ANGEL GEAR - SVEN SWENSON

Like the bastard child of Kath & Kim meets Wolf Creek, the exceptional Angel Gear by Sven Swenson

(co-directed by Brian Lucas & Sven Swenson) is a production about unlikeable people and their 

horrible existence. Not ordinarily the kind of play that I would be attracted to, I came away from this 

La Boite Indie production both awed and repulsed by Swenson (the repulsion coming from his 

unnerving portrayal of Edge, the inhuman, head perpetrator of the story).


The master playwright carefully leads us into the fringes of life as we know it. Yes, we are a bunch of 

privileged city-slickers watching a play about a violent, drug-fuelled community that we will never 

have first-hand experience of but isn’t that one of the duties of the creative, to shine a light on 

otherness? Swenson begins by amusing us with the stereotypical bogan characters we all love to 

laugh at and while we enjoy the humour here, we also sense there is something sinister brewing and 

there certainly is.


Enter the bold “shrew-like” Jayanne – brilliantly played by Casey Woods, Chantel (Cindy Nelson) 

born into a type of slavery assigned to women of her ilk, Creed (Zachary Boulton) and Foz (Kieran 

Law) and their semi-conscious struggle against their genetic disposition to violence, the tortured 

Smeg (Michael Deed), unwitting Gary (Dan Stockwell), Sugar the slime (Stephen Geronimos) and 

poor sub-human meth-head Spite (unforgettably played by Sam Plummer). These young people have 

been raised into a perverse life of gang-banging and meth labs, an inescapable existences completely 

controlled by the sadistic monster Edge, the self-professed leader of the corrupt outer-Ipswich 

community. 


Englishman Gary is the bastard child of the leader. On the death of his mother he finds his way to 

Australia looking for his long-lost father. It is a mistake that may cost him his life when he finds 

himself trapped in the seedy underworld of his father’s creation – a place where a Customs Officer 

doesn’t want to be found out.


Stereotypes or not, these characters are recognisable: relations perhaps, long-gone friends, or 

legends passed on through generations. Swenson has brilliantly and faithfully captured that sad 

redneck character that, jokes aside, is dangerously close to home. 


The thriller genre is a rarity for the stage – perhaps because it is easier to cope with this level of 

ingrained violence with the protective barrier of the plasma screen. Being in the same room is to be 

in collusion with the perpetrator. The extreme violence however, rough as it is, is not prolonged and 

we are rewarded with an interesting twist at the end when Kieran Law shines through. Stand-out 

performances from Casey Woods and Sam Plummer however the entire cast are applauded for their 

fine work and it must have been hard work to keep these dreadful characters going for almost two 

hours. On that note, it’s rare that a two-hour long production can keep me awake let alone engaged 

so another win for the Angel Gear team.


This production comes with warnings and so it should. You don’t want to go to this if you need to be 

wary of triggers - act two is especially hard for women to watch. But if you are up for a challenge, 

Angel Gear is absolutely worth your time whether just to watch this great, well-paced story 

unfolding or to witness the craft of impeccable theatre making, it’s all there. Angel Gear is playing at 

La Boite until November 8 with Dangerfield Park (an interconnected work from the Sundial Plays) 

commencing it’s season this Tuesday, October 21 – I will be there with bells on.