Name: SPRUIK! at the Piazza Italia
Start: 2025-10-08T08:30:00+11:00
End: 2025-10-08T10:15:00+11:00
Location: Piazza Italia, Carlton

Spruik; verb
Promoting an idea or business, publicly and/or underhandedly.
Lygon St, in Carlton, is known for a lot of things. Food, Italians, Italian food, traffic, food, foot traffic, crime, food, and spruikers. Lygon St is unique. It’s the only street in Melbourne where people still expect to be able to just go for a walk and find somewhere decent to eat. No Google, no reviews, just vibes.
It’s also the only street in Melbourne where restaurants employ people whose sole job is enticing/harassing passing pedestrians. We call that spruiking.
Enticement can mean a lot of things - waving, dancing, yelling, begging, betting, bribing, joking, grabbing, hugging - whatever it takes to get asses in seats. It also means fending off the rival spruiker at the neighbouring restaurant.
SPRUIK! is a romantic comedy following Riley and Staz, two twenty something girls who were close in high school but never confessed their (mutual) romantic feelings.
When Staz shows up for a trial shift on Lygon St, she sees Riley not five metres away, doing the same thing she is - for the competition. As the night evolves, Staz proves a natural, but old problems soon bubble out and over. In the emotional chaos the pair break a years-old truce between the restaurants not to pursue the same customers at the same time. This drags the management, passers by, and exes into the drama, swirling together until years of repressed romantic tension come to a head.
This is the independent debut of the Dead End Collective, and the debut of the Piazza Italia as a Fringe Festival venue. It couldn't be a better pairing - like a fresh Pesto and a fine Sav Blanc. Join us for one of our free, public performances, as we transform the Piazza into a street within a street, a snapshot of Lygon's special chaos, shot through with the spirit of the classic Ephron-esque rom-com. Except, you know, gay.
PLEASE NOTE:
This is an outdoor theatre production, as an audience member you should bring your own seating (cushions, blankets, chairs), and be prepared for the event to be cancelled at short notice due to weather.