This very funny play is being presented by the Harbour Theatre Inc. at the Camelot Theatre within the Mosman Park Memorial Hall, 16 Lochee Street, in Mosman Park.

The two-hour performances run until Saturday 24^th September. Curtain up at 7.30 pm. There are matinées on Sunday 18^th and 25^th at 2.00 pm.

The scene is Bill’s flat – designed by Kirstie Francis. The set is one room, a kitchen / dining area / sitting room / office; a typical male flat, a tip with carefully organised stacks of books and papers everywhere (Props Grace Hitchin and Brian Mahoney). A solidly constructed, impressive and well-finished set.

The lighting was rigged and operated by Rob Tagliaferri. The ‘in demand’ sound operator was Vanessa Gudgeon, who just finished at Melville Theatre last week.

        The front door of the flat opens, and boring Bill (Jarrod Buttery), a dreary statistician deserted by his wife, staggers in. His pal, a struggling author, Leon (Alan Morris), accompanies him. Feeling sorry for Bill, who seems to lead the life of a recluse, lecherous Leon took his lonely friend out for meal to celebrate his 50^th birthday.

      As they are chatting, Leon produced his birthday gift to Bill – an envelope purchased from a numinous gypsy. Inside is a form from a dating service, with ten questions to be completed. Bill looks at the form and gasps. These questions ask for the ten qualities Bill would most like to see in the ideal partner. Bill rejects the present saying that he is quite happy as he is; but Leon, having paid quite a few dollars for this introduction service, insists that Bill completes it. Leon is helpful, but his ideal woman seems somewhat different to that of Bill.

     Within hours, there is a knock on the door. Standing there is a stunning, smartly dressed woman – Justine (Cassandra Gorman) – exactly as requested by Bill. However, have all of his dreams really come true?

Director, Kirstie Francis can be relied upon to give the audience a well-crafted play. With this wonderful cast, who did not miss a beat, we were treated to a smile and belly laugh every minute. The script is not a farce, but a well-written dialogue that flowed beautifully. There were numerous twists that lead to pandemonium with the men, and several severe mood swings from Jasmine. The chemistry between the three actors was amazing, and Cassandra’s performance in the second Act was superb.

I have recommended his play to several friends already. It is a short season, so do not miss out.

Exceptionally funny script, perfectly delivered by a well-proven cast of comedy actors.

The first edition only sold 3,000 copies; however, it is now 68^th on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most objectionable books of the 20^th century. ‘Time’ magazine later said it was one of the best 100 modern novels ever.

In 1995, Nigel Williams adapted the book, producing the stage version that is now brought to you by the Harbour Theatre Inc., Harbour Theatre, within ‘Camelot’, 16 Lochee Street, Mosman.

The performance is two hours long and can be seen on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until Saturday 6^th August at 7.30 pm, with Sunday matinees on Sunday 31^st July, Saturday 6^th and Sunday 7^th August at 2.00 pm.

The setting is an island (possibly in the Philippines?) during World War II. The stage is a sandy seashore. There is a lagoon on the stage apron. A mountain has been erected on each of the auditorium’s side aisles. The set has numerous palm trees, lianas and branches. A large piece of plane wing lies on the beach.

This is a difficult scene to create on the stage (designer Sarah Christiner, with construction co-ordinated by Brian Mahoney), but some very innovative ideas have been employed to give a most satisfactory result.

The complex lighting design was well thought out and operated by Aaron Smith. Evan ‘Zany Flash’ Skinner was in charge of the dramatic soundscape. His choice of threatening music was superb; throughout the play, there were also passages of low rumbling notes that shook the auditorium seats, giving a real sense of foreboding.

     We can hear the chatter of schoolchildren as they board a steam train taking them to the airport. It is World War II, so the children are being sent far away from home. There is the massive roar of powerful plane engines as the children head for safety. It is not long before we hear the plane, packed with boys from several schools, skydive onto a deserted island. None of the teachers survive.

