Written by award-winning Youth fiction writer and playwright Laura Lundgren Smith, Dark Road, has poignant impact in Australia post the December 2025 Bondi terrorist attack, but equally important is its universal message about human frailty, challenge and allegiance. 

Directors Alicia Zorkovic and Brant Eustice have carefully harnessed the passion and idealism that young actors bring to performance. This well-balanced, 13-person ensemble is led by Milly Grainger as Greta, a diminutive, beautifully costumed and coiffured actor, who delivers an unrelenting portrayal of a brain-washed survivor of poverty and disadvantage who takes becomes a guard in a prisoner of war internment camp. 

Jasmyn Setchell, as Lise is well-costumed and convincing as the younger, morally principled sister who struggles with her sister’s transformation into blind cruelty and moral turpitude. As a journalist chronicling stories of survivors and perpetrators, Marcus Murdoch embodies the role of Dailmer. He is the spoken conscience keeper, the living mirror to an era of horror that must not be forgotten and is still with us in 2026 in a new guise. 

Zorkovic and Eustice use subtle staging techniques like seating the whole ensemble on the edges of the performance area; a chilling reminder of how often and easy it is to be a silent bystander in horrific times. 

Dark Road serves as a 50-minute conscience call, reminding us that ‘where there is light, there are shadows’. It is also a very good example of the importance of youth theatre as a teacher and a voice that shapes and informs our future.