DEAF and HARD OF HEARING  Wednesday 22nd June enjoy Terry Pratchett’s ‘Wyrd Sisters’ with AUSLAN SIGNING by Christy Filipich

It is Mediaeval England. There are several, very different scenes. The flats, which cover the full width of the stage, are built on castors so they can rotate. Some flats are like books with a few pages on each revolve. Owen Davis’s scenery was bright, quirky and superbly built. Between scenes, 4 or 5 stagehands could make the change in seconds; even when the crown room with a dais and two thrones was turned into the witches kitchen, with workbench, two armchairs and a table – 8 seconds! That must be one of the best-organised and speediest crews ever (stage manager David Bain, ASM Belinda Beatty, James Scott, Guy Jackson). The props were unusual and very demanding on the poor Lesley Sutton.
The lighting design (Mike Smale) was complex and well planned, picking out the actors as they moved around the stage. The two follow spots were operated by Emma Dee and Charlie Montgomery. The sound effects (Alice Carroll) were crisp and perfectly cued – a few zany effects brought belly laughs.
The costumes ranged from witch Ogg’s tat, to Lady Felmet’s gown, from the soldiers’ uniforms to the town’s peasants. A great deal of thought had been carefully sewn into every garment. Marjorie DeCaux at her very best.

        To the sound of thunder we meet the three witches, the Wyrd Sisters; they are the highly regarded and tough old bird, Granny Weatherwax (Fi Livings), mother of fifteen Nanny Ogg (Chantelle Pitt), and Magrat Garlick (Alisha Napier), an apprentice witch who believes in the old fashioned methods of magic involving covens and cauldrons. They are discussing the recent murder of King Verence (Rachel Vonk).
        The Wyrd Sisters see a peasant (Verity Lux) fleeing the evil Duke Felmet (Ryan Marano), who has the Lady Macbeth syndrome of constantly cleaning his hands. Now that Felmet has become King, his cruel, mercenary wife, Lady Felmet (Taneal Thompson) demands that the taxes are collected. The peasant has in her breadbasket a baby – the newly born prince, who is rightful heir to the throne. However, a bowman (Thomas Outred) shoots the peasant and the witches rescue the infant, Tomjon. They give him to a childless, loving couple of touring actors, Mr Vitoller (Ryan Marano) and Mrs Vitoller (Kathleen ‘Martha’ Nyland).
        Whilst in their kitchen, the witches are visited by a Demon (Bailey O’Hehir) who warns them of the troubles ahead.
         The witches realise that it will be at least 15 years before the prince will be able to rule, so with advanced magic, they travel forward in time.
Felmet sends the court Fool (Billy Darlington – delightful) to find the performers’ troupe, and Tomjon (Lochland Baynham) who is now a talented actor. The court jester sees Magrat being robbed by a conman (Aryan Menon) saves her and falls in love. Duke Felmet fears Tomjon will take his rightful place as King, so he orders a playwright Hwel (Suzy June Wakeling) to weaken the witches powers by writing a play that mocks them.
        The witches trick their way past the guards (Verity Bruce, Sabrina O’Brien) at the castle gate. The witches meet the ghost of the King who tells them how Felmet stabbed him. Felmet sends out his soldiers to capture the crones, but instead they encounter a set of actors dressed as witches (Rosemary Bruce, Sabrina O’Brien, Martha Nyland, Kira Pearce).
        Felmet’s Sergeant (Kayleigh Lux) catches the real witches, and his soldiers (Kira Pearce, Glenda Napier) throw them into prison.

Will the witches escape? What will happen to the Duke and Lady Felmet? Will Tomjon become King?

The script has numerous amusing links to Shakespeare’s plays, especially ‘Macbeth’.
I think this may be the first major production directed by Harrison MacLennan, who was ably assisted here by Guy Jackson. With a massive cast to handle and some actors as young as 12 yrs. (Bailey O’Hehir – a star in the making?), I was expecting the show to stagger through. However, EVERY member of the cast was superbly rehearsed and totally focused. There were no vacant faces when other actors were talking, and everyone acted with their bodies and faces. Good, solid and natural performances from this young team. The magnificent witches had some hilarious lines, delivered with perfect comedic timing.
The entrances and exits worked smoothly, even when a dozen actors were involved.
This is a complex script, and so was a major undertaking; but the direction is so clear and the performances so confident that children from 8 yrs. and up will enjoy the madness. Great fun.

