Review: Day (After Day) in the Life of the Useless at the Heath Ledger Theatre
Review by Emily Smith
Black Swan have taken an impressive risk on a new piece of work in their 2026 program. Day (After Day) in the Life of the Useless is a dark comedy in which increasingly-depressed Pete experiences all the worst possible situations of his life over the hour and forty-five minute run time. He has been dumped, he loses his job, gets on the wrong side of many unsavoury characters and is increasingly suspicious that the bizarre people ruining his life are actually AI robots in disguise.
Set Designer Fiona Bruce reveals in the program that the inspiration behind the set was the question “What would an artificial human enrichment environment look like if we were held captive by our AI overlords and kept in a human zoo?” Reading this explains a lot, as the disjointed and abstract backdrop and furniture pieces are an oddity that seemingly do not add much to the show. With the exception of the pixelated floor which does bring this idea of a computer-generated environment to the fore.
Writer Will O’Mahony also stars as the “useless” Pete, a self-described “doormat” of a man who repeatedly turns bad luck into worse decisions. Pete is not an everyman, representing a generic person navigating an increasingly difficult world, because his ability to make the worst possible choice in any given moment is exasperating and absurd. He lives in what O’Mahony calls an “absurdist nightmare” and it’s true that the constant deterioration of his life with no sign of hope or any character development becomes bleak to watch. However, O’Mahony’s nuanced performance made Pete just sympathetic enough to not quite give up on him, despite having zero likeable qualities other than a penchant for a clever observation.
The gaggle of revolving ensemble characters are the real highlight of the show. Nathaniel Langworthy’s juvenile delinquent Seth is hilariously deranged, and as Pete’s selfish coworker Langworthy is enjoyably, frustratingly recognisable. Catherine Moore gave many brilliant performances as a wide range of batty characters, including the creepiest child I’ve ever seen, as did Steve Le Marquand whose oddly intense accountant Bill was a strong highlight. It took me a while to realise that the catty girlfriend and the Bolshevik cleaner were played by the same person, as Tess Bowers transformed so completely in each role.
All the performers were blessed with a script full of funny lines and each of them nailed the timing to get regular laughs on opening night. Even when the repetitive structure of new-scene-new-bad-thing-happens-to-Pete got monotonous, the anticipation of a new whacky character kept me hooked.
Elevating this wide array of characters is Rhiannon Walker’s brilliant costume design. Each outfit utterly suits its wearer, enhancing oddities and embodying weirdness. My favourite has to be a tie between the yellow gingham tracksuit on Le Marquand’s juvenile thug-for-hire and the monotone blue exercise gear on Bowers’s ditsy dog walker. The costumes populate the world with weirdos, pushing the sense of unreality that deepens as Pete gets deeper into a society infested with AI.
I am personally not convinced by the AI-robot plot. While the show clearly wants to say something deep about the value of humanity in an AI world, the message got lost amongst Pete’s disastrous life choices and general dislike of the world. The pivotal scene that ties it all together is muddied by too-subtle references back to the earlier scenes and the overall lack of clarity on what and who are real or imagined. It is, however, capstoned by a stunning fight scene, superbly choreographed by Movement Director Tyrone Earl Lraé Robinson and brilliantly acted by O’Mahony and Langworthy. Thanks to their skills and the highly effective sound and lighting design it took my breath away.
Day (after Day) in the Life of the Useless doesn’t quite achieve the world-shaking, philosophical heights that it clearly aspires to, but it is an impressively bold and ambitious new piece of theatre, and deeply funny. Black Swan has come out with a conversation-starter, even if those conversations are less of the “how does this make you feel about the state of the world” flavour and more “who made you laugh more: the Scandinavian hippie or the apathetic therapist?”
