As part of the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Theatre Works and Oscar O’Brien present Antilton, a humorous, reflective, and referential play on the enduring figure of being “a creative”.
Inspiration strikes when The Artist (Kyle McCallion) and friends are gazing up at the “full Broadway show” of activity happening in their bug zapper one night. The Artist becomes enraptured by an idea, something so crazy that it just might work. His new stroke of genius becomes a creative obsession and an art piece that won’t rest until it’s seen by the world: Antilton. So, it’s Hamilton… but with ants. His friends gaze on in horror but also with “unconditional support” as they realise how serious The Artist is about this new project.
The Artist, also affectionately referred to as Artie throughout the show, insists he is on a mission to see his Antilton dreams come to fruition. McCallion captures the obsessed artist, who, stuck in a rut, can latch onto something (even an ant parody of Hamilton) with their whole heart.
The first to be roped into helping put the show together is Artie’s friends, The Skeptic and The Enabler (or Skep and Eny for short). They respond just as their names might suggest; Skep (Riley Street) doesn’t quite see the vision Artie is going for and begrudgingly does what Artie requests of them, whilst also challenging if this is what he really wants to do with his time. Eny (Jessica David) presents a face of unconditional support and enthusiasm, however when Artie is out of sight, the twitching and frustration of their situation begins to break through. David has great physical comedy moments of slowly scrunching papers and providing exasperated stares into the audience.
Joining their “rag-tag” production team is Nervous Noel (Jacob Kuek), a ball of anxiety but also coming with great positivity and a trying attitude. Kuek was a standout performance as Noel, plus several other roles throughout the play, bringing laughs with his full commitment to each scene.
Along for the ride and eventually roped into the production as well is The Roommate (Jeremy Harland). Coming full circle over the course of the show, from simply allowing the “theatre stuff” to happen around the home, to jumping on board to be stage manager.
Madeleine Gosden plays a variety of roles from The Talent, to a nosy neighbour, agent, lawyer and more, bringing a lot to each character. Highlights of Gosden’s performance incuded the neighbour’s and agent’s over the top rants and dialogues.
Antilton provided many humours moments, involving a lot of meta commentary, fourth-wall breaking content and unexpected surprises. An important bit to mention is that knowledge of the Hamilton musical is not necessary to understand and enjoy Antilton. However, those familiar with it will certainly get a few extra chuckles from the multiple references. In general, those familiar with theatre terminology, and what it takes to put on a show, audition for roles, or have been around “theatre kids” before, and will certainly relate and laugh at all the familiar scenes.
The set was quirky and lots of visual fun, with larger-than-life elements doubling as to-size set pieces. For instance, the couch for the human friends was, on closer inspection, actually an eraser in ant-scale, or the giant lamp/bug zapper looming over the stage. The double of human and ant scale pieces was well done and a unique, fun nod to the show’s contents.
Antilton’s promotional blurb states it was “born from the feeling of hopelessness and shame that comes from being an independent artist with no prospects on the horizon, and the lengths we can go to just for validation as a creator”. It is evident watching the show, that some moments have come from real experiences. Creators or those who have spent time with creative folk alike, will recognise many scenes. The mix of despair, the sudden inspiration, the questioning, before coming back around to unbreakable confidence again.
The use of titles instead of “real” names was obviously an intentional move, and perhaps was commentary on both common roles we see in theatre groups, character tropes in plays, and even roles in friendship groups. Alhough, it cornered the characters into boxes too easily. Whether intentionally or not, it made the characters feel a bit one-dimensional, this limited their ability to be fleshed out a little more.
As O’Brien’s first full-length play, Antilton is something fresh and unique, and pulled together a lot of different elements. I look forward to seeing what O’Brien and the rest of the team come up with in the future.
Make sure you “do not throw away your shot breadcrumb” and get tickets while Antilton, which is on at Theatre Works as part of the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival until April 12.
For more information and ticketing, visit:
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/antilton-2
https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2025/antilton
https://www.instagram.com/antiltonplay
https://www.instagram.com/osky_janosky
Photography by Izabella Procaccino.
