to designer Nathan Burmeister’s set when the play opens. The wainscot walls, the individually lit bespoke alcoves where the liquor is kept, the vintage record player – it all feels too romantic and that’s before the lights go down and Ethan Hunter’s sound strikes its first hilariously melodramatic note before the actors burst in.
As the melodrama ends and the actual drama begins and continues, so too does the setting shift, changing from elaborate to more sparse in a manner so deliberate it suggests instead of watching events as they jump ahead in time we’ve instead been watching events in flashback in someone’s memory, crumbling from age and guilt.
Ensemble actors, Olga Makeeva and Dion Mills do lovely work here as respective teachers, Olena and Damon. Their characters care about the work they do and they care about each other. Later scenes of hurt, such as when Olena systematically dismantles Chris, or another decade on when Damon finds himself in the same room as Chris, desperately trying to apologise for his past betrayal, are all beautifully portrayed.
Will Lonsdale was excellent in the role of Chris, appearing genuine and passionate in the opening scene only to have the audience questioning that sincerity later on with his later nauseating faux-righteous motivations. Chris’ final moments with Damon were moving but also.. unbelievable? Will’s superb performance helps us understand that for all of its scandal and heartbreak, Luke is a play about the unrelenting ferociousness of guilt.
LUKE
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East
Performance: Friday 18 September 2026
Season continues to 11 October 2026
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Images: Will Lonsdale, Olga Makeeva and Dion Mills in LUKE – photo by Cameron Grant, Parenthesy | Dion Mills and Will Lonsdale in LUKE – photo by Cameron Grant, Parenthesy | Olga Makeeva and Will Lonsdale in LUKE – photo by Cameron Grant, Parenthesy
Review: June Collins