This 80-minute, high drama can be seen for one week only, at The Blue Room Main Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge. Performances are nightly, at 7.00 pm until Saturday 13^th December.

A two-metre high, wire fence, with barbed wire around the top surrounds the rough and tough senior school. The yard is littered with leaves, school desk, an old rusty oil barrel and the stark concrete walls of the school, with steel girders as their hard, crowning glory (Designer, Patrick Howe and built by Bianca Stewart, Jennifer Scullion, Annika Jane, Eleanor Davison and Alexander Gerrans). Christopher McIntosh sourced the unusual props.

        In the corner of the schoolyard sits 14-year-old Eva (Eloise Carter), a slightly nerdy introvert. Because her Grandfather was on the Kokoda Trail, and her brother, Clint (Ryan Hunt) is serving in the forces in Afghanistan, Eva is obsessed with war history. Much to her mother, Trish’s (Ashleigh Morris) horror she wants to join the forces.

Latching on to Eva’s infatuation with history, the two school bullies, Sophie (Zoe Street) and Cate (Gemma Middleton) attack her ruthlessly, and regularly, Eva has to be rescued by her caring teacher, Ms Carlton (Amelia Tuttleby).

Eva’s only real friend is the shy youngster, Lucy (Amy Johnston) who may have designs on Eva. Lucy is forced by the school slut, Paige (Holly Dodd) to find her customers. Poor insecure Harry (Kane Parker) is ripped off in his determination to discover ‘the meaning of life’.

Eva’s older sister, Matilda (Violette Ayad) is pregnant to her abusive boyfriend, junky Turk (Sean Guastavino). Will Eva take Ms Carlton’s advice and leave the area?

McCall has cleverly blended present day tragedies with flashbacks of the horrors of war, as Eva recalls her Grandfather’s stories. There are dozens of good solid, interesting storylines in this meld of human psyche and life’s inevitable route. These are brought to life with the photographs (Leigh Brennan) and visual projections, Tristan McInnes.

A few months ago, many of these actors were in the wilderness, but director Mark Storen, to quote a school movie, has ‘taken them from crayons to perfume’. There were some amazing performances, all were WELL above average, but top marks must go to Eloise Carter and Sean Guastavino. The dramaturg was under Michelle Endersbee guidance, and she had the large group of actors perform well in the small space. With a flash of light, or an explosion, the schoolyard was converted for a few seconds to the trenches, the horrors of internment camps with the inmates clawing the wires, before returning to a parallel situation in modern life. The comparisons were at times quite horrific.

The clever costume choice described the wearers’ personalities perfectly (Sally Ostrowski and Amanda King). The lighting effects (designer, Karen Cook) were well thought out and presented. From blood red sets to the stark coldness of the battlefield. The lighting operators were Rhiannon Peterson and Aaron Smith. The sound effects were numerous, but the most spectacular being the overhead helicopter (Soundscape Elliot Macri, George Ashforth and Stephen McGuire).

Samantha Barrett and her deputies, Kharla Fannon and Amy Tamati, efficiently handled the stage management.

A very powerful play, with many metaphors on life over the years. From the seedy to the brave, the controlling to the dominated, this show has it all. One of Curtin’s best presentations. Try to catch it and admire how all aspects have been undertaken and conquered.

Free parking after 4.00.

The sidewalls and floor are covered in artificial turf, an ingenious idea from set designer Lachlan MacDonald, as it seemed to fit all the situations in this set of sketches. He combined the grass with a rear wall of silver stranded, ‘burlesque style’curtains and the effect was visually stunning. (Set and properties by Caitlin McFeat, Jordan Norrish, Scarlett Yakovina, and Zoe Street, and stage managed by Aaron Smith and his assistant Sean Guastavino).

        Because goats are nibbling at the very fabric of the Earth, a new safer planet – a goat free Utopia – must be found.

       To the sound of aircraft gunfire, a soldier (Monty Sallur) is found bleeding to death by one of his buddies (Jack Middleton). Petrified of dying alone, he makes a final request of his friend.

      A famous actress (Rebecca ‘Bubble’ Maynard – who is actually a wonderfully natural presenter in a Channel 7 teenagers’ programme) is shopping in IGA when she is spotted by an old school friend (Rhiannon Petersen, hilarious) who sidles up to her and tries to ingratiate herself.

      A young man sobs (Nathan Whitebook) as his pregnant girlfriend (Beth Tremlett) tells him she is leaving.

     Another pregnant young girl (Savannah Wood) is starting a new job, assembling toy models of goats. She is shown how to do this by a friendly, but overzealous supervisor (Ariel Tresham, what a captivating mover).

These are a few of the dozen or more, high quality sketches that kept us entertained. As well as the main theme of ‘goats’, other similarities and parallels cleverly interlinked the sketches. You can see that a great deal of work has gone into the writing and development of this show. The standard of this devised production is the highest that I have seen at Curtin in years. The immaculate lighting design by Karen Cook, although limited by the ancient lighting rig selection, was versatile and varied. Ashleigh Ryan smoothly operated the complex lighting schedule. The magnificent soundscape was designed Olivia Dugandzic who had obviously put a vast amount of effort into the complex depth of the sound effects and choice of music. Again, the operator Brittany Manifis had superb control of the cuing and volume. The costume design by Simone Chodorowski had a great deal of thought behind the styles, and Chelsea Johnston made the costumes themselves.

The idea of a devised piece for theatre students is to encourage them to try something new and exciting. To present to the audience a new experience. What the students have devised is extremely well presented. The acting and characterisation were first class.

The award winning director, Jeffrey Jay Fowler and his assistant director, Emelia Peet, have done a brilliant job guiding the students through their creation – and it is not the director’s task to create the script, but to help them get the most out of it. A little more script variety would have been welcome, perhaps a song or dance? They did have a Philip Marlowe scene that was very well observed and terrific in the presentation. The dramaturge by Emily Kingsley, who was recently outstanding in ‘The Shimmerin’’, developed plenty of quality movement. The students had a ‘daring’ final scene that worked well and stretched their stage experience outside their comfortable zone.

As I said, the acting and presentation of this devised piece was possibly the best I have seen by Curtin students in five years. The actors all seemed totally focused and their rapport was superb, not a weak link in sight.

Most enjoyable.

This fascinating show can be seen nightly at 7.00 in the Dome Sports Centre (the geodesic building – shaped like a golf ball), is near the hockey field on Dumas Road, within the Curtin University grounds, Bentley until Sunday 28^th September.

Parking in car park B12 is free after 4.30 pm.

The stage is a large concrete floor surrounded on two sides by a curved red brick wall. There is a large arch, filled with a black wooden frame, in the centre of the wall.

The audience seating curves around the other two sides of the stage, at floor level.

       The lights dim and the archway is filled with a black and white film image (video design by Catherine Bonny) of moonlit rocks with the sea crashing over them. The moonlight is shimmering on the surging water. From nearby woods come seven sprites, attired in powder blue costumes. They play games amongst themselves and sing an incomprehensible old English song, in an almost ecclesiastical chant.

     As the imps play, they reach for two sticks stored in the quiver on their backs, and beat them together. As if like magic, these sticks seem to control the weather. The wind builds up and the elements change. Soon they are blown down to the shore and into the waves. They swim and play, but they do not notice that one of their number has been caught in a rip and is knocked unconscious. She is washed ashore. The others look everywhere for her, before regretfully giving up and returning to their dells.

     A pub door opens and a set of drunken yokels fall out. They stagger into the street, fighting against the gale force wind. They find the ‘dead’ sprite and decide to bury her. However, on returning with spades and flowers, find that she has disappeared. They eventually capture her and appear to be caring for her, but is this true generosity or do they have more dark and selfish motives?

The team of actors (Violette Ayad, Catherine Bonny, Tessa Carmody, Ella Churchward, Melissa Dusting, Emily Kingsley and Laura Scott) are seven graduates who come from very different backgrounds. Some were Curtin Theatre undergraduates, some studied at other universities in a number of diverse subjects including art, animation and creative writing.

The cast have created a play that incorporates many genres. There is humour that will have you laughing aloud, contemporary dance and movement that any French Marcel Marceau fan would admire. Then there is the canticle and poetry, delivered as though spoken by Bill and Ben the flowerpot men – with no real meaning but so much expression and enthusiasm that you have no doubt as to what is going on.

The director, Ellis Pearson is renowned for his innovative soundscapes that include weird and wonderful musical instruments. The play opens with a superb Bb trumpet solo (Michael Biagioni) accompanied by a wind noise machine and cymbals played with swoosh mallets. An ancient Romanian Stroh violin is used later by Ellis to raise the sprite from the dead. Whilst searching for their friend, the imps are each given snare drums of increasing size. From a tiny 20 cms to a massive 80 cms bohdran, giving the performers almost an octave of notes to play with. I apologise for not knowing the two female musicians’ names.

The basic lighting was simple, but was supplemented by the fast-moving Techtons (Ashlee Brown, Anna Linsted, Aaron Smith) running around with tiny spots on poles, floodlights on wheels and creating weather effects. The complicated scenes were smoothly stage managed by Amanda King.

The cast were magnificent, with mime, dancing, singing, acrobatics and a very unusual style of vocal delivery. These Master’s Plays are meant to test their stagecraft to the full and this group were certainly tested to the limit.

This is a play for patrons that appreciate quality in performance and for any youngster considering acting as a career. The show is only on for another couple of nights. It has a dark end so not for the very young, otherwise a very admirable performance by all concerned. Exciting and memorable.

First produced in 2008, it won the Philip Parsons Young Playwrights’ Award. Brendan was also nominated for a Silver Logie and an AFI Award.

He wrote this play after a year of alcoholic binges, followed by self-imposed temperance.

We are in Ruben’s bar room, facing onto Sydney Harbour. The walls are red brick (really handmade polystyrene, painted with hundreds of hours work!) with illuminated shelves, holding every bottled booze imaginable. There is a comfortable leather armchair in the centre of the stage (Set designed by Lauren Ross and assisted by Michelle Endersbee)). The mood lighting, with many different lamp designs and styles was perfectly considered by Lighting Designer, Karen Cook – operated by Rhiannon Petersen.

On the right of the stage is a small dais with the Ruben Guthrie Band. The band plays. With ukulele in hand, the smooth, solo vocal tones of Eloise Carter, Jack Middleton, Jordan Norrish and George Ashforth are heard. With Keith Ong on guitar, they are playing blues as the audience arrive.

       Seated in the chair is self-centred egotist, Ruben (Nathan Whitebrook) who explains the reason for his facial scar and broken arm. Advertising genius Ruben is at the top of his game, driven on by his smooth – almost slimy – boss Ray (Jarryd Dobson) and the demand for Ruben’s iconic Australian jingles.  He had been to yet another advertising industry awards night, and once again, he has won a major prize. To celebrate, he became blind drunk and had an accident.

      Ruben has made the decision to become teetotal and join AA. However, for his Czech fiancé, supermodel Zoya (Amy Johnston) it was too late, she has had enough of the inconsiderate swine and is returning to Prague. Alone in his flat, Ruben decides to make a new start. Throw out the advertising and start to write novels in poetry. His overbearing mother (Eleanor Davidson) tells him he is mad to give up such a lucrative job. His alcoholic father (George Ashforth) who has just left home for a young Asian girlfriend, thinks the best thing for Ruben to do, is just get pissed every night, ‘after all he was happy doing that’.

      One night an old girlfriend, Virginia (Róisín Bevan) appears on the scene and she encourages Ruben’s sobriety. Ruben feels secure – until another character from his schooldays arrives, a gay lover, Damien (Sean Guastavino). Damien has just arrived from the airport with a bag full of quality booze, and moves in. He sings George Michael’s ‘Faith’ with passion as he cooks sausages.

