Our Monster’s Name is Jerry is a love letter to the horror genre. Amy May Nunn’s new play embraces the tropes and cliché of gothic horror and transfers them to a suburban setting with a queer context. Lou (Em Jevons) and Maude (Laura Jane Turner) have been trying unsuccessfully to have a child through IVF and this has put great emotional and financial pressure on their relationship. Maude unexpectedly inherits a house and it seems their fortunes have changed. However, it turns out that the house is haunted and their problems have just begun.
The haunted house setting is well-conceived, with a cleverly designed set and an excellent soundtrack. This, combined with the slowly building tension in the narrative, creates an eerie atmosphere. The origins of the monster and the gradual revealing of the pasts of the central characters are well developed with plenty of witty lines referencing horror, as well as providing insight into the queer experience.
The title, Our Monster’s Name is Jerry, comes from the idea of naming your fears, but this proves insufficient for the couple to successfully deal with their trauma – the psychological burden of trying to have a child via IVF is sympathetically explored in the script. Maude also has a dark past and its gradual revelation over the course of the play is one of its strengths.
Barbara (Amanda LaBonté) steals the show with her performance as Lou and Maude’s neighbour. She provides both light relief from the drama of the story and gives the main characters someone to play off, so we can see other sides to their personalities. Jevons and Turner make a believable couple, and they do their best to convince the audience of the increasing peril of their situation. Unfortunately, the scares promised never fully materialise and the build towards the conclusion is on the slow side: the pacing could have been better.
The play does a good job of setting up for the potential to terrify the audience, but never gets to the point of delivering. For a show with a long list of content warnings, it just doesn’t horrify at any point. Attempts to jump scare and sudden sounds don’t work and the body horror fails to disgust. This is also attributable to Jerry (Tomas Parrish) being overwritten to the point where the monster they portray loses the fear factor and becomes tame and non-threatening. When this reviewer attended there were also some minor sound issues with Jerry’s initial appearances that lessened the impact of their introduction.
Read: Theatre review: Truth, Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse
It is quite a difficult challenge to do horror on stage and the show falls short in this regard.
Nonetheless, there is a lot to like about Our Monster’s Name Is Jerry. There is a well-structured story with interesting characters and staging that creates a creepy gothic atmosphere. However, it doesn’t deliver on the scares that it promises and leaves you wanting more.
Our Monster’s Name is Jerry by Amy May Nunn
Theatre Works
Director: Alanah Guiry
Assistant Director: Kimberly Summer
Lighting Design: Thomas Roach
Set and Costume Design: Savanna Wegman
Set and Costume Design Associate: Maya Anderson
Sound Design: Robbie Divine
Composer: Charlie Bowmaker
Movement Consultant: Amelia Jean O’Leary
Fight Choreographer: Lyndal Grant
Intimacy Coordinator: Kiana Daniele
Production Stage Managers: Jemma Law, Stephanie Lee
Co-Producers: Danielle Goder, Flick
Cast: Em Jevons, Laura Jane Turner, Tomas Parrish, Amanda LaBonté
Tickets: $25-$48
Our Monster’s Name is Jerry will be performed until 22 February 2025