The lighting for all of the plays was designed by Michael Hart and operated by Ryan Perrin. David Bain and Greg Rusha created the sound effects, there was one beauty that brought the house down.

‘The Tip of the Spear’ is an engrossing monologue from the pen of James Forte. Although James has written around two dozen plays, this is the first based on an actual event. It is the tale of an army Glider Regiment’s mission in June 1944. It has been described as the most daring and clever piece of flying in the whole of World War ll, as carried out by Staff-Sergeant Jim Wallwork, who died only a couple of years ago, aged 93.

The star of the play, Ray Egan, directed the piece himself.

This intriguing and masterly monologue premiered at the Old Mill Theatre, on Wednesday and Thursday nights this week to rapturous applause.

The scene is a local bar, just after a Veterans’ parade.

     An ex-army serviceman in a smart suit, proudly wearing his red service beret, and with a beer in hand, takes a seat at a pub table. With a wistful look on his face, he starts to relate the amazing story of his night mission to destroy Pegasus Bridge.

Ray is an extraordinary actor. Famous for his madcap ‘Dinner for One’; he now turns on the pathos, and with tears in his eyes, he recalls the ghastly happenings of that astonishing night. A magical performance.

‘When Darcy Rode the Mule’ a yarn written by Banjo Patterson.

An Australian farmer strolls on (Ray Egan) and in Strine, apologises for the Pommy bastard who has just been on, and now he is going to tell the story of a true Aussie.

      Ray then gave us another side of his talents, as he made the audience chuckle with his rendition of Banjo’s observations.

‘Chinamen’ a one-act farce from British playwright, Michael Frayn’s four play volume ‘The Two of Us’. Frayn was most famous as a political reporter for the UK ‘Observer’ newspaper; however, his translations of Chekov’s plays are the most popular in the theatre.

The title of this presentation is, by today’s standards, horrifyingly ‘politically incorrect’.

It was as the playwright watched the offstage antics of this farce that inspired Frayn’s hilarious play, the recently seen, ‘Noises Off’.

The scene is a dining room with table and several chairs. The table is laid for a dinner party. There are two doors stage right and one to the left Set design by Harry MacLennan.

This play has the unusual premise that only two actors play all of the characters. This means that only two people can be on the stage at any time!

     A young, London couple, Jo (Chantelle Pitt) and Stephen (Paul Reed) are having a dinner party. Jo has asked her best friend Bee around for a meal; she told Stephen, but typical male, he did not hear or pay attention to an important detail.

     When Stephen meets Barney in the street, he says how much he is looking forward to catching up on the news, and that the meal is planned for 8.00 that evening. However, Stephen did not realise that Bee and Barney were no longer married, and that Bee was actually going to bring her new, longhaired, hippy partner, Alex, for the meal.

     On hearing of Stephen’s blunder, Jo is petrified that estranged Barney will turn up and have a tantrum with Bee’s new partner.

     How will Jo and Stephen keep them apart? Will they clash?

Director, Harry MacLennan has taken on a most difficult and complex play to present. He cleared the first hurdle perfectly, by finding two talented actors who could keep a straight face whilst pandemonium ensued.

Harrison then had to convey the impression that the various guests who passed through the room, were in still the areas around the central dining room. This he conquered with the aid of his stage managers, Jordan Tabb and Adrian Ashman, by having them knock and pull at doors, handing out wineglasses, and signalling – just out of sight – from off stage.

The actors had to stand in doorways, pretending to argue and chat with each other, when in fact the other performer may be in the wings on the opposite side of the stage, changing into another character’s costume ready for the next entrance. Sounds complex? You bet it was for the actors, but astonishingly simple for the audience to follow. This mayhem went on for the full 40 minutes of the play, with not a flicker of stress on the actors’ faces as they flawlessly changed persona.

Very clever. Congratulations to all concerned.

Marloo had a few problems gathering and staging their selection, but in the end, they have come up with a well-appreciated, varied selection. Their only problem now is to attract the crowds. With eight shows opening on the same night, many of them being for a very short season, the audiences are sadly left in a quandary – which show they are going to miss?

This programme has everything, a tale of bravery and tragedy, a light-hearted Aussie yarn and a unique farce, all very well produced and acted.