Outside in the sun at the Welsh Dragon Bar for NZ Fringe Festival, Below the Worms invites audiences into a world where the ordinary and the uncanny coil together like roots beneath a garden bed.

Staged in traverse, with the audience flanking the action on either side, less than one metre apart, the show creates an eerie intimacy – like peering through the hedges of a long-kept secret. The work, crafted by S.L.U.G (Society for Little Ugly Girls) Theatre Company, is arguably NZ Gothic; blending fairytale with a creeping sense of unease.

Below the Worms follows two children who embark on a midnight mission. But this is no simple backyard adventure; the neighbour is a witch with a pack of bloodthirsty hounds. As the children dig deeper, so too do the cracks between their families, until the truth refuses to stay buried.

The traverse staging heightens the sense of voyeurism and inevitability – there is no hiding place, no easy escape. While the intimacy is fun, it does make sightlines challenging. Our seats are certainly the best in the house so we’re able to catch about half of the playing space. It would be great to give the play more space in redevelopment.

The performances are electric, swinging from childlike wonder to grotesque humour, to quiet devastation in a heartbeat. Our two leads – Sugar Rea-Bruce and Te Ata Tu Patelesio – play multiple characters, including an actor portraying three generations of a family. They are flanked by a Greek chorus of Hounds – Molly Macalister, Taipuhi King, Violet Patterson, Justina Rose Tua – who act as high energy zanni. They also play Worms. Sarah Lawrence is a masked pup pianist.

Below the Worms is top and tailed with bird puppetry. I would love to see the puppetry woven into the play and used as a device to tell the narrative; just as the singing and music is used.

Below the Worms pulses with a raw, folkloric energy, making it feel both ancient and nostalgic.

S.L.U.G Theatre Company promised work that is brash and beautiful, and this piece delivers both in spades – as unsettling as it is enchanting; as funny as it is feral.

Dev Rama (aged 6):

Below the Worms is about a girl and a boy who were neighbours over the summer for the holidays. The girl was the non-serious one. She wanted to eat the feijoa which was in the witch’s garden. She stole it and the dogs chased them. One dog tried to smell my chips and the other one tried to eat them but I shooed them away.

I liked everything, especially the singing and the games that the boy and girl played. I really liked that the play was outside and that the audience was on two sides.

The play was so good.

At the Welsh Dragon Bar I had a Victorian Lemonade and I highly recommend it.

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