      Will Ruben, who is working well with the AA steps, be tempted? Who will win his heart?

 Under the direction of admired actor / director, Mark Storen (assisted by Ariel Tresham), this magnificent production unfolds. The play is two hours with NO interval, however the time flew by. The whole cast was required to show a large range of moods and temperaments; there was singing dancing – the demands on the cast being huge. Ruben was on stage the whole time, but Nathan Whitebrook giving a faultless performance. This is a young man with a good future. Amy conquered the Czech accent subtly and convincingly reacted to Ruben’s strange attitude.

The parents are depicted with such clarity that I am sure a few in the audience will have cringed at seeing their own parents before them. Róisín was the perfect lover, and the chemistry between the actors sizzled. The performance of Sean as the alcoholic friend was hilarious. Well observed and carefully presented, it was authentic and not a tasteless caricature – an outstanding piece of acting.

There was a long, sad period when I struggled to find any redeeming points in Curtin plays. The acting was often well below school performances. However, this play is back to the good old days, the performances are solid and assured; the design and costumes have plenty of thought and the quality shone through. The musical accompaniment was imaginative and actually musical – how often do we get a few bum notes offered as a music?

At the final curtain there was a standing ovation. I do not think that I have seen one at Curtin in the last decade, and this was not simply student friends being kind, the whole house stood in admiration. A brilliant show, highly recommended.

This 2-hour, fun-filled presentation can be seen at The Hayman Theatre Upstairs, Building 102 in the centre of Curtin University, Bentley each evening at 7.00 pm until Saturday 3^rd May.

The stage floor and walls are painted in white gloss paint. There are several white wood chairs against the back wall. The play starts in the 16^th Century and progresses to the present day. (Set design Leah Mercer, Michelle Endersbee and built by Alessia Glynn, Emily Hughes and Bubble Maynard).

         A choir (Emily Hughes, Amanda King, Carlin Monteiro, Miarka Rogers, and A.J. Shugrue) entered in a line. Dressed in white linen, they sang an almost religious chant, as they weaved across the stage. Then to Handel’s music, ‘The entrance of the Queen of Sheba’, an elderly Queen Elizabeth l (Bubble Maynard – strong performance) was carried in on the shoulders of her servant, to her throne. Into the room strode Orlando (Beth Tremlett – excellent), who was immediately attracted by the amorous and very ‘energetic’ affections of the Queen. However, Orlando is a flighty character and soon ‘his’ eye is caught by one of the royal servants. The narrators (Eleanor Davidson, Emily Matthews) who were part of the entourage, guided us through Orlando’s various affairs of the heart – and other regions.

       As Orlando stood on the banks of the Thames, he saw a beautiful woman in a long fur trimmed coat and a fur Cossack hat, skating on the frozen river. This was the beautiful Sasha (Mahalia Bowles).  The flowing coat and the perfect sliding of the feet gave a faultless effect of her ice-skating. Again, Orlando was immediately in love, only to find that this Russian Princess was about to leave on a ship bound for her home country. On board, the Captain (Declan Brown) would attend to her every need.

       As Sasha sailed off, another sexually charged woman, the Arch Duchess of Romania (Daniel Suelto, great comedy performance) also appeared desperate for the love of Orlando.

       Will Orlando ever find his true sexuality? Will true love pass him by?

Lighting designer, Chris Donnelly, has perfectly blended the modern LED lights with a line of limelight style spots at the front of the stage; in several scenes, this gave a wonderful Victorian atmosphere to the play.  In the ‘garden of Eden’ scene, there were bright stylish, lively projected images created by George Ashforth and Rhiannon Petersen. The sound quality was crisp and enhanced by beautiful, original music composed by Keith Ong and Matthew Tamsitt. The costumes (Eleanor Davidson, Jess Bennett-Hullin), makeup and hair styling (Felicity Meath, Ariel Tresham) were of a very high standard.

Directed by Leah Mercer (assisted by Michelle Endersbee), this play is fast moving, filled with clever well-delivered lines and packed with chuckles. The cast were totally in tune and displayed great chemistry as they worked through this cleverly devised production.

