Stuck REVIEW 10 May 2026 ***1/2

Written by Megan Twycross

At  La Mama HQ until 24 May 2026

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 5 June 2026. (Apologies that I was not on air for my usual spot on Sat 16 May,) KH

 

STUCK_Caroline Lee, Eva Seymour-image Darren_Gill

Stuck, by Megan Twycross, is a deceptively simple two-hander, set in the deli at a supermarket. It focuses entirely and intensely on the fractious relationship and tedious work of the senior deli worker, Old One (Caroline Lee), and the new-blood novice, Young One (Eva Seymour).

 

The play, directed deftly, intelligently and sensitively by Susie Dee, raises the issues of the working under-class, women and poverty, status and lack of choice in the workplace.

 

When the bright-eyed, young trainee arrives, she declares that she plans to spend six months, save money and then take off on her travels around the world before embarking on a new and successful path. However, fate intervenes.

 

The production is staged in the small La Mama space, with a sparse set design (Linda McCauley) comprising only two stainless steel deli counters, a plastic strip curtain upstage, and black and white check linoleum. The brisk, fast-moving dialogue is as spare as the design.

 

Lee, as always, brings a formidable presence and nuanced performance to the older woman who has been “stuck” for decades in her dead-end job, with no prospects and a fantasy home life. Her only power is over her trainee and Lee relishes the character’s snide insults, demeaning slights and doom-saying.

 

Seymour, as Young One, effectively travels from perky, hopeful and certain, to disillusioned and trapped.

 

Twycross’s dialogue is crisp and taut, straddling the abstract and the hyper-real. It uses repetition and language that is almost a new Aussie dialect to illuminate these two women and their predicaments.

 

Stuck challenges our notion about choice, about being stuck in the workplace, in a relationship, a world-view, or even a dream. It is a tragedy littered with comic moments.

 

By Kate Herbert

 

Caroline Lee, Eva Seymour-image Darren_Gill

 

Cast

Caroline Lee as Old One

Eva Seymour as Young One

 

Creative Team

Megan Twycross – Writer

Susie Dee – Director

 

Linda McCauley - Set & Costume Designer

Ian Moorhead – Sound Designer

Co-Lighting Designers – Amelia Lever-Davidson & Spencer Herd