What: Cookies and Cream
Who: public service announcement
When: Wednesday 6th March – Sunday 10th March
Where: Noel Lothian Hall, Botanic Gardens
Tickets: $15-25

Cookies and Cream is written by recent Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate and Adelaide born and bred Zachary Sheridan and performed by a cast of WAAPA grads (Tamara Creasey, Christopher Moro, and Elise Wilson).

School sex ed doesn’t teach young people about pleasure, nor how to navigate consent, and it sticks to heteronormative pedagogy; it’s clear that in 2019 this is sorely lacking. Cookies and Cream explores this messy space.

The play opens to Debbie. She’s sitting out the back of the Central Markets performing a séance for her broken relationship. Debbie just wants to know how it all went wrong. We are transported back 10 years to a middle school sex ed class, the teacher spluttering and awkward. This, along with a host of other problems, are the reasons she holds to blame.

Written by Sheridan, Cookies and Cream is full of funny local references that situated the story and mirrored some of my own experiences. As the story moves back and forth in time, we explore the scenes familiar to those coming of age in the 2000s: slow dancing to Hey There Delilah at a Blue Light Disco, or waiting for the dial up internet to load kissing tutorials on YouTube.

Cookies and Cream is delightful, toeing the line as it covers a serious issue in a fun and engaging way.

4 out of 5 stars