Writers: Richard Fitchett, Wally Sewell, and Liam O’Grady
Director: Anthony Shrubsall
Three souls find themselves on an unusual lift being led through the afterlife by a strange and quite cryptic lift attendant. Each character is taken to revisit the point in their life they most regret, and they are given a second chance to make a decision that could change everything. The play follows each of these characters as they step off the lift and are given the opportunity to relive a fateful interaction from their past, either confronting an ambitious colleague, offering advice to a young niece, or even answering a marriage proposal.
Fatal Floor opens with the lift attendant, played by Peter Saracen, in the elevator with a recently deceased, wildly successful street artist named Joe (Alex Jonas). Projected on the wall behind them is a large red down button and a number in the mid-2000s slowly ticking downwards. The circumstances of this lift are slowly revealed to Joe as the lift attendant explains that he has passed away and is now given a second chance to redo the moment he regrets in life.
It becomes clear that the numbers on the wall are years counting backwards in time, aiming to drop Joe in 2029. Saracen and Jonas both deliver stand-out performances, Saracen’s sardonic and dry humour complementing Jonas’s invested and truthful portrayal of a man caught in the afterlife. As the lift descends, more characters join the play, including Jake (Simon Brandon) and Tara (Emma Riches).
The play is a collaborative effort, with three playwrights, Richard Fitchett, Wally Sewell, and Liam O’Grady, each responsible for a different character’s story. These three separate voices make the play as a whole feel a bit disjointed structurally and thematically. It plays like a series of vignettes, but none of these vignettes has any common thread. None of these characters is able to resolve their past or learn a lesson from it in a way that leaves each story feeling abrupt and incomplete.
Reviewed on 4 October 2025