Directed by Billie Aken-Tyers, 3HAMS puts a tongue-in-cheek spin on self-image and eating disorders. The play places its two characters, best friends Max (Charlie Traisman) and Ry (Makena Miller), into a fleshy dreamscape inside their collective mind. Central to the drama is an ominous glowing ham which forces the pair to confront the trauma at the core of their friendship. The viewer is taken on a whistle-stop tour through the pair’s struggles with eating and body image. 3HAMS bounces between serious discussion of trauma and light-hearted skits that satirise pervasive social manifestations of eating disorders. While delivering on a sense of psychological chaos, this back and forth is a little disorientating and damages the coherency of the main conflict between Ry and Max.  

Traisman and Miller exhibit an energetic and entertaining stage presence, engaging well with the audience and never missing a beat. The writing, however, leaves something to be desired, with some subjects brought up and never resolved, while others are expressed with the subtlety of a reversing HGV. 3HAMS is certainly entertaining and delivers wackiness in spades but this comes at the cost of the seriousness we’re expected to attribute to its more sober moments.

3HAMS, Just The Tonic At The Mash House, until 25 August, 2.25pm.