REVIEW: One Must Imagine The Boiling Frog Happy, Ben Volchok, Adelaide Fringe 2026 ★★★★

One Must Imagine The Boiling Frog Happy is a collection of original fables and philosophical meanderings made up mostly of middles — fitting for a mid-life crisis — told from Ben Volchok’s point of view to the children he might have in five years. They’re fairy tales for adults who feel stuck in some way.

Ben Volchok sits in a giant hot tub (I have it on good authority that this was a logistical nightmare for the theatre), with a freezer full of ice lollies to one side. It’s an absurd image, immediately intriguing. He’s welcoming and considerate, greeting everyone in the small room individually. What follows is a short prelude. The piece is inspired by his recent decision with his partner to have children. For the next hour, we are placeholders for the children he might one day have, listening as he tells his stories — mostly middle bits, with few beginnings and even fewer endings.

These stories paint the picture of someone who wrestles with choices. Small choices, like which tin of tomatoes to buy, and choices that should be easy, like deciding what happens to a character he made up. And at the core of it all, the biggest choice: building a legacy and choosing to do something that could be so beautiful, and also go so terribly wrong. Whether it is even ethical to raise a child in a world of billionaires. Or whether he might (shudder) have to get a job in arts admin. The important questions.

It reminded me of that feeling at school, being told to choose a career when you’ve never set foot inside an office. Or that feeling of watching other people choose their life paths without flinching, and wondering why they aren’t as paralysed by the paths they could have taken.

It’s relatable, sometimes painful, and a little silly. As Volchok performs his series of fables and philosophical meanderings about his third life crisis, each segment sits in a pile of water-damaged paper on top of a towel next to the hot tub. With each passage, he drops the relevant pages into the water, then pulls them out again at the end, dripping wet. I have no idea how to interpret this, but it is the kind of delightful whimsy I’ve come to expect from Volchok.

Unfortunately, I struggled with some of the lighting decisions, particularly one instance near the end. As Volchok moves toward a closing monologue, a projection from one of those star projectors with moving laser lights fills the space. I had trouble understanding how it was being used. It shook continuously and moved erratically, as if handheld, and made me feel quite nauseated. I would have preferred simply a lighting colour change — or quite literally nothing — as I lost track of the final moments while the lights moved jarringly back and forth across Volchok’s face.

Tender, thought-provoking, and silly — One Must Imagine The Boiling Frog Happy holds your hand and tells you it’s okay not to have everything figured out. It’s a hug in a fringe show, and well worth seeing.

P.S. The show does come with a free ice lolly, and I would heartily recommend getting the lemonade one — I did not, and left with unsightly pink stains on my t-shirt.

Recommended drink: Despite the promises of icy snacks, the vibe of the show pairs best with a warm cup of hot chocolate with all the toppings you could wish for. That’s right – any topping you want! Don’t spend too long choosing them though…

You can catch One Must Imagine the Boiling Frog Happy at the Cubby House at ARTHUR ARTHOUSE until Sunday 8th of March at 7.15pm. Tickets are available through the Adelaide Fringe website.