user-registration domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/gordonth/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170Born in Croydon, Clemens served his National Service where he was a weapons training instructor. When demobbed, he was offered a job as a private detective, but this involved moving to Leeds to take a training course – he preferred to remain at home instead. He worked his way up from messenger boy at advertising agency, to being a copywriter. In 1955 he had a thriller screenplay accepted by BBC TV.
Next he was a staff writer for the Danziger brothers, churning out dozens of ‘B grade’, half-hour television scripts, for series such as ‘Saber of London’ and ‘The Man from Interpol’. He then went on to write many of TV’s major classics, including ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘Danger Man’, ‘The Avengers’, ‘Adam Adamant Lives!’ and ‘Bergerac’. He even wrote the BBC TV sitcom, ‘My Wife Next Door’.
This timeless thriller from the Garrick Theatre Company can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, in Guildford. This two and a half hour play runs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 until 15th October. There are matinées on the 2nd and 9th October at 2.00 pm.
It is the year 2000 in the English countryside. All of the action takes place in a remote house, belonging to Maggie Miller, which has been converted from a windmill.
The sitting room is wood-panelled. The front door leads straight into the main room. A side door goes to the outhouse. A short staircase leads up to a small balcony with two bedrooms. Keith Abbott, with the assistance of Luke Bogaers, solidly built the fine set to Fred Petersen’s design. There is a special ‘fun’ prop by Ray Egan and Guildford Potters.
It is senior flight attendant, Maggie’s 50th birthday. She is holding a party for this special celebration.
When there is no reply to her knocking, Maggie’s fellow Air Hostess, Ann (Anna Head), lets herself into the house with the secreted key only to find a scribbled note saying that Maggie has gone down to the village to pick up her birthday cake. A few minutes later, busybody neighbour, Jenny Rayner (Fiona Forster) arrives. Jenny is upset about the lack of intimate interest being shown by her husband Peter (Rodney Palmer), and has called around hoping to catch him ‘en flagrante’ with Maggie.
Local odd-job boy, young Andy Flewin (Blake Prosser), who also fancies his chances with the older woman, calls with Maggie’s present to herself.
The front door opens and in marches Flight Captain, Terry Dexter (Ben Lowther). He is Maggie’s latest conquest. Ann confides that she intends announcing her engagement to her partner, Steve (Ben Russell), at the party – but Maggie and Steve do not turn up for the celebrations. Where could they be? Murdered?
There was a short glitch, when a surge of power knocked out the computer controlling the sound and lights. Geoff Holt and Mark Owen were magnificent in getting to system back up. This is a fault that the technicians could not foresee, but this had to be one of the fastest recoveries that I have known. Many congrats. Admiration must go to the cast who also coped with the error very well.
The red herring clues flowed fast, as the entire cast accused each other of the murder. Two particularly fine performances from Anna Head and Fiona Forster. We were kept guessing who the murderer might be, right up to the final curtain. Creepy and packed with suspense.
Talented director, Fred Petersen, is the John Farnham of the community theatre; he has had more ‘final shows’ than anyone else. Thankfully, he keeps coming back with yet another superb presentation. Fred is one of the rare breed of directors who is willing to give newcomers a chance. He also ensures that each actor fully understands the character and personality of the part they are playing.
A most enjoyable murder story, clever script, and especially well acted.
]]>This almost three-hour production can be seen at the Old Mill Theatre, Corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth each Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 pm, until Saturday 25th June. There is a Sunday matinée at 2.00 pm on the 12th and 19th June.
It is London, near Black Friar’s Bridge, in the 1990s.
Trevor Dhu and Jo Little’s set design is simple, comprising at the rear of the stage a central archway, flanked by white drapes. Above the arch is a projection screen (video effects Vanessa Gudgeon and Duncan Shaw). On each side of the side stage is a rotating dais, with a white outer wall, and on the other side, a room (built by Trevor Dhu, Lloyd Hamer, Phil Barnett). The numerous props were supplied by Paul Bray and Rex Gray.
