I’ve mentioned before that Merrigong Theatre is an entrepreneurial company hosting the best of touring productions from around Australia and overseas.
That’s not completely true. They do have a local artists’ program called Merrigongx, which supports a few productions a year created by Wollongong and Illawarra theatre makers.
These are often shows that indulge original risk-takers, giving them a crack at a mainstream audience. Typically, attendees are invited to pay what they think the show was worth – a risk in itself.
They don’t always come off but, hey – it’s worth chucking in twenty bucks to encourage locals, right?
A Merrigongx show originally produced in 2024, A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry, and which I saw in a 2025 revival before it toured interstate, is about to have a season at the Sydney Opera House: an example of a resounding Merrigongx success.
On 24 September, I was privileged to see a show that I feel confident will follow that trajectory.
Service is a piece of dance theatre, non-verbal except for some vocalisation effects, that focuses on a restaurant staffed by one man (Lachlan Grogan, the writer) and five women.
“Dance theatre” doesn’t really give it enough credit. It’s mime, clowning, dance, and acrobatics all at once, tightly choreographed and highly expressive.
Anyone who has ever worked in hospitality – and most people who’ve ever dined out – will recognise the tropes on display in Service, from the delicate group dynamics of the waitstaff through the chain smoking, multi-tasking chef, the over-confident cocktail maker, the inevitable clumsy waiter, to that one diner who simply can’t be satisfied.
Running for just three performances, the night I was there saw a packed house, a much greater mix of an audience than we typically see at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. The young woman next to me said before the show she knew nothing about it, just lived locally, had heard about it somewhere, and decided to come along. She’d never been to the theatre before.
From the very start of the show, that audience was totally engaged, laughing uproariously and spontaneously applauding as the athletic, graceful cast weaved their terpsichorean, comedic magic. Some of the audience ended up on stage as diners at the restaurant, becoming a part of the performance.
The comedy elements had definite touches of M. Hulot and Charlie Chaplin, but none of that would have worked if not for the outstanding dance skills of the performers, and truly expert and tightly coordinated choreography.
Service deserves a longer run and to be seen by a lot more audiences.
My congratulations to Mr Grogan and his amazing fellow performers – Service was sharp, witty, bawdy, elegant, hilarious and an asbolute delight.