ST KILDA, VIC. — An early morning in an inner-city club starts to meld into the surreal as its smoking area becomes a stage for ghosts of the past, interdimensional drug dealers and good old-fashioned existential dread.
Follow several partygoers at the end of their night as they come to terms with their relationships, their fears and desires, their place in the world, and why the hell these last 5 minutes before closing have gone on for 5 hours.
What happens to these people as they realise 5am doesn’t seem to want to arrive, as strange spectres from Australia’s bloody past stalk the dance floor and beings of divine ability begin to possess the people around them. When the fabric of reality starts to melt away, they briefly glimpse the stage their lives exist on and the audience that watches them.
Will any of them even care at this point?
Smoke is Hugo Gutteridge’s debut venture into playwriting; much of its content is based on true events, and much of the dialogue is verbatim from the mouths of friends and strangers met or overheard on similar nights out.
Meant to reflect the feelings of young adults of the city’s nightlife, to reveal the anxiety, the apathy and confusion, as well as the hope, and the desire for connection and love.
It is a love letter to Melbourne’s club culture and to those hours before dawn when almost anything could happen.
