Bladderwrack

Bladderwrack is a science fiction pirate horror comedy brought to the stage by renowned actor David Tredinnick and writer Adam Browne.

This new Australian work invites audiences into a small setting to witness a big story. Proudly supported by Theatre Works as a part of the 2025 With Theatre Works season of shows, this fantastical new work promises to be a highlight on the Melbourne arts calendar.

In the chilldrippery of a sunken galleon, two ancient pirates dwell in extravagant misery: Saucy Jack and Bagfoot, their lives sustained by the ecosystem that has overtaken the bilge around them. Thanks to the bile-green phosphorescent bladderwrack that thrives in the ship’s bowels, their air refuses to run out – and thanks to the eyeless, dark-adapted ghastlies that swim among those weeds, their food refuses to run out also. The men have existed for decades and although they might prefer otherwise, their lives are not without incident. But there’s something still worse to come: the unveiled memory of why they’re down there at all.

Playing for a limited season at the Explosives Factory in St Kilda, it’s not to be missed.