Shark Bait Theatre has a formidable Fringe reputation, with previous five-star and award-winning shows setting a high bar. Their third Fringe outing, Crocodile Tears, takes aim at the world of reality TV, a realm built on the very performance of emotion its title describes.
The premise is deliciously simple: a survival-style game show, set on a desert island, is suffering from disastrously low ratings. The producers need drama, and they will get it, no matter the cost to the contestants.
The show plunges us straight into the manufactured world of tropical television, introducing five contestants who signed up for fame but are now facing starvation, exhaustion, and a series of bizarre challenges. All is not what it seems, and as the pressure mounts, the lines between performance and reality begin to dangerously blur.
A Cast of Captivating Liars
At the heart of Crocodile Tears are five brilliantly realised characters, each a stereotype polished to a high shine. We meet a conspiracy theorist convinced the moon is a projection, a pious social media influencer who preaches abstinence to her millions of followers, and a compulsive liar, among others. They are the perfect ingredients for televisual chaos.
The ensemble cast does a fantastic job of peeling back the layers of these camera-ready personas. They excel at showing the cracks in the facade, pushing through the performative “crocodile tears” to reveal the desperate, and sometimes ugly, truths underneath. “Everyone could hold the story by themselves,” and with six performers on stage, including the host, the energy is electric. It is a masterclass in subtext and simmering tension.
When The Ratings Bite Back
Just as we’re getting to know the island’s inhabitants, the first twist lands: for the viewers at home, this isn’t compelling television. The ratings are in the gutter. This forces the hand of the show’s producers and its eerily vivacious host, who introduces a new level of difficulty and a series of unnerving surprises to spice things up.
Then comes the second, darker twist: a contestant fails to return from a challenge. The satirical comedy about authenticity sharpens into a genuinely tense thriller. The remaining contestants demand answers, and the play expertly ratchets up the paranoia and fear. The physicality of the performances is stunning; the stage itself seems to barely contain their desperation as they throw set pieces and tear at their flimsy island home.
Overall
Shark Bait Theatre has done it again. Crocodile Tears is a sharp, funny, and genuinely thrilling piece of theatre that cleverly dissects our obsession with surveillance and authenticity. The script is tight, the performances are superb, and the tonal shift from biting satire to dark thriller is handled with absolute confidence. It’s a play that will make you laugh, then make you grip your seat. A Fringe must-see that proves all is fair in love and television, until it isn’t.
Review: Crocodile Tears
Summary
Shark Bait Theatre’s “Crocodile Tears” is a triumph, evolving from a sharp, satirical comedy about reality TV into a genuinely thrilling play. With a superb cast portraying fascinatingly flawed characters and a plot that ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree, this is a dark, funny, and thought-provoking piece of theatre.
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