Friday 17 October 2026

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

Fraser Morrison in Cruise at the Seymour Centre

I have raved about many shows before telling you how good they were. But for once I am lost for words because there aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe Fraser Morrison’s performance in this repeat season of Jack Holden’s, Cruise, at the Seymour Centre. Nevertheless I’ll give it my best shot…

When I spoke to director, Sean Landis about this play (you can listen to the interview below) he told me in this one-hander Fraser plays 29 characters in just under 2 hours non-stop on stage. He told me he doesn’t use theatrical devices to change characters (sets, lighting, costumes signifiers etc) because Fraser does it all with voice and body. My thought was 29 characters? Yeah sure. I’m sure they all sound a bit the same, we’ve all seen it attempted before with varying degrees of success, but in this case boy was I wrong. This was a masterclass in what is possible from one man on a stage with just his voice and body. Each character was brought to life within the first word and pose. We lived in the moment with them. We recognised them when they came back on stage. We felt every nuance of their plight, every ounce of their joy or suffering. They were REAL!!!

The set up: Jack is a naive 22 year old twink volunteering in a LGBTQ crisis call centre, taking calls from men going through rough patches in their lives. Michael phones in and we’re not sure why, but he proceeds to tell the story of his life with his lover, Dave. We flash back to the early 80’s in Soho where young gay men wereliving the fast-paced high energy life of newly found sexual freedom. It is a life of dance clubs, lots of casual sex, sleazy bars and acerbic opinionatedqueens. Michael finds love in a karaoke bar in the burly form of Dave, or as he introduced himself: slutty Dave. As the years fly by they are both diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and are given 4 years to live. They decide to accelerate the pace and burn out in a blaze of glory. Yes, a story with now common themes but this one transcends all that went before.

On the way they meet a colourful cast of characters in a variety of settings. Ruby Jenkins worked her magic when she designed 3 basic elements of the set to create an office, dance floors, bars, recording studio, public toilet block and a lounge room. (Original UK Set Designer- Chelsea Wheatley) But it was Morrison’s skill that filled those spaces and made us ‘see’ the walls, taste the smoke and smell the sweat. Accent and Dialect Coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley has to be highly commended for helping Fraser absolutely nail so many unique English accents. This was the key to the 29 characters that we believed existed on the Seymour stage.

Apart from the rare change of jacket, only on one occasion was a prop used to create a character. A tacky blonde wig was donned to portraythe once famous but now jaded old drag performer, Jacqui Shit. Morrison’s portrayal of the once grand dame had the audience eating out of her hand as she sang “Is That All There Is?” We sang along to the chorus with full throat at her request, until she told us to shut up – “It’s my turn.” And obediently we did as she commanded.

Jack Holden wrote this play in 2021, loosely based on his personal experience. It is at heart a story about AIDS and loss. It is full of sadness and grief, but also joy and lust for life, comedy and bitchiness – all things you would expect from a ‘gay’ play, but the timing took us on a perfectly controlled roller-coaster of emotions. Fraser Morrison won the Sydney Theatre Award for the 2025 season at KXT and no-one was surprised when the Seymour Centre agreed to an encore season. So glad they did.

Fraser Morrison is a talent to keep an eye on. In this performance he managed to keep us in the here and now, in the present, engaged totally in what was going on in the moment – there was no future no past unless he evoked it , just a ever present now – a rare theatrical achievement. His vocal skills are superlative, his physicality equals that of an elite athlete and his concentration must be superhuman. I still can’t believe he could morph from a drug-fuelled crazy man on a dance floor to a caring young man in a call centre and then to a wizened female bar owner with hip issues -all done in milliseconds and complete with perfect accents. I never give star ratings but this one deserves 6 out of 5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️+ ⭐️.

You can listen to a recent interview with Director, Sean Landis below: