I concur with Alyson Campbell’s statement that, ‘Philpott’s plays are connected by themes of love and loneliness, pierced with the idea that we can’t know anyone fully and that, in the end, we are always alone’. Both Squid and Tamara ‘try to do things right but they fuck up anyway’. Tamara’s father, Laurence, is one of the play’s most isolated and lonely characters. His wife, wanting more, has left him for Johan and ‘her second-chance kids’. At first we have little sympathy for him. His racist slurs in front of Jasyn are cringeable and his lack of parental care for Tamara borders on neglect. We therefore don’t judge Tamara’s, ‘Cragged-up old faggot. Hate him. What chance he give me?’ (p.36), in fact we almost rally with her against him. However Lachlan’s characters are always multi-faceted. The revelation of Laurence’s HIV status changes the course of the play and the characters’ behaviours. On one level it is a subtle commentary on the continuing presence of this disease in our society and on another, an exploration of the sexual identity of a man and father now perhaps exploring his options post-separation. The nurse’s announcement to Tamara is as dreadful to her as it is to us. Who is this man? Did she ever know him? Tamara’s ridiculous fear of catching the disease whilst living with her father reflect a society that should know better after thirty years, yet still demonstrates both ignorance and bigotry. The fact that Laurence’s true sexual identity is never fully analysed or revealed is appropriate. As in his earlier play, Bison, Lachlan reminds us of the ongoing presence of HIV-AIDS in all our lives.

Ironically, the scene from which the play takes its title is the one genuine moment of connection between its lead characters. Dancing silently in a carnival tent, hooked up to iPods, Tamara and Squid experience one pure moment of happiness. Dancing face to face, listening to music selected by the other, separate and at the same time intensely together, it is a moment of sheer theatrical beauty:

We face each other in the silent disco.

I look at your eyes—your tough eyes aren’t tough aren’t hard they’re smiling. Right there and then—everything else blown away—just you and me Squid.

You so close I feel you breathe. We’ve never danced like this before.

You reach out and pull me closer to you. The way you pull me in—makes me feel like I’m the best thing in the world. (p.62)