This very diverse 80-minute selection has ‘curtain-up’ at 8.00 pm nightly until Saturday 10^th September.

For all of the plays, the stage has black drapes on all sides and various tables and chairs.

The quality lighting and sound design were by John Spurling and operated by Evan Skinner.

‘Widow’s Peak’ was written and directed by WA’s Noel O’Neill.

      It is 1917 in a small, sparsely furnished room in Eire. Two middle-aged women, Peggy (Denice Byrne) and Siobhán (Mairead Dempsey) are dressed in their widow’s weeds discussing the loss, some months earlier in The Rising, of their husbands at the hands of the Black and Tans.

     As they share a drink, young Moira (Roisin Nash) who is also a widow, calls around. They notice she has a ‘bump’, and her husband has been dead for almost a year – could it be a miracle? On the other hand, has Moira been unfaithful to her husband’s memory? The older women have plenty to say.

This is a beautiful tale, touching, humorous with a powerful and angry message in the storyline. Noel has a wonderful ability to write dialogue that flows naturally, and with which everyone can connect. The three women are typical of those in a small community, and are portrayed perfectly and with genuine emotional depth by the cast. A fresh topic, most enjoyable.

‘Moby Dick’ is a 25-minute farce, in the unruly style known as ‘coarse acting’; which is a skit with things going wrong in theatre. This madcap adaption of the 685-page novel by Herman Melville was by Mike Green. Directed by Sarah Christiner.

        A thumbs-up signal from the wings to the bio box sets the amateur approach (as deliberately requested in the script) of this talentless, but self-admiring troupe to community theatre.

       The lights come up, and Ishmael (David Heder) makes a false entrance and exits quickly. He re-enters and does a short monologue, mispronouncing numerous words. He wanders into a local pub searching for crew, where he sees the landlady (Noah Humich) and a serving wench (Eileen Leake) taking jugs of beer to a rabble in the corner. Starbuck (Michael Dornan), Elijah (Phil Barnett) and friends are the worse for wear and volunteer for his crew.

       A scarred seaman (Sarah Christiner) says he knows a talented harpooner, the highly tattooed Queegueg (Josh Harris). As a carpenter (Kit Leake) joins the crew, the pub doors fly open and an old salt, Captain Ahab (Chris Thomas) staggers in on his peg leg. He wants to join the gang and wreak revenge upon the white whale, known as Moby Dick who ate his limb!

There follows a series of quick-fire scenes, all of them a shambles. Props fail, the actors are under rehearsed, and the play staggers from bad to worse.

Director Sarah Christiner has grasped the fact that this type of sloppy presentation actually requires hard work, slick staging, with the actors retaining unflinching, poker faces. This shambolic style of presentation is similar to that in the ‘Farndale Avenue Housing Estate’ series of plays. I found Farndale to be annoying as they are so close to the truth, whereas with Moby Dick, because the whole genre is slapstick, the pandemonium works so much better.

There were plenty of belly laughs, fun props and the genre well presented. However, I think the audience could be split 50/50, with some absolutely detesting the style.

‘Under The Rainbow’ was the evening’s second play written and directed by Noel O’Neill.

      The scene is several years after Dorothy’s magical trip to see ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

      Still dressed in scarlet shoes and her pale blue, gingham check dress, Dorothy (Valerie Dragojevic) goes to a rundown bar, known as ‘Under the Rainbow’. Despite the colourful rainbow design and the twinkling lights on the bar front, the barman known, as Wiz (Noel O’Neill) is less than welcoming.

    Cackling in the corner is Witchy (Lindsay Cliff, alternating with Siobhán Robertson-Skinner), an enchantress who is determined to ruin Dorothy’s night. Seated at a table, with party hats on their heads, are three old friends, soft-hearted Leo (Yad Sand), callous Rusty (Cameron Leese) and the lovable, but brainless, Mr Crow (Andrew Hobbs). Sadly, for Dorothy, as the evening goes on, the original warmth of the groups seems missing.

Many of us will have been to school reunions, and for some it is fun and a great success, for others it can be a regrettable embarrassment. Likewise, this dark comedy is really quite poignant, giving us an ingenious and novel look at a possible sequel of the world famous tale.

The cast were delightful, with each member totally embracing their characters.

The array of plays ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, so you are guaranteed to enjoy yourself.

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.