‘Flat Earthers: The Musical’: A Queer Romantic Conspiracy

This post also appeared in City Hub.

Flat Earthers: The Musical is the highly anticipated new work from creative trio, Jean Tong, Lou Wall, and James Gales, whose 2017 one-act show, Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit, launched them as a writing team to keep an eye on. 

Flat Earthers will make its debut at the Hayes Theatre as a co-production with Griffin Theatre Company. It features an impressive cast of performers, many of whom have burnished their stars in some of the Hayes’ most successful musicals of recent times. 

Energised by the popular success and critical acclaim of their very first show, Tong, Wall, and Gales were keen to write another musical together, one that was bigger, had two acts and a more complex storyline. They started working on ideas as early as 2018.

“We were basically sitting around brainstorming what was interesting to us and what we were all really obsessed with at the moment,” explains Tong, bookwriter and lyricist. “At the time, it was that real immediate Trump-era sort of stuff happening; this post-truth sort of world and this feeling that people were really struggling to talk to each other. People were struggling with communicating different ideas without demonising each other.”

The three writers discovered they all had a keen interest in the world of conspiracy theories. It wasn’t long after that a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic forced a global lockdown and they suddenly found themselves with plenty of time to journey deep into the rabbit hole, into the realm of tin-foil hats, chem-trails, secret cabals, lizard people, the illuminati, antivaxxers. 

With material that is already inherently bizarre, the writers had to work out the most ridiculous version and funniest way to tell this story.

“Most people consider Flat Earthers the bottom of the pile,” says Tong. “Even among conspiracy theorists, you know, conspiracy theorists consider Flat Earthers ridiculous.” And so, Flat Earthers: The Musical was born. 

Ria and Flick are two lesbians who meet on the internet and immediately fall in love. Not long into the relationship, Ria discovers with horror that Flick is a Flat Earther. Flick is equally mortified to learn that Ria is a “Globe Earther”. In an effort to help Flick see the true horizon, Ria pretends to be a Flat Earth convert. 

“Basically, from there it’s just crazy hijinks keep occurring and it sort of spirals out of Ria’s control and her plan to get her girlfriend out gets enmeshed in another kind of major super villain plan and it all goes basically tits up,” says Tong.

While there’s loads of satire and plenty of barbed references to all things dark web/alternative facts, Tong is emphatic that the aim of the musical is to have audiences laugh with the characters, not at them. They want audiences to have empathy and begin to understand how and why people get drawn into these belief systems, and how difficult and traumatic it is for loved ones to try and disabuse them. 

“It’s very hard to just tell people they’re wrong, like no one’s ever changed their mind because someone told them they’re wrong,” explains Tong. 

In this premier production, Shannen Alyce Quan plays Ria and Manali Datar plays Flick. “Those two performers — we’re just so excited to have them be the first performers that have ever sung these songs in public in this full length show,” says Tong.

Milo Hartill and Zarif play a kind of bumbling duo trope, while Michelle Brassier does “this absolutely camp, magnificent sort of super villain role,” Tong adds. Rounding out the cast are the likes of Lena Cruz, Manon Guderson-Briggs, Amanda McGregor, and Mel O’Brien.

Tong describes the music as electro-pop. “Basically, just dance bangers…I’m a big fan of a show that makes you wanna dance your way out. We’re all about the ear-worms.”

There will be lots of audio-visual ambience to recreate a sense of being on an odyssey across the internet, with different aesthetics defining different decades and spaces. “I think it’s gonna be like you’ve taken a bunch of acid and gone on the internet,” laughs Tong. “But a good acid-trip!”

Flat Earthers is a musical that should appeal even to people who don’t like musicals. It’s for those who are into the world of conspiracy theories or for those who just enjoy quirky comedy, social commentary and queer romance. “The show is about how people who don’t believe in the same things can still live in the same world,” says Tong.

When? October 11 – November 9
Where? Hayes Theatre, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point
Tickets? Starting at $55 + bf