In a city of over five million people, would you notice if one person disappeared?

Written by Lachlan Philpott, Colder explores the notion of missing. What it means for a mother, a friend, a lover, and a one-night stand. Loosely based on the disappearance of Philpott’s former flatmate, Simon Knight, who went missing in 2005, Colder has an eerie feeling about it, heightened by the fact that it is almost winter – a time when people close to missing persons typically lose hope.

In Colder, David (Matthew Walker) disappears twice in his life. Once at Disneyland, leaving his mother Robyn (Catherine Terracini) in hysterics for a day; once later in life, as an adult, leaving his mother with containers of Tupperware, his friend Kay with a son and his partner Ed with many unanswered questions.

The play jumps through time, juxtaposing David’s disappearance at Disneyland and David’s disappearance in Sydney, and the cast perform with finesse, although the characters seem a little too stereotypical to be believed.

The script is tight and it is good to see a play incorporating homosexuality into the text rather than being token. The Sydney landmarks tossed-about in the play (Oxford street, Gay skate) bring home the reality of missing people, although did make the performance seem a bit self-conscious.

Direction, by Katrina Douglas, was superb. The cast shifted effortlessly into new roles, and from being mournful to super-happy in a second. Nathaniel Scotcher as Ed was particularly a moving performance, and his character was probably the most interesting. Megan O’Connell (Disneyland attendant Jean as well as the pregnant Kay) overacted a little, but that’s sure to change as she relaxes into the role.

Overall, Colder felt as though it was part of a much larger production. There were references made that weren’t entirely clear – such as the question of Kay’s son, was David the father? And David’s mother made reference to an uncle Ed, and an imaginary friend Ed, insinuating that this uncle Ed had something to do with David’s disappearance aged 10. Whether this insinuation meant that David had been abused as a young boy was never made clear. To leave the audience jumping to stereotypical conclusions is not desirable and the play could have stood well without what seemed like unnecessary padding.