REVIEW: BLEACHED by Laura Collins at Etcetera Theatre 20 – 23 July 2025
“sharp, poetic, subtle, and most of all, entertaining” ★★★★★
Plays about climate change are becoming increasingly popular as we try to process the world handed to us by our parents’ generation. A world that is burning, melting…bleached. But not many climate plays are able to capture the absurdity of the situation or make an audience laugh at the darkness of it all quite as authentically as Laura Collins’s BLEACHED. In a series of snappy vignettes, four Australian tourists attempt to soak up the planet before it’s too late. Directed and designed by Tobias Abbott, this black comedy skilfully examines climate anxiety and humanity’s vain attempts to cling onto a world that is collapsing beneath our feet.
Exceptional performances from the cast are layered above a deeply considered soundscape, transporting the audience to quivering glaciers, Berlin nightclubs, and bleached coral reefs as Collins combines witty dialogue with hopeful yet elegiac monologues about everything we should do before the end of the world. Visually, BLEACHED does away with set design, using four suitcases and minimal clothing to take the Etcetera Theatre audience across the world. Bodhi, played by an effervescent Alice Pryor, wants to see the Northern Lights but forget (on purpose) to take a picture, while Hen, played by a cool and manipulative Estelle Cousins, doesn’t see the point in caring. Images of rats “burning mega cities brimming with billions of bodies” punctuate scenes where couples split (literally and metaphorically) on melting ice caps and the list of closed borders swells. Rose Adams is sensational as the anxious volunteer, Anika, and reverent as Gab’s irritated partner, Nima. Gab is played by a measured Timothy Dennett: the sweet but suffocating boyfriend (and Santa) whose attempts to cling onto the women in his life are as futile as pretending climate change isn’t real.
Where the play really excels in its use of structure. Despite jumping between different characters and storylines, Abbott and Collins bring the show full circle with an intriguing climax that is both hilarious and disturbing and that I will not give away. Furthermore, it feels like we’re in lockdown, but maybe not for Covid. The idea of being a “lockdown leaper” or a “final flyer” could mean one of two things: an attempt to take in the world before it’s gone or to run away from the responsibilities of modern life. The script is full of brilliant one-liners with original ideas about climate change and individual responsibility – something that is hard to come by in our digital everyday.
BLEACHED is sharp, poetic, subtle, and most of all, entertaining. Talking Bird Productions make full use of the black box theatre at The Etcetera and give their audience much to think about on the way home. In short: a must watch.
BLEACHED by Laura Collins
Talking Bird Productions in association with Alice Pryor and Frisson Collective
Etcetera Theatre
20th – 23rd July 2025
Box office: https://www.etceteratheatrecamden.com/events/bleached
CREATIVE
Director – Tobias Abbott
Sound and Lighting Designer – Tobias Abbott
CAST
Alice Pryor – Bodhi
Rose Adams – Anika / Nima
Timothy Dennett – Gab / Santa
Estelle Cousins - Hen
Social media: @talkingbirdproductions
