The Rondo's final production for the year asks one of humanity's oldest questions

Popcorn is a wickedly funny black satire by king of comedy Ben Elton – the writer behind some of the most classic British comedies of the 1980s, including The Young Ones and Blackadder.

The play is a masterfully crafted black satire that won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy with its tale of Oscar-winning director Bruce Delamitri (Bruce Whitehead) and his encounter with serial killers Wayne (Lance Helms) and Scout (Tash Riedel).

Popcorn’s director at the Rondo Theatre, Lynn Crop, does warn that Popcorn contains violence and crude references, but all in aid of dramatic effect to provoke the audience into considering the effect violence in films is having on society.
“Bruce Delamitri is a Hollywood director in Tarantino style,” she says.

“He’s a maverick and this play is kind of a cross between Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers. He makes Tarantino-style films and as such, there is a perennial discussion – are these films making society more violent? Is life imitating art, or art imitating life?”

Things get hectic when “Mall Murderers” Wayne and Scout burst into Bruce’s residence in Hollywood, holding him hostage.
The law closes in, the helicopters circle and the media wolves salivate on the doorstep.

The pace is frenetic as the audience rides the roller-coaster from shock to hilarity at breakneck speed.

Wayne and Scout have a plan for their salvation, which involves Bruce taking responsibility for adversely affecting them with his violent films.

In typical “trial by media” style they seek to get a verdict by appearing live on TV.

The tension is just as relentless as the laughs.

“That’s the crux of the play,” Lynn says.

“Is it the films that are creating these psycho murderers, or is art just depicting what is already there?”

>> Ben Elton’s Popcorn  premieres at the Rondo Theatre on Friday night, from 8pm. The season runs until Saturday, November 19. Tickets are $18-$22, available now from ticketlink.com.au or 1300 855 835.

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