The scene (set design by Christine Ellis) is an empty stage in the St Ignatius Church Hall. Later a stage set with sitting room furnishings.

It is the mid-1970s, and so the costumes are bold patterns, lace and of course the flared trousers (costumes Gail Michalzik and Melville Theatre). The director employed the auditorium aisle in several scenes. The lighting – very good, atmospheric opening scene – was designed by Stephen Marr, and operated by Tiernan Stephens, Jason Millman and Joy Miles. Audio design was by Lindsay Goodwin and Callon Leam. Stage manager Melissa Skeffington.

       It is a rehearsal night for the local, suburban Amateur Dramatic Society. 20-year old Alan (Callon Leam) has arrived early to meet his new love, Margaret (Jay Shaw). She a woman twice his age and is married to the play’s unbearable director, Phillip (Paul Williams). As Margaret and Alan are cuddling, in the shadows lurks the new janitor, Ted (Ian Fraser) a pedantic, obstreperous man.

      The other cast members arrive, and the rehearsal begins. One of the older members, Phoebe (Julie Holmshaw) and nervous newcomer, Pat (Sarah Langridge) start reading through their parts. The third member of the scene Doris (Dee Rowlands) has not turned up, and is already an hour late, so the stage manager, Ronnie (Gino Cataldo) is given the task of filling in for Doris.

      After half an hour Doris staggers onto the stage in a terrible state, a prowler has molested her. Minutes later, someone is found dead in the kitchen.

       What evil has hit this little hamlet?

The story got off to a slow start, with a poorly written First Act, which is surprising considering the quality of the fast moving and intriguing Second Act. The authors have endeavoured to work into the First Act a bit of slapstick comedy, which – although well performed – just did not work and cheapened the story.

There were out of date references such as to ‘Chief Inspector Barlow’, a character from the exceptionally popular BBC’s 1960s series, ‘Softly, Softly’. However, the actors battled on and the end of the performance was filled with suspense and some fine performances.

The cast performed well, and rose to the occasion – when the script did. The play has a good story thread, and is certainly worth seeing. Can you guess who the killer is?

With the photos taken by Terry Logan, a professional photographer married to one of the models, the 2000 WI calendar was released in April 1999. By Christmas, it had sold 88,000 copies raising half a million pounds. The proceeds were used to fund new laboratories in Leeds University, specifically for lymphoma and leukaemia research.

The script of this production seemed to have been updated, with quite a few differences from the previous versions that I have seen.

You can see this very funny and bold 135-minute production by the Stirling Players at The Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Innaloo. Evening shows commence at 8.00 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights until the 12^th of December, with a 2.00 pm matinee on Sunday 29^th November, and another on 6^th December.

The Yorkshire hills about 20 years ago. The set is the interior of the community hall, an old fibro building with cream walls.

        It is evening in the Yorkshire Dales’ village of Knapely. In the church hall, the ladies of the Women’s Institute, led by Chris (Sharon Menzies) are finishing their Tai Chi class, whilst Cora (Jenni Glassford) is left to sing the organisation’s anthem ‘Jerusalem’ alone. They are awaiting the arrival of Brenda (Julie Holmshaw), possibly their most boring guest speaker ever, her visit being organised by finicky Marie (Joan Scafe).

     During the meeting, Annie (Charlotte Weber) is updating her friends with the progress of John, her 54-year-old very sick husband (Alan Bascombe).

     The visits to the hospital involve long periods sitting on plastic chairs, so Chris and her husband, Rod (Paul Cook), suggest that they raise money for a settee for the waiting room. Marie is keen to have a change from the usual plum jam and sponge cake competitions, with the same old judge – the supercilious, Lady Cravenshire (Julie Holmshaw) – and instead to sell a calendar with beautiful photos of Wharfedale bridges. Chris utters ‘Boring’ and suggests a spicy calendar of photos produced by, and of, the girls of their Chapter.

     Attractive Celia (Jennifer McGrath) is keen on the calendar idea; however, it was not until they explained to the vicar’s daughter, Cora that they meant nude photos that the panic started. Ruth (Dale James / Gail Lusted) said she had misunderstood and refused to strip. Thankfully, Jessie (Janet Brandwood) uses large gauge knitting needles for her hobby.

     Annie found that one of the hospital porters, shy Lawrence (Milos Dragic), was a keen and capable photographer so he was ‘volunteered’. Ruth found a professional makeup girl, Elaine (Becky Barton) who was renowned for her generous free help.

     The girls had to face the National Conference of this staid organisation and put forward their case. Then, to their horror, another photographer, Liam (Milos Dragic) arrived to take promotional pictures.

I saw this play on the opening night, so the tensions were high. For the cast with an average age of around 50 and of all different figures, a great deal of credit must be given for them possibly having even more courage and pluck than the original calendar ladies, who were only photographed – not live. Then Dale, the poor director, – most capably – had to stand in for one of the ‘girls’ who could not appear on the night.

This cast has a tremendous laisse-faire attitude, getting down to the nitty-gritty and showing the audience what fun the original group must have had in the process. The audience was extremely supportive, with very positive comments during the intermission.

