The 70-minute performances of this Renegade / Harriet Roberts co-production can be seen in the main theatre of the Blue Room, James Street, Northbridge commencing at 7.00 pm each evening until Saturday 30^th April.

There is a single row of chairs around this ‘in the round’ set.

The set, designed by Cherish Marrington, comprises a 3-metre, circular platform, raised about 15 cms off the floor. It is patterned with old Gaelic symbols; this is seaside shack of the fisherman. Stage managed by Meabh Walton.

White gauze is draped towards the centre of the ceiling. Thin strips of polythene hang from the roof, and with the clever lighting (designer, Joe Lui) the overall effect is of realistic icicles and snow – very appropriate for the north of Scotland. The lighting temperature changed with the mood of the script.

        The lights rise to show a creature (Cherish Marrington also designed the costumes), with fur on its shoulders, long clawed fingers and a thin skin that showed the bone structure and blood vessels beneath. It is a Selkie (Yilin Kong). She is slithering and undulating her way around the beach, stalked by a fisherman (Kynan Hughes) who is carrying a towel. He is trying to wrap and protect the creature that is shivering and distressed.

      Back in the house, a young girl, Rónnad (Ella Hetherington) is waking up. Immediately she starts searching for something that she has lost, but she is interrupted by the fisherman (Paul Grabovac) who found her lying on the beach after a storm.

      The lonely fisherman took her to his home and is now trying to get some strength back into her frail body. It is a long time since he has enjoyed company in his house. He tries her with various foods, but she has a penchant for fish.

      This is a sad tale of deep love and affections that appears doomed from the start, but can adoration overcome the problems?

 

O’Branagáin’s tale was first released to the Curtin Uni theatre students about 6 months ago, allowing the author to see how the script worked on stage. Playwright, Finn, has made small changes to the dialogue for this presentation.

At the Hayman Theatre in Curtin, it was beautifully performed as a simple tale. Now, the much-admired director of this show, Joe Lui, has further developed the story, giving it a clever, second dimension; this is a flashback that looks at what happened weeks earlier, whilst the main story is being enacted centre stage. The result is skilful and intriguing, but possibly a little too ingenious and complex (?).

As with all of Joe Lui’s plays, the soundscape includes specially composed music coupled with complex sound effects. This show ranges from thunderous storms to soft – almost inaudible – sensitive melodies.

Talented choreographer, Laura Boynes, has been given a wonderful pair of gifted dancer to direct. Kynan and Yilin seem to float across the stage as though they were frolicking in the ocean. Yilin gave a heart pulling performance as she lay exposed to the elements twitching on the beach, you could feel her suffering. Ella and Paul, who have had numerous acting nominations over the years, added greatly to the depth of this unusual tale.

An exceptional show of movement, love and deceit.

This  50-minute, adult show is part of Summer Nights for 2016 FRINGE WORLD, and can be seen each night at 6.00, until 20^th February at the Blue Room Studio in James Street, Northbridge.

The scene is an old fashioned bar, with tasteless tables and chairs. To the side of the bar is a wall, which every time an unpleasant event takes place, another glowing crack creeps from the floor to the ceiling, depicting how the situation is fracturing. The clever lighting and set design is by Liam Kirwan.

        Esther (Bethwyn Legg) has owned and run The Cellar Bar for a decade, but now it is about to close, and Esther is looking forward to opening her new, upmarket club. Seated, in the corner strumming on his guitar – as he has done for years – is Max (David Gregory).

       Into the bar strolls stunning Rhizzy (Dixie Johnstone) the club’s jazz singer. She walks up to the microphone and purrs her moody and deeply emotional songs. Max is furious, as the previous night – half way through her performance – with no warning or explanation, Rhizzy had walked out.

       The bar door flies open, and in stomps Esther’s heart-broken Uncle Zac (Keith Scrivens). He is still grieving the death of his young daughter, who died on this day some years earlier. There is an ‘elephant in the room’ atmosphere, but no one is too sure why.

Director, Peter Clark, has built up a wonderful mix of tension and curiosity, as the skilfully constructed play unfolds. Dixie had a superb voice, and a style matched perfectly to the lyrics. The acting ranged from love and caring, to pure belligerence, and the audience certainly felt for the characters’ suffering. This is a very unusual play, powerfully presented by a top-notch cast.

