Draft:Love Lust Lost

Love Lust Lost is an immersive theatre show by Broad Encounters. Inspired by literary works including Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the show takes place aboard the E.V. Nautilus submarine; designed, built and captained by Captain Anderson.

Plot

The general premise of the show is that Captain Anderson has invited audience members aboard his vessel as new recruits. Aboard, audience members meet and interact with several of the existing crew members discovering some of the Captain's more nefarious activities involving experimentation on crew members. The Captain intends to create a "subterrean utopia" and has been doing research into "evolving" humans to adapt to the underwater environment using aqautic flora and fauna.

At the same time, Sandy the Captain's 17-year-old daughter who has spent her entire life aboard the vessel, becomes infatuated with Chan, a new crew member who arrived two days ago. Sandy's long-time best friend Claude has been harboring a crush on Sandy and believes Sandy's crush on Chan is merely "lust". Claude is part human, part lobster, making them the butt of many of the crew's jokes. Sandy and Chan share flirtations and intimate moments, but Sandy runs away from Chan causing frustration. Chan rejects Sandy to demonstrate how it feels, leading her to believe she needs to change to be with Chan and to find love.

Salacia the sea witch has a beatuy salon and is known for offering transformations to those that sign a contract with her. She resents the Captain and his experimentations and takes the opportunity to make a contract with his daughter. The contract and Salacia both reference the cost of such a transformation, with side effects including disfigurement and loss of life. Despite this, Sandy proceeds to sign the contract.

As news spreads of the contract crew members prepare for mutiny riling up crew members claiming "Tonight is the night. Tonight it is mutiny". The Captain confronts Salacia about where Sandy is and the location and terms of the contract. Claude and Chan argue over who Sandy loves and who really loves Sandy and who could have prevented the events from occuring. As Sandy's transformed state is deteriorating the Captain, her father, admonishes her for her actions and decisions. Chan is distraught over the loss of Sandy and is disgusted by the way the Captain would speak to his own daughter when she is in pain. Sandy walks over broken glass and exits, symbolising a kind of death. Sirens sound and Salacia appears to grow stronger as Sandy depletes.

In the finale, the audience and characters (expcet Sandy) gather in the banquet hall. The Captain recites Alan Watts claiming 'it's all a show'. Salacia appears to control other characters as they fight and dance with one another. Attention switches to the Captain who is forced into a chair and strangled by rope the crew before seemingly escaping death and letting out a laugh.

Characters

Core Characters

Characters that have been in every iteration of the show include:

Captain Anderson

The brilliant mind behind the E.V. Nautilus, the charismatic Captain Anderson is eager to welcome visitors aboard his ship to aid in his ground-breaking research, but there is more to the Captain than what lies on the surface...

• Captain, Builder and Engineer of the EV Nautilus
• Father to Sandy, brother to Abel and Stefano
• Charatcerised on narcissitic cult leaders like Jim Jones and enigmatic figures like Carrie Fisher

Sandy Anderson

Sandy is the only child of Captain Anderson. She has never been to the surface, never set foot on land or experienced life outside of the vessel.

• The Little Mermaid archetype
• 17-years old

Salacia the Sea Witch

Salacia is referenced by mortals in hushed tones. She is a purveyor of dark magic who exists both within the psyche and in human form.

• harbours animousity for the Captain
• warns audience memebrs to "trust their gut" and "don't eat the food"

Claude

Claude has lived aboard the E.V. Nautilus for many years and is Sandy's best friend, confidante and protector... with their own story to tell.

• Part lobster, caused by Captain's experimentations
• Life-long best friend and confidante of Sandy
• Survived cruiseship shipwreck and was saved by the Captain

Chan

Chan was brought onto the vessel quite recently...The Captain has taken an interest in him, but he is not the only one...

• has been aboard the Nautilus for two days

Additional Characters

Characters that do not appear in every production:

• Trink (Trinculo) - Trink is a charmer and a schemer, seducing and beguiling those around them.
• Stefano (The Chef) - By virtue of the continuous and mysterious disappearance of crew - and despite his colossal stupidity - Stefano has worked his way up in the role of Head Chef.
• The Marriner (Abel)
• The Balladeer
• The Sea Creature - The Sea Creature is a hybrid creature: half human, half… something oceanic and mystical.

Cast

Character	Brisbane 2022	Melbourne 2023
Captain Anderson	Sandro Colarelli	Sandro Colarelli
Sandy	Asher Bowen-Saunders	Bri Emrich
Salacia	Lucinda Shaw	Meg Hickey
Claude	Carla Beard	Chloe Towan
Chan	Chris Braithwaite	Jeremy Lloyd
The Balladeer	Ben Adams	N/A
The Marriner	Kristian Šantić	N/A
Stefano	N/A	Kristian Šantić
Trink	N/A	Sho Eba
The Sea Creature	N/A	Callum Mooney

Referenced Work

Music

• And Dream of Sheep - Kate Bush
• Work Bitch - Britney Spears
• Bombara -The Atlantics
• Boneless - Steve Aoki, Chris Lake & Tujama
• The Book of Love - Stephin Merritt
• Boys Wanna Be Her - Peaches
• Confide In Me - Kylie Minogue
• Deadwood - Really Slow Motion
• Death is Not the End - Bob Dylan
• Deceptacon - LeTigre
• Don't Pay The Ferryman - Chris De Burgh
• Don't Stop The Party - Ptibull
• Drunken Sailor
• Dschinhis Khan - Moskau
• Fluid Cloak - HELM
• Friggin' in the Riggin - Sex Pistols
• Get Lucky - Daft Punk
• Happy Ending - MIKA
• Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
• I Am A Rock - Simon & Garfunkel
• I Want it That Way - Backstreet Boys
• I Want to Be Evil - Eartha Kitt
• If I Could Turn Back Time - Cher
• Innocent When Your Dream - Tom Waits
• It's My Life - Bon Jovi
• Kalinka
• Like a Circle - Ben Abraham
• Little Water Song
• Love Me
• Moonlight Shadow - Mike Oldfiled
• My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
• My Lagan Love
• Not Afraid of Romance - Machine Gun Fellatio
• Oblivion - Astor Piazzolla
• Oh to Be in Love - Kate Bush
• Patricia the Stripper - Chris de Burgh
• Pearly Shells
• Possessed
• Put Your Hands Up In The Air
• Red Light Green Light - Duke Dumont
• Sand Man - Timothy Carroll
• Shake N Stomp - Dick Dale
• Singapore - Tom Waits
• Song of the Vanquished - Audiomachine
• Song to the Siren - Time Buckley
• Sugar Coated Pill - Hugh Coltman
• Swing Rave - Elliot Goldenthal
• That's Amore - Harry Warreb
• The Anchor Song - Björk
• Four Seasons (Winter) - Antonio Vivaldi
• The Handsome Cabin Boy - Jerry Garcia
• The Last Shanty - Derina Harvey Band
• The Ship Song - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
• The Tale of The Oyster
• Time - David Bowie
• Time Lapse - Michael Nyman
• To Build A Home - The Cinematic Orchestra
• Toxic Love - Tim Curry
• Turn it Up - Yanivi
• Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
• Walking Spanish - Tom Waits
• Wasted All Night - Cold War Kids
• The Wellerman
• What's He Building - Tom Waits
• White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
• You're So Cool - Hans Zimmer