Fewer Emergencies (Old Fitz) ★★★★½

Written by Martin Crimp. The Company Theatre. The Old Fitz. 22 Jul – 3 Aug, 2025.

If you’re a fan of the challenging, conceptual work of Caryl Churchill or Sarah Kane, then make your way to The Old Fitz for this late-night treat. Martin Crimp’s triptych of stories about stories is woven seamlessly together in director Harry Reid’s new production. It offers no new answers to the play’s questions but presents them with exhilarating conviction.

In Reid’s interpretation, three (or is it four?) cleaners invent stories about the world around them as they work. In the first, Whole Blue Sky, a stray scarf sparks an improvised tale of a young woman who may (or may not) have the perfect marriage. Together, the storytellers develop and correct each other’s versions as they go—but the story reveals more about the teller than the subjects, taking darker turns along the way. In the second, Face to the Wall, they imagine a school shooting from the shooter’s point of view—someone who, on the surface, seems to have the perfect life (could he be the husband or father from the first story? Possibly). In the third, the short Fewer Emergencies, the storytellers glimpse a flicker of hope, whether real or imagined, in the distance.

This is the first piece of genuine “lean-in” theatre I’ve seen in a while, and despite the lateness of the hour, it gripped me completely. Crimp’s ambiguity invites the audience to create their own narrative, sharing a sense of personal responsibility for the direction the story takes. It’s manipulative and more than a little cruel—but thrilling all the same. Just as Beckett’s Happy Days (recently performed at Sydney Theatre Co) places us in an existential space to focus on the characters and their humanity, Crimp’s stories expose the inner workings of the storytellers and their own violent impulses. By compelling us to imagine the visuals ourselves, we experience a fully immersive virtual memory. This is storytelling at its most disturbing.

The Company Theatre provides an extra layer of context through the cast’s costumes and actions, gently guiding us into the world rather than leaving us in a purely conceptual space (when Fewer Emergencies premiered in 2005, it was staged in an all-white room with the cast seated around a table). I’m sure some purists will object, but I found it to be additive. There’s a reassuring confidence in the cast’s performances too—they seem to know where we’re headed, even if we do not, which lets us sit back and immerse ourselves more fully.

The cast of four—Clay Crighton, Olivia Hall-Smith, Bayley Prendergast, and Monica Sayers—are all exceptional. With such a conceptual script, it would be easy for their characters to feel cold or detached, but instead, each is vibrantly alive. Telling these stories seems to be their great joy, and that enthusiasm, however twisted or macabre, holds us enthralled.

As part of The Old Fitz’s late-night programme, Fewer Emergencies takes place on the same basic set as the main show, Betrayal, which is completely transformed with the addition of some props and rich lighting by Izzy Morrissey, whose work does much of the visual storytelling.

But fear not—Fewer Emergencies isn’t nearly as disturbing as some might suggest. It feels like watching an unsettling yet wildly entertaining episode of Black Mirror, rather than enduring a Saw movie.

Frankly, this is fantastic work. Experience it alongside Betrayal, and you’ve got a double bill of the highest calibre.