Another hit for Vivienne Glance.

This bold, confrontational and wild comedy is presented by Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights and Circlestances Productions – under Jay Emmanuel as producer.

Randa is touring the Australian fringes with this delightful show that was ten years in the making.

The stage is black, the only prop being a handbag crammed with unusual items. The lighting and sound operator was Daley King.

       The Sydney bus sways through Redfern, and a young Arab Muslim woman (Randa Sayed) in her late teens / early twenties, notices an Indian lad admiring her. With such a strict upbringing and so many austere religious codes controlling her life, she has never thought about men. That night in bed she started to think about what she was missing, and the consequences of becoming like her heroes, Beyoncé or Kim.

       Unfortunately, her imagination is well ahead of her practical skills, this poor frustrated girl cannot even say ‘Hello’ to a boy, but will she change? Is there even the slightest chance of her getting a man?

 

By combining this piece of interactive acting and theatre sports, Randa has created her own new genre. Although this was a very funny, multi-layered, comedy, there was always that an undertone of sadness, as this girl who was highly religious – at times with tears in her eyes – wanted to be like other girls of her age, but was torn by loyalty and religion.

Over the whole act, Brigitta Brown did a magnificent, flawless voiceover revealing Randa’s thoughts and desires. With Brigitta’s pace and enunciation, I thought that this was a carefully recorded backing track; the live voice, however, added to the freshness of the performance.

Randa had superb mime movements and an amusingly expressive face. The whole act was filled with energy and action as the actor moved around the stage.

A very pleasant surprise from a well-rehearsed, talented team.

This 65-minute Ellandar Production, under the supervision of producer Belinda Huggins, has been developed with assistance of The Ground Floor Program. It can be seen in the main theatre at The Blue Room in the Perth Cultural Centre, James Street, Northbridge nightly at 7.00 until Saturday the 5^th December.

To left of the stage is the gifted musical director, Suzanne Kasowits, providing – live – a varied soundscape and playing the double bass.

Designer, Tessa Darcey has designed a set (built by Josh Walker) around a collection of high daises. There is a sitting room with a bar area on the higher level; at ground level, towards the side of the stage, is a hospital bed. Lighting designer, Emma Caitlin Brown has effectively created the warmth of the home and the stark white light of the hospital ward. The stage manager was Daley King.

       Naomi (Erin Jay Hutchinson) is about to have her thirtieth birthday, and whether or not it is due to the horror of reaching her third decade, she is confused and possibly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Who better to help her than her best friend, Tegan (Esther Longhurst)? Tegan is a theoretical science nerd, who believes that every problem in the universe can be answered by the scientific logic of quantum mechanics; whether it is world pollution or a family problem.

Tegan and Naomi chat about recent events, such as why Naomi left her boring, Bible-thumping husband (Nick Maclaine) for a more stable, exciting life with a highflying solicitor, John (Josh Walker).

      Did Naomi do the right thing by leaving her husband? What were the alternatives? What if she had been someone else in the same circumstances?

Jess has created an intelligent, interwoven script with fresh ideas and brilliant dialogue. The storyline has you wondering at first what is happening, then like a jigsaw the piece fall satisfactorily into place.

The play starts with scat singing – improvised jazz singing – a very difficult technique to conquer, but the cast were most competent. At several points in the play, Erin gave us a powerful and touching solo. Her singing and musical delivery were outstanding.

This poignant tale has some very moving moments, superbly acted by the two female leads. You can really feel their anguish.

Jess Messenger’s direction, mentored by Humphry Bower, creates fascination in the storyline whilst holding the attention. Most of the cast are renowned for their comedy plays, and so conquering this deep, fast moving drama was a new challenge. The characters were real, alive and instantly recognisable. Great work by a well-respected team.

Multiple sclerosis is a disability that is brought about by poor nerve signal transmission to the muscles. This makes the muscles unreliable in supporting the skeletal frame. Signals travel along the nerves but if the myelin sheath – a soft fatty insulation around the nerve (the white matter in question?) – has blockages or breaks in it, then short circuits take place and the signal does not reach the muscle and so the muscle does not work smoothly.

