REVIEW: Taruna Jayawardhana's 'A Classic Tale' – Liam Hartley

Taruna Jayawardhana's 'A Classic Tale' – Liam Hartley

Picture this. You’re back in a Grade 8 English classroom, trying to present your “unconventional fairytale” assignment with a straight face. That exact energy is what Liam Hartley captures and turns into a full night of theatre and comedy.

The premise alone had me hooked. A former classmate of Liam's, Taruna Jayawardhana, wrote this wildly memorable story as a teenager. Years later, Liam asks if he can turn it into a show. And his response is essentially “umm sure?” Armed with Taruna’s original exercise book, full of drafts, edits, and all the charm of teenage writing, Liam builds an entire performance around it. It plays out as a narrated, live-action PowerPoint presentation. The notebook becomes this treasured artefact, while the slides, designed with illustrations from friends and family, bring the story to life. The timing of the PowerPoint is spot on. Jokes land exactly when they should, visuals pop up at just the right moment, and it all feels very intentional without losing that scrappy, homemade feel that suits the story perfectly.

The comedy is baked into the writing itself. Character names that sound suspiciously familiar. Entire locations that seem casually borrowed. Dialogue that is so simple it circles back to being iconic. Plot points appear, disappear, and reappear with absolutely no concern for logic. Liam leans into all of this with a kind of theatrical analysis, gently (then aggressively) calling it out, while also celebrating it. It feels like sitting next to a very funny friend who is flipping through their old schoolwork and absolutely losing it.

Liam moves between storyteller, commentator, and performer without ever dropping the energy. It is a lot to carry solo, but Liam holds the room with complete ease. It is almost a one-man show, but not quite... because a few brave, self-selected audience members are pulled in to portray characters, and these moments are some of the best of the night. Watching someone commit to playing a dragon in a onesie, guided through the madness, is exactly as funny as it sounds. The audience participation is handled with care, so it feels playful rather than awkward.

This is very much my kind of show. I am a big kid at heart. Give me fairytales, a bit of nonsense, and comedy that does not take itself too seriously. This show ticks all of those boxes. Plus, there are plenty of surprises woven through that I will leave for you to discover, but it definitely keeps you on your toes!

What I loved most is how it honours that original piece of writing. All the randomness, all the questionable choices, all the imagination. It turns something that could have stayed forgotten in a school book into a shared experience full of laughter. A Classic Tale lives up to its name, just not in the way you expect. I would happily sit through this tale again!