Sadly, the scene changes were all calamities, culminating in a final disaster.
The projection screen collapsed, a curtain fell, the rotating stages took ages to align – accuracy wasn’t really that necessary. The decent sized crew did not enter the stage until the cast had left, and several seconds had passed. The instant the lights go off, everyone should be there, going immediately to their specific job. Good planning is essential. Walk on, place a prop, grab another, walk off. Don’t stand in the dark looking to see what requires attention, or what others are doing.
Then, don’t hide behind the back drapes discussing the disaster during the play – the audience can hear. You really owe it to these superb actors who have built up the tension and mood, not to ruin it. Sorry, but there was no easy way of putting this.
Dan (Jeff Watkins) has been in a relationship for some time, but has never really outgrown the ‘Mummy’s Boy’ syndrome. He works as a reporter in Fleet Street, writing obituaries. One day, as he leaves the office, he manages to grab a hippy looking girl and pull her out of the path of a taxi. The girl, Alice (Georgina Hamer), is part-time stripper and a lonely streetwise waif. Alice’s leg has a minor gash, so Dan suggests it is checked. He takes Alice to hospital, where she flirts with him.
A disinterested doctor, dermatologist Larry (Dylan Sercombe) passes the waiting room, but on seeing attractive Alice returns to check her wounds. Alice and Dan meet regularly, and soon Alice feels loved and wanted for the first time in her life, and Daniel feels needed.
A year later, Dan has had a book accepted for publication and professional photographer, Anna (Anna Head), is taking a picture for the book’s jacket. Dan asks to see Anna again, but Alice overhears. Practically in tears at Dan’s duplicity, Alice then insists that Anna takes a picture of her. This photo ends up on the wall of a museum. One day, whilst visiting the art gallery, Larry sees Alice looking at her portrait. They chat and recall the hospital incident. They continue meeting.
Soon the four friends share love, tensions and heartbreak.
John Woolrych’s superior lighting design was smoothly operated by Callum Cook. The wonderful selection of music and sound effects were operated by Vanessa Gudgeon. Wearing some of Jenny Prosser and Sue Sator’s colourful and sexy costumes, Georgina learned Alice’s stripping routine from choreographer, Claudia Cirillo.
Director, Trevor Dhu is a much admired director, who never avoids a challenge. The play ‘Closer’ is particularly difficult for the director and exceptionally demanding for the cast. Jeff, Anna and Dylan have many years of quality dramatic productions under their wings, but although Georgina has risen to the highest heights as a singer, she had never before had a dramatic role. The role of Alice is extremely challenging, possibility one of the most difficult in modern theatre, so I have to admit I was worried about a newcomer’s ability to do justice to the part. All of the characters had to show extreme levels of passion, hate, pathos and humour, combined with good chemistry and interaction. I need have had no doubts, Georgina was magnificent, and who along with her fellows gave us a brilliant interpretation of this play.
A first class version of the lives and loves of four people. Many congratulations.
]]>On arrival everyone was greeted with a free glass of champagne, delicious canapes and melodious live jazz music from Nicola Milan and Stray Cats.
The Award Night was introduced by Meredith Cook, as her co-presenter Jarrod Buttery was appearing in the first snippet from the plays seen in 2015. There followed some wonderful reminders of why The Old Mill is one of WA’s leading community theatres.
Meredith and Jarrod were in excellent fun form as they called out the names of the winners.
The actors were most pleased to have the daughter of Constance Ord – the leading light in the setting up the theatre group many decades ago – to present the Ord Award.
BEST PRODUCTION Wolf Lullaby (Director Alide Chaney)
BEST DIRECTOR Noel O’Neill (Hail Mary)
BEST ACTOR Phil Barnett (Summer of the 17th Doll)
BEST ACTRESS Anna Head (Summer of the 17th Doll)
BEST SUPPORT ACTOR Tom Rees (The One Day of the Year)
BEST S/ACTRESS Beryl Francis (Jigsaws)
BEST STAGE MANAGER Ruhama Geiger (The One Day of the Year)
BEST SET Wolf Lullaby
BEST COSTUMES Hail Mary
MEMORABLE MILLY Shirley Toohey for an outstanding performance in Summer of the 17th Doll
MEMBER OF THE YEAR Joint – John Woolrych and John Spurling
A few ‘Silly Milly Awards’ were then presented for various theatrical disasters.