I saw the exceptional female cast of Isabella Stone and Zoe Wozniak. The male cast I believe was also superb, consisting of Harrison Elliott and Scott Elstermann.

         Two sisters are walking together when one wobbles and falls over. She has waves of neurological changes passing over her body. We see the able sister help her home. Like many people with MS the sick sister tries various ‘cures’ such as reiki and exercises.
         The patient tries various foods only find that some upset her digestion, especially when the swallow reflex is not working properly. The siblings practise exercises to aid co-ordination, but the nerve synapses (junctions between nerves) still don’t work too well. We see the doctor check eye movements for faults in the tracking ability.

The choreographer has added many more points that MS suffers struggle with every day. Shona’s observation and understanding of the condition is outstanding. With clever lighting from Chris Donnelly, she shows vividly how the vision can fade and how colours can change from day to day.
Designer Chloe Flockart stark black surroundings add to the picture of the struggle taking place. The tintinnabulations of sound designer Chris Cobilis, and the backing sounds suggest the instability in the patient’s mind; this is followed by the heavy heartbeat of the struggle. The show is stage managed by Georgia Smith / Meabh Walton.
Shona Erskine and her wonderful contemporary dancers, who danced and flexed for 50 minutes, managed in an abstract way to portray an experience of living with multiple sclerosis.
This is not a depressing show, but rather an informative lesson about the condition and the intense love and support that two siblings have for each other.
Thank you to all concerned for bringing this sad and only too common condition to the stage in such a clever and moving way. Amazing.

This hour long World Premiere can be seen at the Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, 53 James Street, Northbridge at 7.00 each evening until 7^th November.

The anteroom has a display of various items, central to the lives of some of the characters. The main auditorium is painted black, there is a swing hanging central stage; this also acts as a house window. There are a couple of other clever surprises (Set designer India Mehta). A great deal of the atmosphere was thanks to the inventive lighting by Tegan Evans.

       The cast enter the stage one at a time, looking and chatting to the audience as though they were arriving to see the show. Then one of the cast starts to tell us about an 8 yr. old boy, Tim, who lived in the area about 1955, the austere period shortly after the Second World War. the year is now 1972.

       Middle-aged Clyde (James Sollis) is about to leave for his house-to-house collection, on behalf of the Heart Foundation. His fawning wife (Janet Pettigrew) pins his badge of authority to his chest before he leaves.

      Down the street he calls at the Daveron home, where the shy and nervous music teacher, Olive (Nichola Renton) gives a donation, however, Tim gets something more rewarding – special gossip about Olive’s Irish husband, salesman Mick (Andrew Hale). Next door to the Daveron’s home is the rather strange and bad tempered, Mr Figgis (Kingsley Judd).

      In another house, Ms Le Cornu (Anna Brockway) spends most of her life dressed in her Japanese dressing gown. What can be her contribution to the street, and what is her dark secret?

      Could the local wildlife be a true indication and reflection of how healthy the human lifestyle is in the street?

This wonderful tale of life in an Australian street has many similarities to Dylan’s ‘Under Milkwood’; with poetic passages and the interlinking of the complex characters. Andrew Hale, the director has developed the personalities beautifully, with some of the delightful and most experienced cast playing two or three different characters. These exceptional, richly observed occupants show us a full range of moods, traits and emotions.

The body language and the general finicky attitude of the street’s tenants, have been developed with clever choreography by Claudia Alessi. The action is fast moving and the pace breakneck at times. The treatment of a damaged cockatoo is guaranteed to raise the emotions.

The musical composition by Ash Gibson-Greig, and the soundscape from Will Slade are subtle and perfectly conceived, excelling in their understatement. Heavy handedness could easily have ruined the effect.

It is no surprise that Patrick White is Australia’s most respected writer, and this brilliant troupe have given us a magnificent rendering of his striking play.

Finn was a finalist in the Youth of the Year award for Northern territory, and Scott has been a poetry finalist four times – twice in the World Cup.

The 70-minute performance can be seen in the main Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge at 7.00 pm every night, until Saturday 13^th June.

The Auslan interpreter, Christy Filipich, is available on one night only, Thursday 11^th June – and the very best of luck Christy with the Finnish story!!

