The three-hour performances can be seen nightly at 8.00 until Saturday 28^th January, with a matinée on Sunday 29 at 2.00 pm.

‘Lives that are Parallel’ this quirky romance is approx. 65 minutes. It was written by James Forte and directed by Fran Gordon, with assistance from James Forte.

James spent a year with the select Black Swan Emerging Writers Group, and this has helped him develop a tight script with a natural dialogue. This storyline is novel, several well-developed story threads, and very relevant to today’s youngsters.

The stage shows two bedsits. They are in student flats in two very different countries. Stage crew Franklin Burke, Mallory Sallingen and Jack Gordon.

             The LA airport announcer (Calvin Payne) asks passengers not to leave their cases unattended. A group of girls on a sports tour are rushing through the crowds, when one, Sacha (Lily Baitup) literally bumps into a group of Aussies boys on their way home. As one of the lads, William (Steve Anderson) picks himself up, he locks eyes with Sacha. They seem to become spellbound with each other. Sacha’s friends, Hannah (Tanzyn Crawford) along with the bossy team captain, Helga (Crystal Dawson) grab her, dragging Hannah off to the plane.

       Back at home, his friend Tim (Samuel Jones) is mocking William, who is still in a dream. His girlfriend, Gailene (Sara Burke) is annoyed about her mysterious competition. Desperate, William pesters his sister Jane (Chanice Edmonds) to help him trace this fleeting angel.

A tricky situation to make believable, and with a couple of ethereal scenes I was starting to have doubts, however, with clever writing, good acting and strong direction the final result felt perfectly plausible.

A minor weakness is that the characters are all, by necessity, very similar in age and personality. It might be worth developing a real ratbag or madcap individual. Solid performances from the two leads.

Most unusual and enjoyable.

‘The Bright Side of Life’. This touching comedy was 55 minutes long. Written and directed by Siobhán Wright, and the assistant director being Denice Byrne.

Written by all-round, theatrical enthusiast, Siobhán Wright, the dialogue is exceptional and delivered by a well-chosen cast. This was Siobhán’s first time directing, and was most admirable.

 The scene is the lounge of an old folk’s home in Dublin. A semi-circle of armchairs and numerous props (Melissa Skeffington) ensured an authentic look.

        The nurse (Siobhán Wright, alternating with Denice Byrne) welcomes Kathleen (Claire Westheimer) to the old folks’ home. Her son Paul (Ken Ratcliffe) explains to his Mum that she will only be there for a couple of weeks, whilst he fixes up a Granny Flat.

       Kathleen is then introduced to a strange mixture of ‘inmates’, such as Betty (Julie Holmshaw – great) – a severe hypochondriac, and poor Annie (Karin Staflund) who spends her day cuddling a doll. Then there is the bright and sparkling Mona (Clare Wilson – well done) who loves to share the highlights of her better days.

       Quietly knitting the most repulsive jumpers, is Magser (Marian Byrne – delightful). She still has all of her screws; she needs to be alert when her money-grabbing daughter, Frankie (Kathleen Alloway) and son Jason (James Donnelly) call around. The only highlight of the week is when the occupational therapist, Oliver (Paddy McAuley), comes to give them ‘yoga’ lessons.

   When young GP, Bella (Melissa Skeffington) visits, she learns more than she expects from this strange mix of residents.

I know that the gay character was meant to be comical relief, but he was so far over the top (the actor performed well to the direction and script) that he became an annoying caricature. Even the most ‘sheltered’ audience member would get the message and still raise a smile, with just a subtle hint.

This was still a beautiful play, plenty of humour; well-observed characters brought to life with great acting, and topped with good dialogue. It brought a tear to a few eyes; one could hear the tissues coming out. Well done.

‘Being Juliet’ a cleverly written, 55-minute romantic comedy, from playwright Yvette Wall and is directed by Carol Hughes.

Yvette has won many writing awards, and is not frightened to try something new. I consider Yvette to be one of WA’s top three writers. This clever script included a few different writing styles and acting genres, with numerous hilarious misquotes (deliberate) from Shakespeare.

The scene is the backstage of a second rate, community theatre production. The costumes range from the sublime fairy costume, to the wild dominatrix outfit of Tina. Costumes by Fran Gordon, Carol Hughes and Sue Murray.

      The stage manager (Ryan Taaffe) calls for the actors to take their opening positions.

     The fairy, Lillian (Jenni Glassford) notices that young Brenda (Yvonne Lingua) is looking depressed. Brenda feels that in spite of all her hard work, brassy Tina (Sue Murray) seems to get all of the better parts, whilst she – Brenda – is constantly over looked.

     Randy Jordan (Dan Wilson), the dashing hero of the play tries to pacify poor Brenda.

     Will Brenda get a chance to blossom? Or is she doomed to being the understudy forever?

I loved the concept, there were several unexpected twists and it was most enjoyable, however, it sadly this did not quite satisfy or work for me. I appreciate that the ’troupe’ were meant to be an incongruent shambles, but perhaps the characters were a little too diverse, with the result that none of them quite melded at any stage. I am sure that a few tweaks are all this clever writing requires.

For all three plays, the effective lighting design was by Ian Wilson and John Woolrych, and smoothly operated by Carole Wilson.

One or two of the younger actors did not realise how the black drapes absorb their voices. A little more projection and a slightly slower delivery can help overcome this problem.

The three plays had a total performance time of 3 hours. Although very different and well presented, three hours (including the two intervals) is a little long. This however did not stop this play’s run from having many full houses.

A most enjoyable night out with three solid presentations, topped with a warm welcome.

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.