A fun night that gave us all a chance to see some of the star scenes of the year.
]]>‘Silhouette’ is a thriller, written in 1997 by UK radio producer and playwright, Simon Brett. Brett won a prestigious ‘Edgar’ (short for the Edgar Allan Poe Award); he has also won – along with Raymond Chandler and John le Carré – the world’s most respected accolade for detective writers, a ‘Diamond Dagger’.
‘Silhouette’ premiered in Guildford west of London, but strangely, this ingenious play is only now having its Australian Premiere – 18 years later – again in Guildford, this time in WA. Presented by The Garrick Theatre Club as Fred Petersen’s swan song after 39 years of outstanding service, this gripping play can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. The two-hour performances are at 8.00 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until 5th December. There is one matinee on Sunday the 29th November at 2.00 pm.
The theatre has just undergone a substantial refit. Outside there are LED cable lights – changing colour – leading to the front door. The two new air con units mean that the airflow is now silent and not battling against the actors.
The new seating has been installed, positioned to allow patrons to see more comfortably. LED strips are along the aisle for security. The insulation in the roof substantially reduced aircraft noise. Every happiness and success with your ‘new’ home.
The scene is late one Friday night in the Sussex country home of two famous actors.
The set is a comfortable sitting room with a small dining room at the back, separated from the sitting area by glass doors and curtains. To the right is a staircase going up to the bedrooms. The walls are covered in various weapons and trophies from Celia’s films and stage shows. Keith Abbott built Fred Petersen’s set design.
The room is in darkness, when a car is heard entering the drive. Blue flashing lights shine through the glazed front door. Voices are heard, and someone bangs loudly on the door. There is no response, but the door is found to be unlocked. It is the police answering a 999 call from the owner, drama queen and diva, Celia Wallis (Anna Head). She had called the police, as she had just found her obnoxious and volatile actor husband, Martin (David McGarr) seated in the dining room with a bullet through his head.
As the police, with torches in hand, stagger around the sitting room trying to find the light switch, Celia descends the stairs. She has been in her bedroom and not heard their knocking. Well-organised Detective Inspector Bruton (Rhett Clarke) soon has Fisher, his detective sergeant (Terry Brown) in charge of collecting evidence with the two SOCO (scenes of crime officers) – WPC Wilkins (Alison Burke) and WPC Carter (Tania Clohessy).
Bruton starts interviewing Celia, and finds that she and her jealous husband were not on the best of terms. The new, young WPC Leach (Amber Moore) stops taking notes when a nervous young man, dressed in Celia’s pink dressing gown descends the stairs. He is grasping his head, apparently the worse for wear due to drinking champagne. Bruton discovers he is BBC radio reporter, Martin Smallwood (Pearce McGrogan) a nervous mummy’s boy, who is infatuated by Celia.
An arrest is made at the end of Act One, and Act Two shows the strange circumstances leading to the arrest.
Director Fred Petersen, one of Community Theatre’s best-loved and respected directors has decided to make this play his last – for the moment? Nevertheless, what a way to retire – with a triumph.
Geoff Holt has produced his usual high quality lighting and sound design, sadly however, the operator for the night missed almost every cue, either pre-empting or delaying a cue when the actors turned lights on and off; one was so bad that the audience chuckled.
What a brilliant, flawless cast. Every actor completely understood his or her character. The red herrings and hints were dropped with subtle skill. The delivery and body language perfect. A special mention for the three main actors, Anna as the grieving widow, Celia, Pearce as the infatuated journalist, Neville and Rhett the persistent detective, Bruton. Three outstanding performances.
