How Can You Sleep at Night? – Melbourne Fringe

It’s the end of the world. The human race is running full steam towards its demise and the threat of being superseded by highly intelligent gelatinous zooplankton has never been more real – surely nothing to lose any sleep over.

Christian Taylor invites us into the weird world of his sleepless imagination in his debut solo show How Can You Sleep at Night? Accompanied by one profoundly creepy jellyfish, he muses on the kind of arbitrary facts that one might likely ponder at four in the morning – the exact size of the universe, the mechanics of ballroom dancing, theoretical physics, and the imminent doom of the planet.

As he desperately strives to put his worried mind to rest, whimsical images of stars and black holes quickly become poignant analogies for the crushing and seemingly inescapable grip of anxiety, depression and grief.

The show’s design is simple and effective, with much of Taylor’s surreal, shifting dreamscape realised through clever use of simplistic lighting states, and the power of his own thoughtfully gestural performance. Manically cheerful, yet forever teetering on the brink of emotional collapse, Taylor has the stunning power to win you heart and then break it all in the same breath.