This Kalamunda Dramatic Society’s two and a half hour performance starts at 8.00 pm at the Kalamunda Theatre, Barber Street, Kalamunda – be warned the car park has disappeared, being replaced by a tasteless concrete monolith. This Sandra Sando production can be seen on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until 5^th December.

The time is early October 1993, the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of Verdi’s birth. The scene is a sitting room / music room in Beecham House, a retirement home set up for elderly, famous musicians and singers by Sir Thomas Beecham.

The carpeted room has pale green and peach walls. With a fine collection of props (Jason Millman), it looks the genuine article. There are posters of famous classical concerts on the walls. The furniture comprises a writing desk and a solid oak sideboard, with several comfortable chairs and a settee. Various musical instruments are lying around.

The apron of the stage represents a paved veranda garden outside the music room’s French doors. Set design Rose Weighell and Jan Taylor.

The lighting design was quite simple, but operated smoothly by Stephen Marr and James Glasson. Julie Hickling and Alexis Marr’s sound design was clever with subtle low-level bird sounds from the auditorium speakers – placing the audience in the garden.

      Three aging members of a world famous operatic quartet have fallen on hard times and, thanks to charity support, now live at Beecham House.

      Despondent baritone, Reg (Kim Taylor) sits fuming at Matron’s (Lesley Broughton) control on his eating habits – especially breakfast. He consoles himself by silently doing a jigsaw. Across the room, dippy but loveable soprano, Cissy (Kerry Goode) – who was a bit of a girl in her time – sits with her eyes closed, listening to her CD player unaware that the wickedly funny larrikin, Wilf (Douglas Sutherland-Bruce) lusts after her body. In fact, the tenor of the group, Wilf hungers after every woman. However, Cissy much prefers lithe young men like Nobby (Jason Millman) the gardener. Wilf seems to receive most affection and attention from Bobby Swanson (Les Marshall), still struggling after 60 years to come out of the closet.

     Cissy returns from a wander around the home, searching for the latest gossip. She has just learnt that there is a new inmate in the house, non-other than the fourth member of their quartet, feisty Jean (Anita Bound). Jean was the contralto star of their group, but she is now a broken and miserable woman.

     Cissy’s surprise news brings mixed feelings to the group, Wilf is happy but Reg is horrified, because Jean was his only wife and love. 50 years later, he still has trouble coping with their breakup. Perhaps if they join in the retirement home’s celebration, by reforming their quartet and singing together, their ‘good old days’ may return.

As the promotional material said, ‘this is a script that could be an inert embarrassment if performed by less accomplished players’, how very true. The script demands, humour, tragedy, sadness, even a little lust – and so the list goes on – but with the magnificent cast breathing life into every second, the play comes alive. You don’t have to be old to appreciate the predicament of the inmates. Lonely and frustrated they fight in their own way with their aging bodies, whilst determined to have fun and attempt to regain their much admired youth.

The director is Terry Hackett, one of WA’s most competent leaders; she has been recognised numerous times in the Finley Awards. Terry has chosen an outstanding cast, whose names also appear frequently in the nomination and winners’ section of the awards.

KADS is a small theatre, around 70 seats, but Terry has employed every inch of the stage and turned the auditorium into ‘a busy garden’, this made the whole action much more exciting. Clever skilling.

Poor Douglas lost a very good friend on the morning of the show, but like the true trouper that he was on the stage, with a performance that was both hilarious and flawless. His heartfelt delivery of the foibles of old age had many audience members nodding sympathetically.

Kerry Goode was given the bubbly, excitable part of Cissy. One minute, as the Alzheimer’s took over, she was hugging her friends on their arrival home, when most had not even left the room; then totally confused, she would fall asleep, drugged, in the chair. Kerry excelled in the last scene.

Anita Bound had a complex part, upset at the quartet’s proposed reunion, whilst optimistically trying in her stubborn way to unite with her ex-husband. Anita had passages of fast moving dialogue, and next she would be struggling with her aging body, trying in her mind to find some logic. A very moving performance, with a superb final act.

Kim Taylor, as the shunned husband, had hilarious, well-timed, wild outbursts – mainly at Matron – and yet still he manged to show his deep love for his long lost wife. In one scene Kim had to give a bold and assured monologue, before crumbling back to his usual withdrawn state.

