Horse Play
theatrePUNK
An activist, a party girl & a drunk bro stumble into a plot to blow up the Melbourne Cup.
It’s Melbourne Cup Day. The rain hasn’t stopped. The race that stops the nation is safe and dry, thanks to the concrete floodwall outside Flemington Racecourse.
In a long-abandoned stable at the edge of these hallowed grounds, Pony, is quietly working through the final details of a plan to blow this dirty industry up, once and for all. That’s when a lost party girl stumbles in for a moment of peace. Then a blackout drunk rich boy wanders in looking for the bathroom.
And the bomb is still ticking.
Horse Play is a haunted stampede across time: Absurdist, furious, and full of heart. As the lines between history, person, and horse, and between good politics and bad choices start to blur, Horse Play asks what it means to fight for something and what it costs.
Written by Nathaniel Crossinggum and directed by Jordon Riley, Horse Play is a bold new work part political thriller, part anarchic comedy, part ghost story.
Previously staged at Backbone Festival 2025 to standing ovations and critical acclaim:
‘Horse Play might be the best original play to come out of Magandjin in the past ten years.’ (Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane)
‘Ran like the wind.’ (Theatrehaus)
‘Creative theatre chaos with a conscience.’ (What’s the Show)
Presented by theatrePUNK co at Melbourne Fringe 2026.
