Going home can feel like jumping into the ring: all defensive stance and fists up, ready to fight the ghosts of the past to preserve the person you have become. In Dubbo Championship Wrestling, this feeling is all too real for Rose, the unhappy heir to her father Des’s cheesy, low-budget, late-night wrestling event.
This Hayes Theatre Company musical begins in a flashback to 1985, where Des (Terry Serio) and wife Cheryl (Bishanyia Vincent) are the reigning king and queen of the ring, Cheryl proudly showing off her baby bump. We then rocket forward to 2003: baby Rose (Zoe Ioannou, in a roaring performance) is now an angry teen, having left Dubbo with her mother to live in Sydney for the last 10 years.
