[THEATRE REVIEW] BEYOND THE NECK @ Theatre Works Review (2026)

On the 28th of April 1996 an unthinkable event occurred which would change Australia forever. After many red flags were ignored a deeply troubled man named Martin Bryant carried out the worst massacre in Australian history. In the wake of his terror the small Tasmanian town of Port Arthur was now the site of 35 murders with 23 others left wounded.

There were also countless of other lives irreparably ruined, the Australian government rushed through new gun laws as if that helped but the damage was done. Australia was left shocked and in the aftermath tried to put the pieces back together. Conspiracy theories popped up as they always do which persist now decades later. This wasn’t altogether malicious, just the inevidable repercussions of the human mind’s inability to fathom the unimaginable scale of such an attack.

Playwright Tom Holloway’s debut full length play ‘Beyond the Neck’ was designed as a way to heal some of these wounds in whatever way possible. The play began development some time around 2004 before first being performed in 2008. A form of “verbatim” theatre where the play’s four characters each recount their own stories on the 10th anniversary. Such an unfathomable tragedy being bottled up there is healing to be found in sharing one’s personal testimony.

Now in 2026 we are just shy of the massacres 30th anniversary and in the dark shadow of the recent Bondi Beach Shootings of December 14th 2025. Theatre Works Presents a new production of ‘Beyond the Neck’, with director Suzanne Chaundy returning having directed the play in 2012 with some crew and some cast members returning as well.

Beyond the Neck is a vary Spartan play with barely anything in the way of props or sets. The stage is set with just 4 chairs and flooring like a pathway leading away from the audience with the focal point being the huge painting hanging at the rear of the stage. The painting is an enlarged reproduction of Rodney Popel’s 2012 Glover award winning painting ‘Port Arthur’. A controversial landscape piece it depicts the Port Arthur penal colony with an armed Martin Bryant in the foreground. The gunman now being an inseparable part of the location’s history whether we want him to be or not.

The play has been subtitled “A Quartet on Loss and Violence” for the method in which it’s characters stories are told. Almost like a musical the characters voices, their tone and rhythm are backed up by one another. In a non linear way the characters tell their stories, sometimes embellishing details or trying to evade a sensitive subject. The actors interject and correct or contradict each other’s accounts as their stories get muddled in the retelling.

The four characters are; “The old man, 75yo” (Francis Greenslade), a tour guide who was present on the day of the shooting, still haunted by it. “The Young Mother, 28yo” (Emmaline Carroll Southwell), a woman travelling as a tourist to the site with her husband and daughter. “The Teenager, 17yo” (Cassidy Dunn) a girl who’s father was one of the victims, now growing up feeling lost. As well as “The Boy, 7yo” (Freddy Colyer), a young child born into a post-Port Arthur world.

The performances are all brilliant, Freddy Colyer with his imaginary friend and showing the mischief and uncertainty of childhood. But also representing growing darkness and how potentially these things can metastasize, becoming dangerous in the future. Emmaline Carroll Southwell returning from Chaundy’s 2012 production as the young mother showing how people’s unrelated grief can run concurrent. These two characters aren’t exactly connected to the Port Arthur tragedy yet show how the massacre can have an impact on Australians far and wide.

The more exceptional roles and performances are that of Greenslade & Dunn. I admit I wasn’t as familiar with Francis Greenslade from his stage work, recognising him more from his regular television appearances in comedic sketch shows. That humorous personality is hinted at in the cheekiness of ‘the old man’, yet dramatically the character is role is confronting. With his clear PTSD rearing its ugly head, haunting this man who survived that day now a decade later.

For myself the highlight is Cassidy Dunn as the teenager. I was lucky to catch a performance of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ some years ago where Dunn portrayed the titular daydreamer. With eyes full of wonder and interacting with the young audience throughout she was amazing. Here, like Greenslade, her role is much darker and often heartbreaking. The teenager’s decent into conspiracy theories attempting to put some control over the death of her father is understandable. Many times that same endearing spirit and glow which made her so great as Alice makes her reactions here as interesting to watch during the other performers’ monologues as the speaker themselves. 

These latter two characters probably hit home so much better than ‘The Boy’ and ‘The Young Mother’ due to their proximity to the chaos itself. The Young Mother however does represent how communal healing is possible by us all coming together. While ‘The Boy’ still feels like an outlier, I may be wrong but it appears some alterations to Holloway’s work may have happened to give some characters the lines of others in this particular rendition. Yet Colyer’s strong performance does help this character from feeling too out of place.

“The Neck” refers to Eaglehawk Neck, the narrow stretch of land connecting

Port Arthur to the mainland. It’s up to interpretation which side “beyond” refers to yet in my opinion it means both. The play not only recounts the horrific acts Martin Bryant carried out on the people who were there but also the far stretching repercussions for other Australians as well. It’s a superbly directed and wonderfully acted play. Powerful, insightful and reminds us now 30 years later that sometimes sharing and talking about sad stories is the only way we can truly heal from them.

4.5 out of 5

Review by Kyle McGrath Photography by Steven Mitchell Wright