Simply the best mystery play I have seen this decade.
The two and a half hour performances can be seen at the heritage-listed, Old Mill Theatre on the corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth (opposite the Windsor Hotel and Australia Post). This is the third of the all-Australian plays being presented by the Old Mill Theatre Group to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015.
The performances are at 8.00 pm on a Thursday Friday and Saturday nights until 20th June, with a 2.00 pm matinee Sunday 14th June.
The play is set in Emma’s home in Carlton, Victoria during the summer of 1953. The scene is a typical working class house, clean but basic. There is a table and four chairs centre stage, a twin settee, patio windows with a garden outside and stage right, a staircase leading to the bedrooms (Props Emma Ketley). The walls are the popular post-war colour – dove grey, the floor is mottled linoleum. The set was built and decorated by Trevor Dhu, Tim Prosser, Sarah Christiner, Patrick Whitelaw, and Rex Gray.
Jenny Prosser and Diane Zaikos perfectly captured the era with the button up the front dresses and the floral, semi-flare frocks for the young ones.
Olive (Anna Head), who is in her early thirties, still lives at home with her powerful, controlling but loving mother, Emma Leech (Shirley Toohey). The mother is awaiting the annual return of her two lodgers, Barney (Jarrod Buttery) and Roo (Phil Barnett), a couple of rough, but kind, sugarcane cutters who work all winter and return to Melbourne for five months at the end of the harvesting season. They have done this for years; this will be their 17th summer at Mrs Leech’s house. This year, Barney’s regular girl, Nancy will not be there for him.
Olive, who can barely contain herself at the thought of seeing Roo again, is sitting on the settee chatting to her haughty, smartly dressed friend, Pearl (Jennifer McGrath). Olive has arranged a blind date for recently widowed Pearl, with larrikin Barney; however, in fear, narrow-minded Pearl is close to backing out. Bubba (Jesse McGinn), the twenty-two year old Woolies shop girl, who has lived next-door all of her life, listens on in wonder.
When the lads arrive, Roo presents Olive with yet another kewpie doll, confirming his love for her. This year, instead of being flush with money to fritter on his beloved Olive, Roo is broke. To make things worse, he is depressed because another cane cutter, Johnnie Dowd (Patrick Whitelaw), may be after his job.
This summer is going to be very different to those of the past.
Director, Trevor Dhu, has proved over the years what a most capable and talented director he is; rarely does he tackle something simple such as a comedy, preferring to go for a complex character study or a highly dramatic script.
This Classic is capable of being ‘acceptable’ with very little input from cast or director, but when you see it performed by such a highly skilled, amateur team, their result could be acceptable in any professional theatre.
The story requires the cast to change from being jovial friends, to a situation of harsh tension and tragedy. The cast has to bare the raw souls of their characters, and in today’s climate, it was truly disturbing to see the sexism and domestic violence, along with the extreme depression and tension caused by financial problems only a couple of generations ago. Trevor has guided his exceptional cast to give wonderfully powerful performances. Andy Fraser’s leadership with the confrontational scenes ensured the cast made the audience squirm in their seats. Exceptional performances by Shirley Toohey and Anna Head.
Sadly, the lighting left me a little disappointed and confused. A New Year firework display could have shown more imagination and had better sound effects. Then, when the drama was reaching a climax, the dining room lights suddenly went out, and the actors were picked out by a spotlight. A few sentences later, the lights came swiftly back up. The couple moved across the room, and the lights rapidly dimmed, leaving the actors off their mark for the next spotlight. Once again, the lights shot back on. No subtlety. Sorry, it ruined the crucial flow. A very slow fade in and out might have worked, but the actors must hit their mark accurately, as though in a TV production. I understand that this lighting design has now been modified.
The play finished with no curtain call, an unusual choice to make, but one that seemed to work well, as the traumatic tension of the play could have been extinguished in seconds by a smiling line up.
Gee, the community theatre standard is magnificent this year. Certainly another treasure to seek out. Many congratulations.
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