Written by Thomas Eccleshare. Directed by Hailey McQueen. Presented by Clock and Spiel Productions, Flight Path Theatre
Smart, contemporary staging reveals ambitious, thought-provoking material in Clock and Speil’s latest
Reviewed by Juliana Payne
Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville
Until 5 July 2025
Tickets: https://www.flightpaththeatre.org/whats-on/instructions-for-correct-assembly
Type: Black comedy, dramedy, social science fiction
If you like: Black Mirror, Humans (UK series), Real Humans (Swedish series), Frankenstein
Clock and Spiel Productions bring to life the unsettling play Instructions for Correct Assembly by Thomas Eccleshare with wit and unexpected poignancy. The play blends dark comedy with science fiction that’s not too far in the future, and of course domestic melodrama to provide the salty social satire. This theatrical group rose to the occasion with imagination, heart, and a good eye to the comic incongruities and timing.
An ordinary couple, Max (Jane Wallace) and Hari (Nick Curnow), buy a build-at-home, artificially intelligent hubot son, and there’s many a rueful laugh to be had at their programming and assembling antics. As the play progresses, we begin to grasp the true tragedy at the heart of the play as they try and reassemble the future they lost and somehow fix the past.
The first thing that hits you is Jacob Parr’s set design – cleverly evoking both the sterile minimalism of a flatpack showroom and the many accoutrements of a middle class suburban family home. Everything is all tricked out in pure white and nailed to the walls like an obsessive handyman has been given the task of setting it all in order – a perfect visual metaphor for the play’s exploration of the search for artificial, middle class perfection versus messy, human reality.
The cast all delivered engaging and often genuinely moving performances, with solid performances from the leads: Wallace and Curnow’s blend of warmth, confusion, and desperation felt authentic. Their comic timing carried the show’s quirkier moments, while they rang some genuine emotional notes in its darker twists. Ben Chapple, playing the dual role of Jän/Nick, their artificially “assembled” son and the real one, struck a very capable balance between the hubot’s mechanical precision and Nick’s human vulnerability and failings, drawing both laughter and empathy. The supporting cast members performed well, providing solid laughs and counterpoints to the tragicomedy of Max and Hari’s desperate search for … Redemption? Perfection? Forgiveness?
The real punch in the play comes when we realise that the hubot was just as – if not more – flawed and liable to failure as the humans – it is, after all, an entity created by flawed people. There is real tragedy in their reaction to this, which is turned to high irony in the conclusion. Some small opening night hiccups will no doubt be ironed out very quickly.
Hailey McQueen’s direction feels crisp and pacy, making full use of the play’s layered structure and intercut timelines. It was structured and delivered in short sharp scenes that move character, plot and themes along in rapid succession. Towards the end there were some repetitions of character and plot that could be condensed to bring the performance time to the perfect ‘under 90 minutes’ level with no intermission.
The production itself deserves special praise for Charlotte Leamon’s sound design. The electronic soundscape and synth music were used with remarkable subtlety to underscore shifts in mood and time, enhancing the storytelling and underlining the dramatic action as well as any movie score would. Victor Kalka’s lighting was also commendable in its ability to surprise and unsettle the audience in harmony with the sound.
This was a welcome staging of a smart, contemporary play, and it’s great to see local theatre taking on such ambitious and thought-provoking material with confidence and flair.