There was one particular outstanding prop, an A3 sized pop-up book depicting Orlando’s house and various scenes from his life. This was a stunning piece of work, a true labour of love, created by Bubbles Maynard.

An unusual but most enjoyable play, certainly not the heavy Virginia Woolf that I expected. Very well produced and acted. Good light-hearted entertainment.

The excellent set was designed by Phil Miolin and built by the ever-dependable Ian Stewart and Alistair Kennedy . It depicts the Helmer’s sitting room on Christmas Eve, sometime in the mid-1970s. The cream walled room has in its centre a large leather couch, to the right a piano and on the left a massive undecorated Christmas tree. The properties, that included several well-considered kitsch items of the day, a stereogram, the obligatory lava lamp and a Giclee print of Tretchikoff’s ‘Chinese Girl’ (the original was recently bought for $1.7 million) were conceived by the director and collected by Bridgette Weller-Brown and Nicole Sandrini. The walls are covered with large seasonal decorations.

         The young maid, Helene (Rhiannon Peterson) opens the front door and in staggers a porter (Alistair Kennedy) carrying a huge doll’s house. He is followed by the children’s nanny, Anne-Marie (Liberty Hills) carrying wrapping paper and presents. The lady of the house, the manipulative and insincere Nora (Gemma Middleton) in her usual flamboyant way pays the porter the ridiculous sum that he requests and gives him a generous tip on top. This is typical of the lack of respect for money that has had her adoring husband and saviour, Torvald (George Ashforth) worried for years. He thinks she is a ‘silly’ girl, but there is a lot more to Nora than that.

         After years of dedication, Torvald has just been appointed head of the local bank but for Nora this just means a better social standing and more money to fritter away.

        Nora is just about to tackle the Christmas tree decoration when the maid announces that Mrs Kristine Linde (Amelia Tuttleby), an old school friend that Nora has not seen for some twenty years, is at the door. Nora warmly welcomes Kristine but as they dress the tree together, Nora gets the greatest pleasure from telling her friend of her wealth and happiness, before – in false sympathy – pointing out Kristine’s disastrous failure in life.

       The young handsome family doctor, Dr Rank (Nathan Whitebrook) arrives and is immediately shown into Torvald’s study. The next arrival is the de-barred solicitor, now a senior official in Torvald’s bank, Nils Krogstad (Monty Sallur). Nils, the antagonist, seems to have an unexplainable ‘hold’ over everyone he encounters, especially the mendacious Nora.

       Will Torvald see through Nora’s screen and will everyone live happily ever after? 

Ibsen’s skill and popularity is in building an apparently secure, or totally uncertain, situation before removing all the rules of society and turning the whole state of affairs on its head. To do this on the stage, demands a director with a full understanding of the script, subtlety and quality actors who can slowly move their characters from one extreme to another throughout the performance. Gemma Middleton was truly outstanding; she really conquered Nora’s many idiosyncrasies. By having Nora and Kristine decorate the Christmas tree together helped emphasise the nastier side of Nora, who was quite happy to make her ‘acquaintance’ work for her whilst she abused and belittled her. The cast worked brilliantly as a team, showing amazing chemistry, with Torvald, Dr Rank, Kristine and of course Krogstad all having their moments of brilliance.

Magnificently directed by Artist-in-Residence Philip Miolin, assisted by Samantha Barrett, they brought this classic play to life. When the word ‘contemporary’ is mentioned it often means an excuse to jazz a play up, then lose all the feeling and meaning. By employing a season and era with which most younger theatregoers can connect, the whole production was most accessible; and whilst retaining the quality and feel of the original script, the production was not too highbrow.

In this production restraint was the key word, with sensible sound design – great to hear LPs again – at a good level (Ryan Hunt), quality lighting  (Karen Cook) with an unusual ‘wow’ moment and costumes (Alex Vernon) true to the era – the flares brought a smile. SM Becca Jackson and her assistant Jennifer Scullion handled the whole stage production efficiently.

