A chilling look behind the curtain: Smokescreen makes Melbourne debut

This July, Bare Witness Theatre Company brings its provocative and critically acclaimed production Smokescreen to Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs for a six-show season, running from July 8 to 13.

Written and performed by Christopher Samuel Carroll, Smokescreen is a taut psychological drama set in 1977, where two advertising professionals – one from Big Oil, the other from Big Tobacco – meet in secret to share strategies on how to sell dangerous products to the public.

What unfolds is a gripping exchange of manipulation and moral compromise that ultimately shaped the media landscape we live in today.

“There’s a layered voyeurism in eavesdropping on the encounter in Smokescreen,” Christopher said, who also serves as artistic director of Bare Witness.

“Two men, practically strangers, enter a room and within 90 minutes the power balance between them has turned on its head and, with it, the fate of the planet.”

As Christopher explains, the characters – Glenn, a disillusioned oil executive, and Bud, a charismatic tobacco marketer – represent an invisible class of powerbrokers whose decisions have left lasting global consequences.

“These characters are not political leaders, they’re not in the spotlight, and they’re not accountable, but their actions have unimaginable consequences,” he said.

The audience becomes complicit observers of these shadowy dealings, aware of the future fallout from choices made decades earlier.

Starring Damon Baudin and Christopher, the play marks Damon’s return to the stage in a role written specifically for him by Christopher, who has known the actor since their early days in Canberra.

Inspired in part by Christopher’s own experiences teaching Business English in Paris – where several of his students worked for a major tobacco company – and a fateful conversation with a petroleum scientist on a walking tour, Smokescreen draws on real-world influence.

Works by Naomi Klein and George Monbiot, particularly George’s piece, Heat, also helped inform the narrative.

This production marks the Melbourne premiere of Smokescreen, following its successful 2022 debut in Canberra.

It’s the latest in a strong run of Bare Witness productions to tour to the city, following I Have No Enemies, SAUCE, and The Cadaver Palaver. •