MONSTER: Tiny Dog Productions Confronts Uncomfortable Questions About Violence

 Duncan Macmillan's provocative play receives Sydney premiere at KXT. 

Duncan Macmillan has built a reputation for writing that challenges comfortable assumptions while maintaining theatrical accessibility. His Monster, receiving its Sydney premiere through Tiny Dog Productions at KXT on Broadway, operates in similar territory to his acclaimed People, Places and Things, using intimate character studies to examine larger questions about responsibility, empathy, and the systems that shape human behaviour.

The premise is deceptively simple: a teacher working with a troubled teenage boy facing permanent expulsion. When Tom (Albert Mwangi) and Darryl (Campbell Parsons) are left alone in a classroom, the resulting confrontation becomes an examination of how we respond to children who demonstrate neither empathy nor regard for consequences. The Guardian's observation that the play "tests your liberal instincts to the limits" describes a work that deliberately complicates straightforward moral positions.

Director Kim Hardwick brings significant experience with difficult material to the production. Her track record includes work that has earned critical acclaim both in Australia and New York, with this marking her seventh production at KXT. Her personal connection to the material, growing up alongside young men similar to Darryl, suggests a director who understands the characters as recognisable humans rather than abstract symbols of social dysfunction.

Hardwick's quoted reflection reveals the play's central provocation. The character Tom's fantasy about locking "all the Daryls of the world" in a room with weapons and letting them destroy each other articulates a dark impulse that contradicts progressive values. The director's question "if the monster was at your doorstep, what would you actually do?" positions the play as an examination of the gap between theoretical empathy and confronted reality.

The casting brings together performers with diverse theatrical backgrounds. Albert Mwangi's 2025 Sydney Theatre Award nomination establishes him as an emerging talent, while Campbell Parsons' previous work in Babyteeth at KXT demonstrates familiarity with complex, challenging roles. Romney Hamilton and Linda Nicholls-Gidley (who also serves as dialect coach) bring additional experience to what promises to be an ensemble piece where every performance carries weight.

Tiny Dog Productions' previous success with The Children's Hour at The Old Fitz (a truly five-star co-production in 2025) outlines this company as capable of handling morally complex material with appropriate nuance. That production's acclaim provides the foundation of trust for audiences considering engaging with equally challenging subject matter.

Macmillan's writing typically avoids providing easy answers to the questions it raises. The promotional material asks "Are monsters inside all of us? Are they born or are they shaped?" This is the enduring debate about nature versus nurture, individual responsibility versus systemic failure. The play's value will depend on how seriously it engages with these questions without settling into familiar ideological positions.

With a two-hour running time, this is a substantial work that develops its themes with thoroughness rather than relying on brief intensity. The classroom setting creates the kind of confined space that allows for deep character exploration while the presence of only two characters in key scenes strips away distractions from their direct confrontation.

Victor Kalka's set and costume design faces the challenge of creating an environment that feels authentically institutional while supporting the production's dramatic needs. Topaz Marlay-Cole's lighting and Charlotte Leamon's sound design should shape how audiences experience the escalating tension between teacher and student, potentially using technical elements to externalise internal states.

Note the content warnings. These point to violence and suicide. Some audience members may find these themes difficult. The production's responsibility extends beyond merely presenting disturbing content, but rather towards creating theatrical context that allows audiences to process that material thoughtfully rather than exploitatively.

Ongoing debates about youth violence, the role of educators in addressing behavioural issues, and the limits of rehabilitation create a cultural context where Macmillan's questions about responsibility and empathy resonate beyond theatrical abstraction. The challenge for any production such as this lies in engaging with these issues without reducing them to simplistic conclusions.

Hardwick's regional upbringing and recognition of Macmillan's characters as familiar types hopefully births a production that resists metropolitan condescension toward the environments that produce troubled young men. The best theatre about social dysfunction avoids both romanticising and demonising its subjects, instead creating space for audiences to grapple with genuine complexity.

If willing to engage with uncomfortable questions about empathy, responsibility, and the limits of liberal tolerance, Monster promises an experience that refuses the comfort of easy moral certainty.

Monster runs March 6-21 at KXT on Broadway. Tickets and more info: https://events.humanitix.com/monster