My Brilliant Apocalypse Part I: The Return of Barry Brilliant

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https://www.mybrilliantapocalypse.com/stage

Date Reviewed: 07/08/2026

What happens when the multiverse collides with a man having a midlife crisis, a shadowy global elite, and a spaceship headed for Mars? If you are lucky, you get My Brilliant Apocalypse, the delightfully unhinged, proudly Australian theatrical series created and performed by Adrian D'Aprano, currently making waves on the Melbourne fringe theatre scene.

The premise alone is enough to earn your curiosity. Sir Barry Brilliant, once the world's wealthiest man, finds himself homeless and unmoored, while his creator, the Author, wrestles with the existential fallout of his own unfinished magnum opus. From there, the story spirals outward into quantum jumping, multiverse theory, a passenger vessel to Mars, and the shadowy machinations of a globalist elite with designs on every universe in existence. It is an enormous amount of ground to cover, and My Brilliant Apocalypse covers it with the kind of wide-eyed, irreverent energy that is distinctly, unmistakably Australian.

The dialogue is the production's sharpest asset. D'Aprano writes with genuine wit, and the comedy lands consistently, drawing on the dry, self-aware humour that Australian audiences will recognise immediately and embrace without hesitation. There is a particular pleasure in watching large, genuinely strange ideas rendered in the vernacular of everyday Australian speech, and the script does this with confidence and timing. The laughs are earned, not forced.

D'Aprano's performance as Barry Brilliant is the anchor the whole production needs and gets. He inhabits the character with total commitment, moving between the comic and the earnest with a naturalness that keeps the audience invested even when the plot reaches its most gloriously chaotic extremes. Barry is a creation worth spending time with, and D'Aprano ensures you never want to look away. Carrolyn Moczynski brings impressive range and shape-shifting energy across multiple roles including Jacinta Brilliant and the Therapist, while Sue Rosenwax is a seasoned, reliable presence across an equally broad character portfolio. Young Alex Rohr-D'Aprano, playing a version of himself, demonstrates a natural ease and comic timing that speaks well of things to come.

The production design punches well above its fringe budget. The strobe lighting and sound design work together to create a genuinely futuristic atmosphere, immersing the audience in a world that feels simultaneously absurd and strangely plausible. These are not incidental technical choices. They are doing real dramatic work, and the team behind them deserves credit for the cumulative effect.

If there is an honest reservation to be raised, it is one of pacing. My Brilliant Apocalypse is an ambitious, multi-part saga, and at times the production leans into that ambition a little too generously. Certain sections stretch where they might benefit from tightening, and the energy that crackles through the opening acts can occasionally dissipate before the next peak arrives. A sharper editorial hand in places would serve the material well and let the genuine highlights breathe more freely.

But these are the growing pains of something that is clearly still finding its fullest form. My Brilliant Apocalypse is the kind of original, uncompromising creative vision that fringe theatre exists to nurture, and with Parts II through V still to come, the story is far from over. If the multiverse really does contain vortexes created by unfulfilled creative expression, D'Aprano is doing his part to close them.

Reviewed by Anushka