     As self-assured survivor, Ralph (Niall Coyle) wanders the beach, where he meets a tubby, intelligent, but shy asthmatic boy, Piggy (Charlie Young). Then, from the bushes emerge a group of boys donned in full, choir-school uniform and black gowns; a bullyboy, Jack Merridew (David Heder), leads them. Jack is a school prefect who has a lot to say, yet seemed to be lacking in self-assurance. Ralph is chosen as leader of all the boys and they go searching for inhabitants and food.

     Aggressive Jack and his schoolmates, including the introverted and nervous Simon (Connor Brown), find a pig and Simon squirms as the others kill it. Even though they all feel empowered, Piggy announces that in order to retain harmony, only the person holding a conch shell that they have found, will be allowed to talk. Steeling Piggy’s spectacles to focus the sunlight, a fire is lit on the nearby hill, in hope that the smoke will be seen by passing ships. Unable to cope without his glasses, Piggy talks to twin brothers Sam (Lachlan Felstead) and Eric (Charlie Martin), two youngsters who finish each other’s sentences.

     The young boys, the ‘littluns’, Henry (Finn Mallett, alternates nights with Jacob Clayton), Bill (Shane Marshall) and Perceval (Elijah Styles, alternates with Luke Callaghan) go searching for food with one of the older boys, Maurice (Caelan Steedman) who being totally unaware of their dire circumstances, looks upon the whole disaster as a fun game, with him as an African Chief. They meet another young boy who staggers out of the bushes; he is Roger (Jamie Buttery) an aggressive boy with a mean streak.

     When Piggy berates Jack for allowing the fire to go out, Jack and his closest friend start their own group and move to the other side of the island where they become savages.

     Will the boys ever be rescued? Alternatively, is a terrible fate awaiting them? Will the illusive beast attack?

Paul Knight has an important cameo part.

Director Sarah Christiner must be brave or mad. Of all the easy plays she could have tackled, Sarah has chosen a serious, complex drama with a large cast of ‘children’. A play that requires a clear distinction between depravity and decency coupled with gut reaction and balanced thought.

Next, she was faced with producing a realistic jungle environment, and a team of young actors capable of coping with large chunks of the script, whilst convincingly depicting their subliminal fears and their descent into the darker side of nature. This play, although written 60 years ago, is still as relevant today with peer pressure still being a major controlling factor, featuring in a school kid’s life.

The boys, who were keen to do their own makeup, were instructed by Nicole Miller, Harry Wake and Kelci Coyle. It was subtle enough to look as though there were days of dirt built up on the boys’ bodies – although their parents may say it was there before.

Sarah employed the whole theatre as her stage. By surrounding the audience with actors, missiles and menacing sounds, the tension was raised a couple of notches. The boys were amazing, with most of them capturing their multifaceted characters completely. The play is two hours long, with almost every member of the cast on stage all of the time, and yet the boys maintained their drive and interaction perfectly. With a major climax at the end of the play, I was worried that they would run out of steam or lose some of their malice, but to their credit, they were word perfect and the chemistry wonderful. Perhaps a little more projection of the dialogue would help, but I saw the final rehearsal so it could have been nerves, as many of the actors have had little previous experience.

It is a most difficult play to stage, but thanks to a huge amount of work, the result was admirable. A good play for teenagers to see, warning them of how easy it is to be sucked in by society.

Director Sarah’s courage paid off wonderfully. Congratulations to all.

‘Rebecca’ was written in 1938 at the age of 31, by the frostily private recluse, who rarely mixed in society, Dame Daphne du Maurier. It is suspected that ‘Rebecca’ was heavily plagiarised from a Brazilian novel by Ms Nabuco. Clifford Williams have now revised the 1940 stage adaptation of ‘Rebecca’, which ran for 357 performances.

Alfred Hitchcock’s film, based on her novel, was one of the top five box office hits of 1940. In 1941, it reaped nine Oscar nominations, winning ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Cinematography’.  Her friendship with Hitchcock saw her write more cinema scripts for him, including ‘Jamaica Inn’, the horror of ‘The Birds’ (also plagiarised?) and the creepy, sex novel ‘Don’t Look Now’. Du Maurier’s novel ‘Mary Anne’ is a fictionalised account of the story of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke who was mistress of King George III’s son, Frederick Augustus known as the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’. When the bi-sexual author was 21, she wrote ‘The Doll’, a suspense tale about a young woman’s obsession with a mechanical male sex doll.

