Youth theatre isn't what it used to be.
Eltham High School (alumni includes Emily Browning) has its own theatre company, Scrambled Prince, and resident artist program; Four Larks' Jesse Rasmussen conceiving this ambitiously subversive junkyard opera with teacher George Franklin. How Came That Blood is a postmodern "reimagining" of Little Red Riding Hood — centred on a (possible) slaughterhouse — which is part Brecht, part Angela Carter and, at points, a little Mr G. The ensemble performances, choreography and musicianship impress. Yet the convoluted synopsis is more confounding than clever, the connections here between worker exploitation, gender violence and psycho-myth obscure.
