Review: Wil Greenway: It’s Probably Nothing at The Blue Room Theatre
Wil Greenway: It’s Probably Nothing at The Blue Room Theatre
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Over from Melbourne for The Blue Room Theatre’s 2025 Summer Nights program, the multi-award-winning Wil Greenway brings his latest show for Perth audiences to enjoy. Across an hour of storytelling by the beautifully engaging Greenway, the audience is taken on a journey that traverses the emotional spectrum, scaffolded by giggles all the while, as he passionately covers topics that many in the audience surely have also been grappling with in this current moment we find ourselves in.
Immediately likeable as a performer, Greenway interacts with the audience authentically and, as a storyteller, talks directly to us. The stage is mostly empty, but rather than the setup of a stand-up comedian with a spotlight and microphone—although he does make occasional use of those—clever lighting states and sparse but effective sound design help to create different spaces for Greenway to break out in, introducing a rhythm that quickly becomes familiar as he seamlessly transitions in and out of the main objective of this show as stated: the regaling of a story about dinner at a friend’s house.
Greenway begins by telling us how he realised he had lost the ability to walk through the world with wonder, with a general sense of being agog. With sparkling eyes he recounts a conversation with his toddler about apples, and it’s apparent that through the eyes of his child he began to recover the sense of how awesome (in the original sense of the word) seemingly banal things such as an apple, which comes from a tree, which comes from the seeds of said apple, truly are. And, just like that, there is an immediate sense of the person behind the performer, and that perhaps this is one of those works where, as an audience member, part of the experience will be getting to know that person.
The awesomeness of nature juxtaposes throughout the hour with a meditation on climate change and our reaction to it and becomes one of the major themes that glues It’s Probably Nothing together. Similarly, all of the themes of this seemingly understated piece actually feel really big, such as meditations on the fuckiness around the concepts of good and bad and how tricky it is to have firm beliefs about important subjects, yet also be able to fervently love the people in one’s life (and would do anything for them) who hold fundamentally opposing beliefs.
Greenway isn’t afraid to go to places that some might deem controversial, such as the left and right political paradigms, sharing his feelings about both sides, as well as where the so-called compromise from the centre really lands us. With great passion he discusses the housing crisis, the level of vulnerability many people are facing, and how the “opportunity” to pay your landlord’s mortgage with your exorbitant rent is really a privilege these days when compared to the growing population of people experiencing homelessness. He makes it personal by recounting that his close friend has recently purchased himself a second house, the greed of which does not sit well with Greenway, yet later on he honestly grapples with the fact that this same friend is a wonderful person in every other way, a vegan who does all the right things and is there for everyone in their life.
The pacing of the storytelling is masterful. Greenway is able to weave in and out of the main story, that of the dinner at his good friend’s house, with these topics that at first seem unconnected to that story but which always find their way back home. Every time the mood reaches a crescendo of passionate heat, he’s able to bring the discussion back down through introspection and empathy, something this increasingly polarised world could use a lot more of.
Occasionally, there are little interludes that act as a pause for breath, where Greenway grabs a microphone stand from the back of the room, picks up a Snake Dictionary from the floor, a spotlight appears, and, paging through and pretending to read from said Snake Dictionary, he recites what either he “thinks,” he reckons “might be,” or what “definitely is” a poem. These poems are thoughtful and down-to-earth and loop us back to the theme of wonderment and the beauty of being alive and being alive in this world.
As a performer, Greenway is utterly captivating. With a sparkle in his eye that is beyond endearing, his wonder and enjoyment are contagious. From the very beginning, this creates a sense of familiarity in the audience, which transforms the atmosphere into one of community. His willingness to be vulnerable and honest in his storytelling and reflections of himself and the people around him, and his passion for the heated subjects he’s up for discussing directly and without metaphor, is admirable and what makes this show so very worthwhile. If only our politicians were more like this.
MELISSA KRUGER