The Confidence Man

It's a novel way of putting on a play: co-opt six of your audience members to star in it. Hidden behind huge cartoonish masks, six bold members of Joe Public star in this innovative play while the rest sit around the edges of a suburban house, mapped out in white tape and filled with furniture.

It begins with Sam, who's involved in a hit-and-run and comes to the family home of his mate Pete in search of an alibi. Pete's daughter, Anita, discovers a wad of money in Sam's bag, and they're set on an irrevocable course towards hard-man Alex and his coked-up drug dealer girlfriend Maria.

The "actors" are guided by headsets explaining what to do, encouraging them to make exaggerated gestures, while the audience — equipped with headphones — can flip between six audio channels as the characters interact with each other or muse in their internal monologues. You can follow any one at any time, forming a bond with one character or skipping around all six trying to piece together all the strands of the story. The audio work is first-class, with slight tonal shifts and music utterly changing perceptions of the same scene as you flip between characters. It's fascinating to glimpse the same story from six different viewpoints — this is a winning format that could run and run, with infinite stories to explore.