Wish

Wish is a beautifully twisted piece of theatre that skates a fine line of magnificence and peculiarity. Based on a novel by Peter Goldsworthy, the adaptation draws out an extraordinary love story but this is not your typical love story. Humphrey Bower, director, writer and in the lead role of JJ is wonderfully cinematic in his narration with the talent of Auslan sign and brings to life multiple characters. JJ, the son of deaf parents, teaches sign and is approached by a couple to teach their daughter. Enter his heroine. However, you soon discover she's not a young lady but a young animal, a gorilla to be in fact. Danielle Micich, tiny in frame, brings to life a beast through the mesmerising manipulation of her body. An 'ethical conundrum' gets darker as intimate love between a man and a gorilla is portrayed in sensual rapid choreography.

In a human love story, one would side with the splendour of passionate affection; where do you side when it's ethically right to be disgusted by the abnormality of a man and an animal as one? The pace of the show is tempered by the sweet melancholic rhythm of Leon Ewing's acoustic guitar and voice. Truly captivating theatre, but beware – it's an abnormal tragic tale.

Studio Underground, PTC to 24 May