Old Collegian Francis Greenslade (St Mark’s 1981-85) was in Adelaide recently to launch his play The Platypus at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. While in town, Francis popped into St Mark’s to help us with a special project.

An accomplished television and comedic actor known for Winners and Losers and Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell, Francis can now count playwright amongst his many talents. His first original play, The Platypus, is enjoying a successful run at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

While in Adelaide, Francis kindly agreed to provide the voiceover for a special video produced by 2025 College Club Committee President Cameron Dixon. This video would later be showed to over 1,000 guests at our Centenary Gala Dinner, evoking much joy and nostalgia – and the brilliant voiceover certainly elevated its impact.

During his visit to St Mark’s, we had an opportunity to chat with Francis about The Platypus. When asked about the premise of his play, he first describes a black comedy about a relationship that goes wrong and whether the two partners can put it right or not.

“It’s a universal story: everyone’s been there, everybody knows about breakups,” Francis said. “My inspiration came from seeing plays that were about extraordinary or fantastical things – not that there’s anything wrong with plays about extraordinary or fantastical things – but it made me want to write a play where the audience can see themselves, where you can come to the theatre, sit down, and see yourself on stage. I wanted to achieve that kind of relatability but in a theatrically interesting way.”

But there’s a twist: the story is brought to life through a smorgasbord of easter eggs for theatre lovers.

“I didn’t just want to write a play about people shouting at each other,” Francis said. “I’m telling the story through different genres of theatre: stand up, musical numbers, and there’s even ventriloquism. It’s a grab bag of curiosities.”

And the name?

“The platypus is a strange animal made of all these different bits and pieces, and that’s what the play is like,” Francis said.

Performed brilliantly by John Leary (The Good Place, Upper Middle Bogan) and Rebecca Bower (Offspring, Wentworth), The Platypus has already garnered a five-star review from Glam Adelaide, with writer Tracey Korsten calling it “theatre at its absolute best.”

Thank you, Francis, and congratulations on your successful playwright debut!

The Platypus is now showing at the Adelaide Fringe. It will conclude its run on Sunday 23 March, 2025. Tickets are available here.