Type – Theatre, Comedy, Friendship, Female leads
If you liked – Deadloch, Weekend at Bernie’s
Losing Face: Royal You promises a new you. You’ll leave happily as the old one. The same can be said about this production.
Marieke Hardy’s warm and funny take on the anti-ageing industry has lit up The Sumner at Southbank Theatre this week. A product of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Next Stage Writer’s Program, Losing Face is by its own admission, a ‘perimenopausal Weekend at Bernie’s.’
Acclaimed director Leticia Cáceres expertly stages the over-the-top comical tropes of the play to highlight both the flaws within the industry as well as perceptions of aging as a somewhat ‘loss of youth.’ The best part, however, is that it steers clear of any grand messaging, leaving you with a warm story about life, acceptance, and friendship. It feels easy to enjoy this play despite it touching on a very topical issue — it doesn’t try to coax an opinion out of you, rather it invites you to accept your humanness and enjoy some laughs along the way.
It’s Jo’s birthday weekend, and she’s organized a trip to Royal You – a “recreation centre” for herself and her two best friends, Simone and Lauren. It’s supposed to be a girls’ weekend away, time to catch up on each other’s lives, and have a relaxing, pampering time while they do it . . . or so they hope. It turns out that Jo has unknowingly booked them into a “treatment package” that will look to “correct” some inherent “flaws” in all of them, thus making them all “new” again. Anyone who has been privy to organizations or products making such claims will know that there are no quotes in reality, and that these utterances are very real, unapologetic, and around us all now, with the pointed question being “Are you keeping up or are you falling behind?” The label is attractive, the advertising alluring, and the play needed a stage to deliver this vision.
And boy, does set and costume designer Jo Briscoe rise to the challenge. With its stylish furniture, chic designs, and complete with a furnished bedroom and a lavish bathtub-spa area, the set of Royal You is something to behold. It does complete justice to the writer’s and director’s vision of showing Royal You as this haven for rejuvenation. It screams—you want to be here, you deserve to be here, and once you leave, you will be unrecognizable. Even Simone, the most unwavering of the trio, finds herself drawn in by the promise of technology housed in such a grand location as Royal You.
All the leading ladies portray a chemistry that is undeniably strong—the wits are quick and the snaps snappy, and right from the start, you believe in the friendship. Christie Whelan Browne as Lauren has impeccable comic timing in the number of times she resigns to her fate as well as in the physical comedy she portrays throughout the play. Madeleine Sami as Simone is searingly sharp, and provides plenty of laugh moments in her tussles with Lauren. Michala Banas as Jo is sweet, affable, and shows a diverse range in her role, playing referee at times, and at others, remains the most keen to have a banger of a time together.
Wil King is the enigmatic, chiseled-out-of-a-rock-hammer handsome Tomas, the face of Royal You, and under whose spell, the three women have to try to not fall. King has also done his own choreography for the role, and he pairs moments of dreamy, graceful slide-ins alongside hilariously ludicrous, half-serpentine, half-banshee dance moments through the play, showing his versatility as a physical performer and comedian. A true show-stealer amidst all this is the legendary Genevieve Morris, who is as reverent to Tomas as his nurse as she is lavish and melodramatic as the other guest at Royal You. Her condescending snickers and mirthful chuckles in the background as the nurse are some memorable moments from this production I’ll take away with me.
Is Losing Face Worth Seeing in Melbourne?
The message of the play, if any, is one of perspective. Biological clocks will come and go, the lines on your face will grow deeper, and you will, sure as a hat—as wide as Genevieve’s guest character wears on her head—die one day, but the more you cling on to your youth, the more you get sucked into a perpetual ‘cycle of shame.’ This play invites you to guard what makes you ‘you’, protect it fiercely, and have a spicy marg while you’re at it.
Tickets and Practical Info for SHOW in CITY 🎟️
Venue: Southbank Theatre, The Sumner
Dates: 22 JUN — 25 JUL 2026
Note: This production contains mature themes, graphic imagery and coarse language.
Ticket link: https://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2026/losing-face
