user-registration domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/gordonth/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170This 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 24th September. Curtain up at 7.30 pm. There are matinées on Sunday 18th and 25th 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 50th 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.
]]>‘Trapped’ is a season of three assorted and delightful short plays. They are being presented by the Harbour Theatre Group at the ‘Camelot Theatre’, within the Mosman Park Memorial Hall, 16 Lochee Street, Mosman Park.
The show is each Friday and Saturday evening until 19th September. The curtain up is at the slightly earlier time of 7.30 pm. There are matinees on the 19th and 20th, both commencing at 2.00 pm.
‘Early Frost’ is a mystery written by Douglass Parkhirst in 1956. Parkhirst was born in Philadelphia 1914.
Directed by Jo Sterkenburg, who won a Finley ‘Best Actress’ Award.
It is 1950. The scene is a loft in a large, crumbling country house owned by two old maiden sisters.
When the parents of young Alice (Chloé Walker) are killed in an accident, the local social worker, Mrs Clayton (Meredith Hunter) has the task of finding the nearest relatives. She discovers Alice’s Aunt Louise (Charlotte Weber) and her strange, extremely nervous, sister Hannah (Ann Speicher). Hannah thinks Alice is an old school friend, Lydia (Jadzia Hunter) from half a century earlier.
Why is Hannah so worried by Alice’s presence?
The director has captured the creepy atmosphere of the loft adventure very well. The two youngsters (Jadzia’s first play) showed real, advanced stage skills. A simple story that worked very well.
‘The Living Hell’ was written in 1960 by Manchester born, Anthony Booth (not the Tony Booth of TV’s 1960s ‘Till Death Us Do Part’). On leaving Oxford University Booth became an actor, but was soon called up for World War ll duty in Burma, under the command of Lord Mountbatten.
The location is a women’s, Japanese prisoner of war camp in Malaysia at the end of WW II. There are some camp beds and basic rustic furniture. The cast are wearing threadbare dresses and are looking dishevelled.
Stevie (Kerri-Anne Malley) helps a sick, elderly member of their group, Mrs Glen (Julie Mackay) to a camp bed. The medical sister of the prisoner-of-war camp, internee Lloyd (Lauri Curtain) checks the patient, but with only water and very little food, there is little that she can do. The two younger girls, Pru (Natasha Smith) and Sally (Riti Smith) offer Mrs Glen what food they have.
When the well-fed, Mrs Maiche (Sarah Hopkins) re-joins the group, outspoken Gwen (Laura Winter – very good) has her own ideas as to why Maiche is looking so well.
This play with complex emotions was presented by skilled actress, Grace Hitchin in her directing debut. It was a difficult play for even an experienced director to tackle, a bold attempt, but a little more work required on the finer points such as the lighting and body language, to establish a solid, tense atmosphere of fear and depression. Well received by the audience.
‘Flowers for Algernon’ is a very moving, character study written by Daniel Keyes. It was rejected several times by publishers because of the story’s ending, yet it still went on to win the Hugo Award for ‘Best Short Story’ with its 1960’s adaption by David Rogers.
Two research neurologists are talking to a teacher, Alice Kinnian (Nicole Miller), who works at a college for retarded adults. They are chatting about an experiment that they are carrying out on a mouse – Algernon. The senior Professor Nemur (Willy Smeets) is heartless, being more interested in his experiment succeeding rather than maintaining ethics. His assistant, Dr Strauss (Paul Cook), supervises the results and progress of the experiments being carried out by Burt Seldon (Daniel Elsegood). Until now the surgical tests have been carried out on Algernon, but then the scientists hear about phenylketonuria sufferer, Charlie Gordon (Chris Reid). He is a young deliveryman with an IQ of 68, cruelly berated by his mother for being stupid and for having slightly scandalous thoughts; however, Charlie is desperate to learn. The team starts to wonder if their mouse experiments and results could now be transferred to humans.
Will Charlie ever find happiness? Will Prof Nemur be satisfied with the intellectual results?
Sadly this wonderful work is in the 100 most complained about books. It has even been removed from school libraries because a parent considered it was ‘filthy and immoral’.
‘Algernon’ was directed by the multi-award winning Sarah Christiner, the cast is also ‘star studded’ having gained many awards and nominations. Although this was only his second play, Chris Reid showed amazing promise for the future. His grasp of Charlie’s complex character and the subtle way that he depicted the changes and regressions was outstanding. Congrats to Chris and the director for helping him tune his part’s character.