Desmond Tan designed the set; it comprises a dozen, 60 cms high, black cardboard, snow-capped mountains standing on the floor. The rear wall depicts a massive mountain range. The symbolised flight of snow geese were flying past; these ‘birds’, the scenic Alpine houses and trees, were made by Crystal Lim, Tonia van der Helm and Michael Cassells. Further visual effects were projected onto the wall. Lighting designer was Joe Lui and Tom Hogan composed the creepy music.

      On entering the auditorium, the audience receive a warm welcome from the two beaming performers. Finn is dressed in a classic little black dress, Scott in a grey suit and shirt, with a checked bow tie.

     Within seconds, you become aware that Finn is the sensitive, precise storyteller and that Scott, with a cheeky grin, will not let accuracy come in the way of a good yarn.

     Scott starts the tales, gleaned from around the world, which cover many millennia. He began with ‘Homer’s Iliad’, I quietly cringed having studied it in Latin, at school for 3 years, but now, smiles came to all the faces. Scott carefully picked out the relevant highlights of the stories, and added his own irreverent slant to the whole tale.

      The zany couple explain how, by Chinese whispers, the stories have changed over the centuries. Finn gave us a beautiful rendition of a story from Mesopotamia, rapidly followed by a gory vampire saga from the cinema.

      Scott, with perfect diction, related the Finnish folk myth, Kalevala. This was 1,000 pages of folklore crammed into about 6 minutes of rapid-fire monologue. The complexity of the script, the numerous story threads, the pace make this one of the most memorable orations that I have ever seen, it must have taken weeks to learn.  Both performers used their bodies to enhance the vivid descriptions of the heroic stories.

WA’s admired writer / director Jeffrey Jay Fowler, along with writer and WA’s Queen of the stand-up comics, Andrea Gibbs, mentored the stars and writers of this show.

Towards the end of the show, Finn confided that Scott Sandwich might not be her partner’s real name, thank goodness, as Google’s Urban Dictionary describes Scott Sandwich as a link between peanut butter and a posterior – too much information? You should read the dictionary! We never did find his real name.

This storytelling is unique; you have never seen the like before. The raconteurs have picked fascinating tales, and with a little poetic licence, produced a really fun night, with smiles guaranteed.

This 55-minute presentation by The Blue Room Theatre and the dynamic WA group, ‘Third Culture Kids’ – led by Mustafa Al Mahdi and Tanya Dharmapala – can be seen at the Blue Room’s Main Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge each evening at 7.00, Tuesday until Saturday. The season runs until Friday 29^th May.

Muslim artists, who have lived in the Middle East, have produced the fascinating art exhibition that accompanies this show. Unfortunately, this is in the anteroom to the auditorium and can only really be seen after the performance, thus causing a possible bottleneck as the patrons leave. Due to the harsh censorship and taboos, many artworks could have resulted in possible death in their homeland. The International artwork is a stunning meld of East and West.

The set is totally black, with a single armchair in the corner.

All of the technicians for this play were WAAPA trained. The lighting designer, Devon Lovelady, believes in being adventurous with her designs and here she has created a very low level, dim threatening atmosphere that was perfectly complemented by the film post-production soundman, Thomas Moore’s soundscape. The show was stage managed by Claire Mouchemore.

        In the centre of the stage a young man (French actor and comedian, Solayman Belmihoub) and a teenage woman (Angela Mahlatjie who is part of the youth group ‘Actors Hub’) are holding a window frame and observing the world ‘through a glass darkly’. They take you through their early teens and their strange feelings that they were too scared to discuss. With no books on female sexuality, no one suitable to talk to and a very limited Internet service, many Muslim Gays and Lesbians thought that they were unique in the world.

      Prayer mats are laid on the floor and pomegranates presented on a silver salver. As we hear their prayers, a woman in the full Burka (Naomi Denny is member of the ‘UK National Youth Theatre’) joins in the praying; the three praise Allah, knowing that what they really wish for is haram and against the five commandments.

The director, Mustafa Al Mahdi, has had extensive experience in film, but this is his stage directorial debut; his co-director, Alex Kannis, is also jujitsu trainer! The direction is excellent, with fascinating movements and a good pace. The production team are lucky to have two brilliant mentors, Vivienne Glance and Jay Emmanuel.

