By Nick Dent
“We’re destroying City Hall, and the Wheel of Brisbane,” says Scott Barton.
“Stefan’s Needle gets dropped from the sky as this twisted wreck,” adds David Morton.
“What’s that government building, One William Street? With the top cut off, and the giant spike? That’s going to split in half and peel open.”
Cast members Ngoc Phan as Jamie and Milena Nesic as Theo in We’re All Gonna Die!Credit: La Boite
Morton and Barton, the creative director and technical director of Dead Puppet Society, are thankfully talking about mere cardboard recreations of Brisbane landmarks they have made for a new play at La Boite.
And despite its title, We’re All Gonna Die! is a comedy. Well, sort of.
The play is about a school student, Theo (Milena Nesic), who has trouble convincing others a sea monster is on its way to demolish Brisbane.
One of several manifestations of the sea monster menaces the old Treasury Building in We’re All Gonna Die!Credit: La Boite
“This thing is coming, and it’s going to not end well for Brisbane, and humanity in general by extension, and this young person has proof that it’s coming and is ignored,” Morton explains.
“The humour is dark. I feel like I say this often when I’m talking about our work, but it’s like, you laugh until you get punched in the gut.”
Begun by Morton and Nicholas Paine in 2009, Dead Puppet Society has an international reputation for exquisite, machine-like puppets in theatrical productions.
Their creations have ranged from robotic pelicans in Storm Boy and Galapagos tortoises in The Wider Earth to a huge bear for Brisbane Festival production Holding Achilles.
Dead Puppet Society creative director David Morton on set.Credit: La Boite
We All Gonna Die! began when Dead Puppet Society put an open call out to playwrights to submit ideas.
“Our stories usually have a social or ecological justice message, and so we put that out as a parameter,” Morton says.
Playwright and journalist Maddie Nixon (Cooladdi, Food Fight) answered the call.
“Maddie wrote this pitch about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch becoming sentient and attacking Brisbane, and we were like, obviously we have to do this.”
La Boite came on board to produce the show as part of its 2025 100th-anniversary season.
Dean Hanson from Ball Park Music has composed and curated the music, with classic Brisbane songs by the Saints, Powderfinger and the Veronicas, and Morton is designing and co-directing the show with La Boite artistic director Courtney Stewart.
“We studied together [at QUT], and actually lived together for 18 months of our degree,” Morton says. “We have a similar sensibility and approach, it’s an awesome partnership.”
A cast of five portrays more than 30 different characters between them.
Brisbane’s skyline as it appears in the La Boite/Dead Puppet Society show We’re All Gonna Die!Credit: La Boite
The city’s skyline appears on automated tracks complete with LED lights. Shadow puppetry is deployed, flying creatures zoom around the stage, and the sea monster is a six-metre inflatable.
With so many technical challenges to solve, problems inevitably arise.
“I think the first time we inflated the monster only one of its fans was blowing and it took a minute-and-a-half to slowly rise out of the stage,” Barton says.
“It was pretty funny.”
We’re All Gonna Die! plays at the Roundhouse Theatre, July 30-August 16.