Five Easy Steps to prepare a Pretty Deadly Cocktail!

1. Take a city full of people trapped by a natural disaster (think New Orleans post-Katrina)
2. Add one opportunistic virus with a killer instinct (the Toronto outbreak of SARS)
3. Mix vigorously
4. Stop people from coming or going!
5. Then watch the survivors play the KILLING GAME - a pitch black comedy by France’s master of
absurdism, Eugene Ionesco that will have you thanking your lucky stars we live on an island!

People in a small city start dying of a mysterious disease. Panic sets in as armed guards prevent anyone
from entering or leaving. As the body count soars, civilisation degenerates into a military state rife with paranoia, mysticism and scapegoating.

Ionesco, France’s Master of Absurdism, rejected notions of a logical plot, character development and traditional drama, instead creating his own anarchic form of comedy to convey his meaning. The wickedly funny and irreverent scenes in KILLING GAME actually shroud observations on mass hysteria, elitism, fear, and government control.

Although published in 1970, the premise behind KILLING GAME continues to reverberate today. The flippant parodies and eerily familiar caricatures evoke scenes from recent events such as the Toronto outbreak of SARS and New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina.

In 2006 Australia’s premier regional arts education institution, the University of Ballarat, celebrates 100 years of teaching the Creative Arts. The 21 Graduate students of the Arts Academy’s outstanding theatre course performing in KILLING GAME are an important part of the next wave of rising stars in Australia’s theatre industry. KILLING GAME represents the first time the Arts Academy, established in 2002 and the latest link in this long line of arts education, has brought a graduate production to Melbourne.