This stage play seemed far funnier and possibly bawdier than the film, whether the scripts were different or was it the enormous skills of the director and her outstanding cast? The pace, chemistry, comedy delivery and sad passages were all performed with colossal skill.

I suspect there will be even more Finley Award nominations from this production.

Martin married twice, becoming a father (a daughter) for the first time at the age of 67. A keen art collector, he sold a painting at Sotheby’s for $26.8 million. Already having an Emmy and a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for his banjo playing, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2013.

The first reading of this play was at Martin’s home, with Tom Hanks reading the role of Pablo Picasso. Martin then first work-shopped his play at the Malthouse in Melbourne.

This hilarious 80-minute play (no interval) can be seen at KADS Theatre, Historic Village, Barber Street in Kalamunda. Season runs until the 8^th August with shows on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 pm.

For half an hour before each performance the Black Chooks, a group of a dozen ‘French’ musicians playing guitars, violins, accordions, a concertina and woodwind instruments combine to give a superb French flavour to the evening. A true highlight.

The scene is 1904 in a trendy bar in Montmartre, Paris, the ‘Lapin Agile’ (nimble rabbit). The walls are black and a dozen empty picture frames of varying size and colour hang on the wall. There is a bar and small tables with chairs (design Cicely Binford, built by Barry Carpenter). A large painting of a country scene with sheep in a field hangs above the bar (artwork by Andrea Berry).

The lighting called for some special effects that worked very well (design James Glasson, Steve Marr). The quality costumes were extremely well thought out, from the refined waitress to the horrendous ‘third man’ (costumes by Leonie Briggs, Hannah Ranford). Smooth stage management by Lesley Broughton.

There was a very good front of house display by Bill and rose Weighell.

       The dim barman, Freddy (Jason Millman) is serving and chatting to his prostate challenged customer, old Gaston (Adrian Lewis), when into the bar walks Albert Einstein (Lachlan Stewart – excellent) a scientist in his mid-twenties. Albert has a date with a woman, and although he had arranged to meet her elsewhere, he has decided to wait in this tavern in case she got lost. Such is his lateral thinking.

     Freddy’s hot-blooded partner, Germaine (Sherryl Spencer) arrives late to help in the bar, but she is more interested in having an active love life and what the 20^th century holds for her. Close behind her is young innocent, Suzanne (Naoimh Healy), with heart pounding, she is searching for the man who recently painted her, the egotistical Picasso (Nic Alexander). Seated in the bar is an avaricious businessman, a top art dealer, Sagot (John Bevan), who is making a fortune from Pablo’s work.

     With the sciences and art genres covered, a flash conman, entrepreneur and inventor, Schmendiman (Gareth Sambridge) annoyingly interrupts the calm. Into the bar bursts a red-hot Countess (Nicola Chapman), she has a wonderful mathematical brain, so on seeing Albert finds his work sexually arousing; she grabs him by the tie and drags him off to teach him a new theory on mass, energy and motion.

     Yet another virtuous admirer (Carmen Miles) enters the bar seeking the man of her dreams.

     The bar blacks out and a messenger (Alex Jones) ‘a musician from the future’ arrives. Will he save the day? Who will win the talent battle, the scientist or the artist?

I have never been a fan of Steve Martin, often finding his humour stupid or delivered with a total lack of finesse, so I was not looking forward to seeing this play. However, when half a dozen friends strongly recommended it, I decided to make the 45-minute journey each way – and I am so pleased that I did.

Martin’s script was very funny, beautifully constructed with plenty of subtle asides and filled with whimsical nonsense. The audience laughed aloud throughout the play at the rich characters and their strange habits.

The actors all had accents, there was German, French, Spanish and English which must have been very difficult to retain when talking to another person with a different brogue. Many of the cast were relatively new to the stage, but one would never have guessed as they boldly delivered their lines with assurance.

With a small stage and a reasonably large cast, it can be difficult to keep the movement interesting, but this wonderful cast threw everything into their performances and created the required riotous atmosphere perfectly. The interaction and energy was magnificent, the cast just glowed.

Congratulations to KADS on your bright, easy to use, new website. Please also promote your shows in ‘Footlights’ on the ita.org.au website, – it is FREE – where everyone can see what is on each day, rather than having to search every venue (there are dozens of community theatres in Perth area) individually.

Congratulations to director Tim Edwards on this, his third production of this play. Great fun and well worth seeing. With the Black Chook music and the professionalism of the play, a really good night out.