The cast were outstanding. I have seen Angela Mahlatjie perform with the youth group, ‘Gap ll’ and consider her to be one of WA’s finest young talents.

Filmmaker Lincoln Russell produced the videos of oriental hand movements and dancers (Rehana Badat and Rami Mustafa). He also created abstract patterns to blend in with the theme.

The quality of the stunning dialogue, direction, acting, lighting and sound were all well above average, with a strong empathy and sympathy being built up. However, I felt that the story was typical of any gay wishing to come out. I would have loved to know much more about the impending threats in their country and what happened to the ‘sinners’ should their love be discovered.

A great deal of talent and hard work, still worth seeing.

This 75-minute, hilarious tale that was adroitly written by Chris Isaacs, can be seen in the main theatre at the Blue Room, James Street, Northbridge nightly at 7.00 pm, until Saturday 2^nd May.

The scene is a sitting room in a large suburban house. Joe Lui’s lighting was used to ‘freeze’ time and allow the characters’ thoughts to materialise. Atmosphere reinforced by Brett Smith’s sound design.

       Beautiful Gabby (Arielle Gray) returns home after a hard day at the office, to find that her partner, Jim (Nick Maclaine), despite being on his day off, has still not cleaned the house as promised. To make things even worse, Jim has invited his good friend, Bobby (Tim Watts) around for a drink; partly as a friendly gesture, but mainly for them to meet his new girlfriend, Florence (Nicola Bartlett), about whom Bobby has been raving for weeks.

      When the guest couple arrive, Gabby and Jim’s jaws drop. This ‘wonderful, superhuman woman’ is twice Bobby’s age. Flo is an aging, but smartly dressed Hippy, who fawns over Bobby taking every chance to give him a loving peck. In return, Bobby just glows with happiness, smitten at his new partner’s worldly experiences.

      Gabby has trouble holding back on her inner feelings on this impeccable woman.

Prize-winning writer, Chris Isaacs has proved many times in the past to be a clever writer. He has the knack of very subtle changes in sentence structure and story threads, allowing his plays to smoothly develop whilst taking the story into unknown territory.

Over the years, almost all of this talented team, from the director to techies have been nominated for, or won, major theatrical awards. Director, Jeffrey Jay Fowler and his assistant Adriane Daff, have brought out the wonderful humour hinted at between the lines of the perfectly structured script. Isaacs has created four very different, rich characters and the fabulous cast members, with dramaturg guidance by Gita Bezard, have given a brilliant depth to their persona.

Tim Watts was hilarious as the besotted lover. As the older woman, Nicola oozed cougar-sex from every pore. Arielle displayed her distaste at the situation with venom almost dripping. Nick as the househusband seemed happy just to tag along with whatever happened. Superb team work.

A very funny, fresh and original play with a bit of a sting in the tail. Immaculately presented.

This 50-minute Perth Fringe, Dagaz production, is part of the Summer Nights series and can be seen nightly at the Blue Room Studio, James Street, Northbridge at the earlier time of 6.30 pm. Performances run until Saturday 7^th February.

        As soft background music plays (Jack McEwan), the sign on the wall announces that we are in the reception area of ‘Functional Training’, a company that specialises in taking young, naïve and immature people from constantly being trampled upon by others, and showing them how to become empowered in life and romantically please their partners.

       A smart, young woman (Sophie Joske) introduces herself before beginning her lecture. In the side-splitting routine that follows, we are taken through the initial ‘chat up’ routine, before progressing on to what to do during sex. However, for this self-assured speaker, her conscience (voiced by Catherine Bonny) is not far away and every now and then, her style is brought into question.

The young director is Catherine Bonny who already has an admirable portfolio; she has captured Sophie’s subtle, droll, and straight delivery, and guided her performance, blending it with a very professional, lecture-style presentation, complete with amusing diagrams and audio-visual. Sophie, with a broad smile, takes us enthusiastically and faultlessly through this 50-minute show.

The sound and lighting were skilfully operated by Emma Sullivan.

A very funny show, with plenty of novel ideas and lateral thinking going into the punchy script. Great fun.