THEATRE: BLISS

Just like the vacuous lives of self-obsessed starlets, their glossy magazine photos and the desperate, insatiable worship of their fans, nothing is as it seems in this surreal, tragicomic look at the cult of celebrity and the extraordinary power it wields over the lives of ordinary people. Blurring the lines between reality and nightmare, Québécois playwright Olivier Choinèire intertwines the contrasting yet interdependent lives of the pop goddess and the adoring fan whose life is nothing without her. “Bliss is a visceral fantasy unlike anything I have ever read,” says the play’s director Shannon Murphy. “I was swept away by the rollercoaster ride that the narrative took me on.” As manufactured as the phenomenon itself, the supermarket acts as a canvas for Murphy to explore the illusion and escapism of celebrity worship. “Everything looks normal but as the play develops you realise that nothing is actually as it seems or as it was when you entered the space.”

Oct 29-Nov 22, Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $23-29, 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au