This excellent, two and a half hour Gothic love mystery, set in du Maurier’s Cornwall, is being presented by the Harbour Theatre Inc. at the 1930’s décor Camelot, 16 Lochee Street, Mosman Park, with shows nightly at 7.30 pm until Saturday 20^th June, and a matinee on Sunday 21^st June at 2.00 pm.

An excellent set. The white proscenium curtains had a massive photo of the De Winter’s country mansion, Manderley, projected onto them.

The interior shows the sitting room of the De Winter house in Cornwall in the 1930s.

The lower halves of the walls are wood panelled, with the arsenic green coloured paint above. Centrally is an arched staircase with columns on each side; this was used to great dramatic effect during the play. The room is furnished with various antique furniture including a couple of pedestals for ornaments, a chaise longue, tables and chairs. There was a balcony with plants on each side of the stage. Brian Mahoney, Peter Kirkwood, Rob Tagliaferri, Matt Cuccovia, Kit Leake and David Champion built Nicola Bond’s set design; with the set being painted by Phil Redding, Tina barker and Nicola Bond. A great number of authentic props added the final touch (Grace Hitchin, Charlotte Weber).

         Supercilious Beatrice Lacy (Jo Sterkenburg) and her hen-pecked husband, Giles (Andrew Smalley) are seated in the lounge awaiting the return of the master of the house, the young, good-looking Maxim De Winter (Mark de Vattimo). The couple are discussing Rebecca, the previous lady of the house who had drowned a year earlier, with the estate manager, Frank (Ron Arthurs). The butler, Frith (Tom Rees) brings them drinks.

        The group are waiting to welcome Maxim and his new, much younger bride, Mrs De Winter (Natasha Stiven) back from their honeymoon. When the loving couple arrive, the maid, Roberts (Teya Jerman), shows them into the lounge. Unfortunately it seems that Beatrice has taken an instant dislike to the new bride – she is too young and certainly not of suitable status. The group go on to discuss the final arrangements for the annual Fancy Dress Ball being held the following night. The dark, mysterious housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Vickie Billingham) in her widow’s weeds with keys hanging around her waist, offers to help her new young mistress choose a suitable costume.

        As the malicious Mrs Danvers leaves the room, a weird, obnoxious man, Jack Favell (Sean Schliwa) arrives and tries his lecherous approach on a petrified Mrs de Winter, who has no idea who this stranger is.

        After the Ball, the household receives a disturbing visit from the shire’s magistrate, Colonel Julyan (Paul Cook) and the local boat builder / chandler, William Tabb (David Champion).

Award winning director, Nicola Bond, has brought to the stage a play that has not been presented in Perth for many years. Employing her many talents, Nicola has given us a wonderful set, authentic costumes and a cast that has captured all of the mystery, romance and suspense of the book. Nicola has also generously given a few of the cast their ‘big chance’,  by accepting for the play, actors who have previously had very minor walk on parts, or as in the case of Paul Wood, a very first acting part – well done Paul, good solid performance.

Many congratulations to Natasha Stiven and Mark de Vattimo, as the withdrawn, confused young wife and the unpredictable, enigmatic husband. A special mention must also go to Vickie Billingham for her great performance as the cold-hearted Mrs Danvers, and her special curtain call.

Stage manager Charlotte Weber, assisted by Teya Jerman, kept the pace moving exceptionally well with none of the usual slowing down or blackouts between scenes. All of the scene changes being carried out in dimmed light, by the household servants, in the style of their normal daily duties. Mrs de Winter’s numerous outfits, the servants’ garments and the rugged tweeds were perfect for the period (Nicola Bond).  Rob Tagliaferri’s lighting and Vanessa Gudgeon’s soundscape combined perfectly to give a memorable final scene.

Good to see a fresh, rarely performed play – I will die if I see ‘The Importance of being Ernest’ again – A great production with all the qualities that one has come to expect from the Harbour Theatre Group. Highly recommended, but please note the short season.