REVIEW: The Agent - Zebramez Creative, Anywhere Festival

The Agent

Presented by Zebramez Creative at Anywhere Festival Brisbane

Written by Meryn Cooper

Directed by Mel Poole

Assistant Director: Sebastien Skubala

Movement Director: Megan Hind

Stage and Props Manager: Isabel Folland

“It’s important to look successful.”

The Australian housing market already feels like a spy thriller. There are secret offers, suspicious phone calls, emotional manipulation, people lurking around houses they cannot afford, and a constant feeling that someone knows something you don’t.

There is something uniquely humiliating about trying to secure housing in Australia. Add in the words “property manager” and I personally begin preparing for psychological warfare. So when The Agent turned real estate agents into secret agents, complete with inflated egos, office farce and a giant amount of self-importance, it did not feel like a huge leap.

The experience began before the play did, with the program presented like a top secret document and the audience entering as though we were attending an auction. It was a clever little framing device that immediately put us in the right state of mind. The venue itself, The Warehouse in Milton, was being sold to us by Phoebe Maher’s brilliantly named Jane Bond, who enthusiastically auctioned it off for a casual $1.9 million. Bargain, really.

At the centre of the story was Michelle Schrodinger, played by Meryn Cooper, an ambitious real estate agent determined to land a major sale before the Real Estate Agent of the Year Awards. Cooper’s author’s note explained that the show came from her own frustration with the housing market, and that came through clearly. The script took the dehumanising process of renting, buying, applying, inspecting and being judged by your financial worth, then filtered it through farce rather than fury. The real estate agent/secret agent pun was very much on the nose, but that was part of the fun. The writing had clearly come from lived experience, because the satire was painfully recognisable.

Cooper was excellent as Michelle, with the exact voice of a real estate advertisement: bright, polished and smooth enough to sell you a granny flat as a “rare opportunity.” Michelle was relentless, self-important and entirely convinced she was the hero of her own action film, especially when she responded to a buyer stating “My mother recently passed…” with “Wonderful!” Horrifying, yes. Unfortunately accurate. Plus, her power suit was fabulous, and the chunky old-fashioned key necklace was a brilliant costume detail.

Jamie Delmonte was very funny as Brad, the flamboyant receptionist who was loveable, dramatic, and spectacularly bad at his job. Brad danced, did the splits, ignored responsibilities and seemed personally attacked by the office phone ringing (relatable). His side plot involved bloating and constipation caused by his diet, which is not my personal favourite genre of humour, but the audience certainly enjoyed it. Delmonte threw himself into Brad’s chaos, making him impossible not to enjoy, even when the jokes got a bit, well, digestive.

Sarah McNally brought a dry, efficient bite to Joan McGroan, the office worker who seemed to have long ago made peace with the fact that nobody around her was competent. She used AI, social media gimmicks, and whatever else was available to keep the machine moving. McNally gave her a practical kind of cynicism, making Joan one of the most quietly funny characters in the office.

Sam Herbertson was surprising as Jock Lovegrove, the increasingly unhinged “No Junk Mail” bloke who was desperate to stop the flood of real estate advertising invading his life. His escalating attempts to get the agents to leave him alone were wonderfully bizarre, and the reveal that he was also a sexy radio personality added a ridiculous extra layer.

Phoebe Maher made a kooky impression as Jane Bond. Her auction-style opening established the world quickly and gave the audience an immediate sense of participation. Damian Smith also had great fun as the self-inflated MC of the awards, capturing the smug, glossy atmosphere of industry events where everyone is clapping for themselves. The whole ensemble worked well together, leaning into the exaggerated tone and creating the atmosphere of a workplace where everyone seemed busy, but somehow nothing useful was happening.

Under Mel Poole’s direction, assisted by Sebastien Skubala, the production kept moving with a brisk, playful pace. The production did not need elaborate design to make its point. The world was built through tone, costume, props, performance style and recognisable real estate vocabulary. Beneath the ridiculousness was a very real frustration with the housing system and the emotional toll it takes on people trying to secure something as basic as a home. You are expected to perform stability, success, and desirability, whether you are renting, buying or just trying to exist somewhere with walls and a roof.

The twist ending gave the whole thing a satisfying final kick, pulling the show together with a cheeky sense of theatrical payoff. It was a strong ending for a work that clearly had plenty of affection for spy tropes, office farce and the shared national trauma of property listings.

The Agent was silly, self-aware, and painfully familiar. For anyone who has ever rented, bought, inspected, applied, been outbid, received unsolicited junk mail, or been told a glorified cupboard has “potential,” this one hit close to home.