At some point in our lives, we’ve all felt a little lost, especially in those awkward hormonal teenage years when you’re trying to work out who you are and find your place in the world. Add to the mix chaotic emotions of not being hetero norm and a deep desire to just fit in, and you have some negative and painful feelings.

Which is just how lonely seventeen-year-old Maya (Megan Robinson) is feeling when her much admired school counsellor Ms Newsome (Cassie Hamilton) suggests a summer camp for teenagers like her. The camp turns out to be a conversion therapy camp disguised as Fix Yourself! for low-self-esteem-teens.

Premiering at Sydney Festival, new musical Converted aims to celebrate diversity and amplify gender-diverse voices. Although it explores some weighty issues, the play is hilarious.

Queer-written and queer-led, the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) musical was written by award-winning comedy writer Vic Zerbst with an original score by Zerbst and composer Oliver John Cameron. Zerbst was the 2020 recipient of the ATYP Rebel Wilson Commission. The established creative is also the writer of comedy film Nugget is Dead, SBS television’s The Feed and the soon to be released Optics ABC series.

Zerbst explains the camp serves as a satirical stand-in for social structures and ideologies around young people’s identities. As of April 2025, conversion therapy will be illegal in New South Wales. Queensland, Victoria, South Australian and ACT have all banned the practice, however at the time of writing, it is still practised in Western Australia, Tasmania  and the Northern Territory.

The camp run by peppy Mrs and Mr Doctor (played by Helen Dallimore and Nat Jobe) provides unique activities to help ‘fix’ the camp goers such as ‘campfire of emotional sharing’ and the ‘Mirror of Truth’, exposing feelings of vulnerability and shame.

This is a play that will pull at your heartstrings with likeable characters of many sexual  orientations. Confused, Megan Robinson (as Maya), talking one hundred miles a minute, word vomiting her awkward thoughts. Her desperation is painful and relatable. Camp Fix Yourself! success story, Horace (played by Teo Persechino), straight now (except for that one lapse in Dubbo…) planned to be Maya’s love interest but with his subtle longing glances at Kyle (Ashley Garner), you just know their match is wrong. Denver (Redd Scott), a nonbinary camper, who would rather spend time alone. Sammy (Melody Kiptoo) who isn’t sure which was her sexual orientation compass points. And then there is Bone (Teo Vergara) returning Fix Yourself! camper and firmly against conforming.

With Cameron composing pop music theatre, Zerbst has written songs that perfectly describe the moment and emotion each of the characters is feeling. The campers are encouraged to ‘fake it’ and ‘repress it’, yet the songs are performed in a way that evokes laughter, lightening the negative lyrics.

Not that you would know it, but Robinson, Persechino and Kiptoo are all making their professional debut. The talented trio is proof that Australia has talent. Every actor in this show is a star act with an incredible voice. Vergara has wonderful vocal control, accentuating the words and breaking down the lyrics. Straight boy Kyle, whose parents thought they were dropping him off at basketball camp, also turns out to have quite the voice. Unfortunately, the audience is only exposed to this for a beat; I would have liked to hear more from Garner.

Set and Costume Designer Savanna Wegman has created a bright colourful set. Special note to the diamante decorated portal stereo. Wegman is also to blame for the frightful fluro tie-dyed t-shirt dress Maya wears for the ‘Love Ceremony’. The fashion faux pas being a comedic moment, with the whole audience groaning as she pulls it over her head. The fitted white dress Ms Newsome wears is only marginally better.

ATYP Associate Director Hayden Tonazzi led the development of Converted along with Dramaturg Jane FitzGerald, who oversees the company’s writing programmes and mentors emerging writers.  

Converted results from a one-off grant of $150,000 from the NSW Government through Create NSW and the NSW Ministry of Health.

Camp, quirky and full of feeling, Converted is a reminder of the importance of being and embracing your authentic self. 5 stars.

Converted is playing at ATYP, The Rebel Theatre (The Thirsty Mile), Pier 2/3, 13A Hickson Road, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, until 25 January 2025.

For tickets visit Sydney Festival