Julia Bon-McDonald
Talking Heads released the song Heaven in 1979. Here’s the main refrain: ‘Heaven is a place, a place where nothing, nothing ever happens’. If the song is to be believed, is the inverse a place where nothing ever stops happening?
Running Into The Sun is produced by the Melbourne-based A2 Company, written and directed by Ben Ashby, and Choreographed by Nadiyah Akbar. It feels like the result of trying to write an Epic poem in 2025. Between losing opportunities for relationships and jobs, a flood in their hometown and a surprise pregnancy, main characters Ash (Ben Ashby) and Morris (Ethan Morse) can barely catch a break. They’re in that part of your twenties where it feels like life is being inflicted on you. How can they even begin to take control? How, when they’re already so fatigued by the hundreds of tiny choices they’ve already made just by getting out of bed that morning? They’re being buffeted by the storm.
Like most elements of life in 2025, Running Into The Sun is competing for your attention, and it embodies a uniquely modern sense of overwhelm in every way. The show’s elements crash into each other in a near-constant cacophony of sound, light and movement. The main actors are always accompanied, be it by projection, dance, or live jazz. The result is a frenetic energy that really, finally imparts what it feels like to live in a world where you can’t choose to opt out of knowing everything.
Running Into The Sun is a unique combination of theatre, contemporary dance, clown and live music. You wouldn’t necessarily expect all of these elements to result in something so grounded in reality, but that is the final product. While a lot of the show’s elements are somewhat abstract, the performances remain familiar and true to life. The characters are a compelling thread to follow during a show that is otherwise quite surreal, the narrative they follow is frank, funny, and so deeply relatable. I really enjoyed the wide variety of accompanying visuals that provided a backdrop to the performance - which were incredibly evocative of each scene’s mood.
Work in its development stage is special and joyful to watch, but it is such a treat to watch something so clearly practiced and refined down to its best parts. Running Into The Sun was first developed in 2021 and has since won Best Theatre at Melbourne Fringe 2024. The product we’re seeing in 2025 speaks to the amount of time and effort that has gone into developing this work. It’s impeccably edited, slick, and never misses a beat. The live band are a particular highlight, providing a fantastic audial backdrop, and beautifully punctuating comedic and poignant moments throughout the show.
Running Into The Sun is a fantastic piece of theatre and, given enough exposure, I would wager it has the potential to be a seminal piece of Gen Z artistry.
Running Into The Sun has now closed, but was on at Tapere Nui in Te Auaha from 1-4 October 2025.