Playwright James Hazelden was visiting the Victorian College of the Arts, when he found himself locked in a stairwell with no access pass, no phone, and no way to escape.
This became the genesis for Head | Thorax | Abdomen – a play that will have audiences on the edges of their seats when it arrives at La Mama Courthouse in April.
It’s a new and challenging kind of mystery – a Kafkaesque thriller that weaves together three seemingly disparate narratives into a single puzzle. Question is: can this puzzle ever be solved?
Three extremely unreliable narrators interact with an unseen voice, slowly revealing a darkly surreal riddle, its solution somehow always tantalisingly out of reach. Love, death, sex, fidelity, murder, sadness and revenge blend together into a Lynchian mindtrap.
“We interact with anonymous people every day – phone calls, text messages, online – but we can never be sure who we’re really talking to,” says Playwright James Hazelden.
“This play examines the willingness with which we give up our privacy and spill our secrets, even when we begin to suspect the person we’re interacting with may not have our best interests at heart.”
Part jet-black comedy, part postmodern thriller, part tragedy, Head | Thorax | Abdomen will be Melbourne’s most intriguing mystery this year.
Writer and Director: James Hazelden | Featuring: Amy Moule, Emily Carr, Tim Wotherspoon, Chris Tomkins | Lighting and Sound Design: Allan Hirons | Stage Manager: Roxy Henry | Producers: James Hazelden, Chris Tomkins
Head | Thorax | Abdomen
La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton
Season: 10 – 26 April 2026 (previews: 8 & 9 April)
Information and Bookings: www.lamama.com.au
Image: Head | Thorax | Abdomen – photo by Darren Gill