This is a terrific production of an old favourite that I have seen ruined by incompetence so many times in the past. Highly recommended.

The Curtin Performance Studies Course has managed at the end of the year, to grab a few spare days at the iconic Blue Room Main Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street, Northbridge.

This 100-minute, black comedy based on well-researched facts, can be seen each evening at 7.00 pm until Saturday, 14^th December.

The two rows of seating are formed ‘in the round’. Above the central, checkerboard floor performance area are cables of dimly glowing, festoon lamps (lighting – Duncan Sharp).

         It is about 1860 in a poor area of Melbourne. In a back street, a young woman (Róisín Bevan) screams as she gives birth to her scrawny son. Frederick Bailey Deeming (Pete Townsend) has been born, but with his ginger hair, he is doomed to a life of sin. As expected, years later, Fred brutally murders his wife and finds himself in court charged with murder.

       A local theatrical producer, Bertie (Daniel O’Brien) decides to put on a show based on Fred’s gruesome life. For economic reasons Bertie has one actor (Sean Guastavino) playing both the prosecution and defence. The lawyer questions the numerous witnesses, all of whom are played by the same actor (George Ashforth – excellent) with hat changes. As the evidence is produced in the court, the young actress playing the part of the court official (Sinead O’Hara) in a desire to promote her acting career struts sensually around the courtroom to the sound of burlesque music.

      Still in the play-within-the-play, at the local morgue we see the police surgeon (Ryan Hunt) checking the ‘animated’ dead body of Fred’s wife (Rebecca Goodlet – hilarious). Two old women (Bubble Maynard, Erin Craddock) are gossiping in the street, loving the excitement and grisly reports in the newspaper.

      As the theatrical production progresses, the attitude of the actors to the lousy script and the demands being made on them, causes Bertie problems. Despite being a murderer, Fred has his admirers, one girl in particular (Heather Jerrems) did not mind blatantly flirting in court.

      Will Fred be found guilty?

Until almost a decade ago, every year, Curtin theatre students would put on a Shakespearean play, a Greek tragedy, a full-scale musical and an old-time Music Hall; then sadly many of these disappeared. The lunchtime shows have been variable and of dubious quality, so when selecting actors for my annual Theatregoer’s Awards, I have been struggling to find any REAL talent. This show has renewed my faith. EVERY actor was worthy of an award. The drive, energy and chemistry continued at a cracking pace throughout the production. There were amazing, complex dance routines, powerful singing (in tune!) and rich characterisation. It just shows that given the chance, with a quality script and a talented direction team, that even the most shy and nervous actors will surprise and astound you.

Directed by Adam Mitchell, assisted by Jesse Daniels and with dramaturg help from Emily Kingsley, this wonderful musical, styled as a mix of ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Sweeny Todd’, sparkles and glows throughout. The outstanding cast, were filled with energy as they worked the stage, filling every corner, making eye contact with each member of the audience; you became part of the scene and almost felt like getting up and joining in with the bawdy, riotous dance sequences (choreography – Claudia Alessi).

Every actor belted out the funny, lewd songs, set to Ash Gibson Greig’s catchy and memorable music, with gusto. Pete Townsend gave a most impressive solo, ‘song and dance’ performance. Many of the actors had multiple parts; they changed smoothly and gave it their all.

The costumes were beautifully designed and made, and perfect for the era (Alex Vernon, assisted by Chelsea Johnston).

The main lighting was with four large LEDs, with the colour and brightness for the many changes controlled perfectly by SM / operator, Meabh Walton and Caleb Greaves.  The intricate soundscape was designed by Ash Gibson Greig and operated by Monty Sallur. There were several unusual props required, and well sourced by Nicole Courtney. The fast pace of the production was demanding on the stage crew (Polly Seah, Jarryd Dobson).

This show was a complete surprise. Because of the writer and director, I expected above average, but I was totally blown away by the talent and professionalism. This is an extremely funny, lively musical and one of the rare shows that I would love to see again.