Different management styles. Jo (Kate Schrader), recently appointed as duty manager at Fat Burger and brimming with self-importance and fake confidence, is keen on sticking to the rule book and the kinds of team building you learn about in business courses.

Attila the Hun (Orion-Carey Clark), an unsuccessful contender for the job, prefers more barbaric measures such as coercion, violence and mortal combat.

The other staff are not an easy lot to manage. Tom Cruise (Sofian Scott) copes admirably with endless and unoriginal jibes about his name, until he doesn’t – deep-fried name badge, anyone? [More] 

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What do you get when you cross a late-night burger bar with Attila the Hun? A belly ache, that’s what you get, and that’s just from the laughing!

Orion-Carey Clark (Attila) takes the stage by storm with his powerful rendition of one of history’s most infamous bad guys. But despite the love and respect bestowed on him by his colleagues, Anne-Marie (Rebecca Thompson), Ian (Harrison Kennedy) and Tom Cruise (Sofian Scott), colleague Jo (Kate Shrader) is appointed the new duty manager and people are not happy. 

Gags abound as Jo attempts to master her new job, following the rulebook to the letter. But when she is thwarted by the colourful late night guests of Fat Burger (Shaun Swain, Heidi Geissler and Kat Kennedy) and her own staff, things start to unravel with hilarious consequences.

With all the hilarity and belly-laughs, it is easy to mistake Attila the Hun for pulp humour, but writer Abby Howell has plumbed the depths of human emotion, exploring concepts of identity and objectification: strands that run through the work, deftly highlighted by director Alex Wilson and cast.  

As each character grapples with the uncomfortable sensation of seeing themselves in the eyes of others, the themes of identity and self-love are examined through their disparate experiences. This is no truer of any than Attila, a young man living with psychosis as a reaction to the trauma of his mother’s death.

Despite his demons and his bizarre sense of self, the audience is also aware of the respect bestowed on him by his colleagues, signalling that, although we might fear what others see in us, often this is at the expense of the love that others have for us despite our insecurities.

Well-crafted, beautifully delivered and full of laughter and depth, Attila the Hun is a razor sharp commentary on the pressures of modern life. Bravo!

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