There are some friendships you grow out of. And then there are the ones that cling to you like a bad tattoo, a shared secret, or a memory you can’t quite shake – no matter how hard you try.
Enter Tonsils + Tweezers, the debut production from Sharehouse Production Company, landing at The Old Fitz Theatre this February as part of Fitz’s 2026 Late Night programming. Running from February 17–27, this sharp, darkly funny, deeply unsettling Australian play asks a deceptively simple question:
Ever wanted to kill someone?
Not hypothetically. Not in a metaphorical, “ugh my boss” way. Like… really wanted to.
Best friends forever. Until today.
Tonsils and Tweezers are inseparable. Think Wham!. Think toothbrush and toothpaste. Think the Macbeths, but if they grew up in suburban Australia and communicated exclusively through banter, in-jokes, and emotional repression.
Their friendship is built on shared history – the kind that feels bulletproof when you’re young. But something happened. One life-altering night cracked the foundation, and now the fracture is impossible to ignore.
On the day of their high school reunion, Tweezers puts everything down, pulls out a gun, and calmly asks:
“Tonsils, ever wanted to kill someone?”
What follows is funny, horrifying, intimate, and painfully recognisable. This is a play about masculinity, violence, grief, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive – or to avoid responsibility.
A reimagining with teeth (and tweezers)
Written by Australian playwright Will O’Mahony, Tonsils + Tweezers is an Australian story through and through. The play received a Playwriting Australia National Script Workshop before going on to win the 2014 Black Swan Emerging Writers Group Best New Play Award – and now, over a decade later, its themes feel more urgent than ever.
The play interrogates the quiet, simmering violence that sits beneath “normal” masculinity. The loneliness. The unspoken grief. The way harm can feel inevitable when nobody is taught how to sit with pain.
As producer and actor Victor Xu puts it, the play “says the quiet part out loud.” It isn’t about monsters lurking outside the door – it’s about the uncomfortable truth that those monsters live much closer to home. Sometimes, they look like us.
Meet Sharehouse Production Company
Tonsils + Tweezers also marks the debut production of Sharehouse Production Company, a newly formed Sydney-based collective founded by four housemates and NIDA graduates: Jago Field, Caleb Jamieson, Caitlin Green, and Victor Xu.
Born around a “shitty rental’s kitchen table,” Sharehouse is a response to the brutal reality of early-career life in the arts – where opportunity often feels gatekept, precarious, and dependent on who you know.
Instead of waiting for permission, they decided to make their own work.
As producer and actor Caitlin Green explains, Sharehouse is about pushing back against closed doors and championing the next generation of Australian artists – onstage and behind the scenes. It’s quick, rough, and a little dirty around the edges. And that’s exactly the point.
This is theatre made out of necessity, urgency, and a deep belief in storytelling that bites back.
A killer cast (literally)
The cast is stacked with some of Sydney’s most exciting emerging performers:
- Ariyan Sharma (Dear Evan Hansen, Sydney Theatre Company; Life Is A Dream, Belvoir 25A) as Tonsils
- Victor Xu (All Boys, KXT) as Tweezers
- Toby Carey (All Boys, KXT; Black Snow 2, Stan) as Max
- Caitlin Green (Traffic Light Party, KXT) as Beth
The production is directed by Lucy Rossen, marking her debut since graduating from NIDA’s Directing MFA in 2025. Rossen brings a sharp eye for tension, rhythm, and emotional volatility – perfect for a play that can turn from hilarious to horrifying in a single beat.
Backed by a predominantly NIDA-trained creative team, this production has the polish of rigorous training paired with the reckless energy of artists who have something urgent to say.
Late-night theatre at its best
If you’ve ever been to the Old Fitz late at night, you know the deal. This is where theatre gets a little feral – in the best way. Where the proximity is close, the stakes feel higher, and the stories can afford to be messier, darker, and more dangerous.
Tonsils + Tweezers fits that slot perfectly.
This is not a comfortable watch. It comes with content warnings for abuse, animal cruelty, death, racial slurs, strong language, violence, and gun violence – and it earns every one of them. But it’s also funny. Genuinely funny. The kind of laughter that catches in your throat halfway through.
It’s a play that trusts its audience. That doesn’t moralise. That lets you sit in contradiction, discomfort, and recognition – and asks you what you’re going to do with it.
Why you should go
Because this is new Australian work, made by early-career artists who are refusing to wait their turn.
Because it’s smart, sharp, and unsettling.
Because it’s late-night theatre that actually uses the time slot for something dangerous.
Because it asks questions we’re still avoiding – about masculinity, violence, and who gets left alone with their pain.
And because sometimes the best theatre isn’t about answers. It’s about looking straight at the mess and refusing to flinch.
The details
TONSILS + TWEEZERS
The Old Fitz Theatre
17 – 27 February 2026
Tue–Sat 9:15pm | Sun 7:30pm
Preview $22 | General $27.50 (+ booking fee)
18+ venue (under 18s must be accompanied)
Late-night. Limited season. No guarantees you’ll feel okay afterwards.
Book in. Sit close. And ask yourself the question before someone else does.