Programmes of short plays are a wonderful way of giving a chance to first-time actors and directors, but occasionally they are looked upon as simple and unimportant, with little effort put into them. This is actually completely the wrong approach. There is a much shorter time to create atmosphere, tell the story and satisfy the audience, so MORE work should be put into the short play. This final play did just that. The lighting was clever and advanced, the cast well selected and very well directed, the costumes exactly what was required – in short, very well presented and so completely grasped the emotion required.
A good mix of plays giving a very pleasant night out.
The history of wars is usually recorded by the servicemen, now on behalf of the thousand Australian women who took a part in the Vietnam War, the ‘Sheilas’ get their well-earned and overdue chance to tell their stories.
This most memorable, one and a half hour play (no interval) is being presented by Harbour Theatre Inc. and MosArts as part of their 2015 season. The performances are at the Camelot Theatre, 16 Lochee Street, Mosman Park until the 22nd April. Curtain up at 7.30 pm. there is also a matinee on Sunday 19th April at 2.00 pm.
Part proceeds will be donated to Legacy to help our need Veterans and their families, in honour of the Gallipoli Centenary and 40th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.
The open stage is at several levels, all quite low. At the rear of the stage is a scarlet wall with a central arch. There are numerous Vietnamese, golden motifs and symbols painted on the wall. The sidewalls depict bamboo fields. The set was built and painted by Brian Mahoney, Phil Redding, David Champion, Tina Barker and Matt Cuccovia.
Seated at the side of the stage is a 1960s hippy (Toni-Maree Olton – also musical director), with flowers in her hair. She strums at her guitar and sings Bob Dylan songs with a crystal clear voice.
A spotlight picks out Margaret, a Vet’s wife (Katherine English) who tells us how she met her husband, and then married him only a couple of days before leaving for Nam. Throughout the play, Margaret continues her story, telling us of her loneliness as a war wife, and how her real hell arose when her husband returned home.
The main story follows four young women through their experiences in Vietnam, from luxury hotels to the cold, mud sodden fields.
When innocent and timid Eve (Vickie Billingham) meets some friends in a pub, she had the ‘great idea’ of volunteering to help the soldiers, nothing too bloody, just a little bit of help where needed. However, for poor Eve, life in Nam was like something that she had never experienced before. Similarly, Sandy (Nicola Bond) joined a couple of friends who were going over to entertain the troops – after all, actors would get comfortable accommodation and priority treatment, well Bob Hope did. The reality hit them hard.
Kathy (Grace Hitchin) was a qualified nurse, going to save the injured ’Aussie lads’, but found herself helping nationalities that she never expected. When the local rag’s youngest journalist, Ruth (Kirstie Francis) decided to go and report on the happenings, dare she tell the folk at home the whole story?
This play was developed from a collection of true experiences and memories, gleaned from the 50 women that Siobhán interviewed whilst writing the book. The tales range from funny, to horrendous and tragic.
The actors are performing this play for a second outstanding season. The horror of Eve’s stories, related in a heart tearing fashion by Vickie, was guaranteed to make the tissue packs come out. Grace – as Kathy – gave a strong performance, who as the experienced and hardened nurse still struggled to cope with the misery. Sandy’s (Nicola) romantic tales and lighter anecdotes contrasted well with the other’s dramas. Margaret’s (Katherine) stories – told by a housewife – were almost as chilling. Ruth (Kirstie) had to write about the horrors of war.
The events were confronting but with such a professional cast under the supervision of a well-proven director, Peter Kirkwood, the 90 minutes flew past. Some relief from the gruesome fears came from the dedicated cast’s beautiful singing. It came as a surprise to me how a person who had just acted a traumatic scene could give such a moving and perfectly in tune rendition of some of the songs of the 1960s. A special mention of Katherine and Grace’s powerful and sensitive singing of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell songs.
Rob Tagliaferri and Peter Kirkwood’s lighting, coupled with Vanessa Gudgeon’s quadraphonic sound effects of helicopters overhead, explosions etc. gave a real depth to the play. The audience were not simply watching you were dragged right into the centre of the misery by the powerful acting and magnificent cameos.
None of the cast left the stage, and yet the pace galloped along. The clever script cutting back and forward between scenes and events, helped to stop the whole play from becoming too dark and depressing.
Youngsters should see this play to know what their grandparents went through, and the truth of war.
This was an amazing production, with faultless, quality acting. VERY moving and surely a contender for play of the year. Not easy watching, but a true report of a war that was sneered at by many of the older World War ll soldiers, as being a sham war.
If you appreciate sheer quality, then this immensely moving play is for you.
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