I realise how very difficult it is for so many theatrical groups to get set designers and builders. It involves a great deal of hard work and is often a thankless task, but I was a little disappointed with the set. The serving hatch had disappeared, but the cast did well without it. However, it was the lack of pictures and posters that made the community hall look stark, even some of the photo boards on the auditorium wall could have been borrowed, and would have made the set look more realistic and ‘lived in’. For the scene on the hill, one production of this show had, at each side of the proscenium arch, artwork showing the rolling hills of the Yorkshire dales. Then at the end of the play, the rear wall split to reveal a stunning panorama. I appreciate that this was extraordinary. Another show had trelliswork with flowers in front of the stage, so I was a little disappointed when the group appeared to sit on a blanket on the floor in the middle of the community hall, with no sign of vegetation anywhere. Perhaps a few pot plants on the stage apron and the hall in the darkness behind? Had the group been fortunate and rich enough to have the new LED lighting, then the blues and greens of nature would have been more easily displayed. Having said this, the final floral scene was spectacular.

A couple of actors were called upon to perform two different characters. Julie Holmshaw was wonderful, capturing different accents, stances, her walk was different and the costumes were markedly dissimilar. There was no doubt that she portrayed two different people. However, the other actor, although performing admirably, did cause some confusion to the audience who thought he was the same person on both occasions.

The direction of the play was wonderful; Dale always does a great job, with a good pace, plenty of fun and emotion. The cast managed to conquer the Yorkshire accent very well, even toffee-nosed Celia came out with a wonderful ‘gob full’ of vernacular.

Except for the aforementioned minor technicalities, the cast captured all of the emotions from sadness to hilarity with skill. Sharon Menzies was outstanding, her enthusiasm boosted the other players and the fun flowed through. The audience loved it.

This was an entertaining show, and if you haven’t seen ‘Calendar Girls’ in the past, try and catch it, you will have a most enjoyable night, saucy (but no real nudity). At Stirling, you can always be assured of a warm welcome.

The producers of the play, ARENAarts, have already brought us half a dozen wonderfully colourful and thrilling Pratchett stage plays over the past few years. This tongue-in-cheek story – ‘comedy theatre production of operatic proportions’ – is loosely based on the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ musical. Like most of Pratchett’s stage plays, the book was adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, and the director has further modified this (slightly).

As a child, Terry was desperate to be an astronomer, writing his first spooky, astral story for his school magazine in 1961, aged 13! His first children’s novel, written and illustrated by Terry, followed 10 years later when he was a journalist. He gave up an excellent job to become a full time author in 1987 and by 1996; he was the top selling author. Pratchett’s books are filled with suspense and humour. Writing 2 books a year, ‘Maskerade’ was the eighteenth of the forty novels in the Discworld series, and the fifth witches’ story.

Multi-award-winning Pratchett was second only to J. K. Rowling, selling 2.5 million books in the UK alone, and more than 85 million books worldwide, in 37 languages.

After being knighted, Pratchett thought it only correct that he should make his own sword – this he did from ore he dug himself, blended with meteor ore. He gained nine honorary degrees, but after suffering from Alzheimer’s for 7 years – not the stroke he was thought to have had – he died in March this year. Admired by Margaret Atwood and George R. R. Martin, only four years before his death, Pratchett had the third fastest selling adult hardback in history – dictated to a friend as he had lost his writing skills.

He gave a million dollars to the Alzheimer’s Foundation.

The two and a half hour fun performances – which cost only the price of a cinema ticket – are brought to life by ARENAarts each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night (Sunday matinees), curtain up at 8.00 pm in The Latvian Centre (LC Theatre), 60 Cleaver Terrace, Belmont – just off the Great Eastern Highway. Plenty of free parking. The season runs until Saturday 18^th June.

The stage has a 60 cms raised area at the rear, giving two very effective performance levels. The scenery was fairly simple (designer Simon James) but there were a great number of interesting props supplied by Linda Redman, who, along with Chris Ellis and Rachel McCann also provided the quality costumes.

The director employed several areas of the stage, moving the attention of the audience with his clever lighting design – operated by Gordon Johnson (no relation, this tech has class) – this kept the pace moving very well with the minimum stagehand interruptions. The stage manager was Linda Redman, efficiently aided by Janet and Callum Vinsen.

       The show opens with a powerful welcoming speech by a Teller (Callum Vinsen), who sets the scene.

      We join Granny Esme Weatherwax (Ursula Johnson), an obsessive and self-centred witch, sitting on the blasted heath. Seated next to her at the small fire, is her dizzy witch friend, Nanny Ogg (Julie Holmshaw).  They are searching for a third witch to join their coven and have in mind, Agnes X. Nitt (Joanne Williams), but she has ambitions to become a famous opera singer. Adopting the stage name of Perdita, Agnes goes to the local Ankh-Morpork Opera House owned by Mr Seldom Bucket (Michael Lamont) and asks for a part in the next show.

      The house manager, Salzella (Robert Whitehead) has already chosen an attractive lead singer, Christine (Emily Theseira) who is full of her own importance, but untalented as a vocalist. Musical director, Herr Undershaft (Johan Smit) decides to use Perdita voice to sing along to Christine’s movements. As the audition takes place, Pounder, the rat catcher (Penny Phillips) and Walter Plinge, the young janitor (Sarah Christiner) weave in and out of the three ballet stars, Giselle, Solange and Collette (Lily Bailup, Riti Smith and Rachel McCann) as they rehearse their routines.

       Walter’s Mum, Mrs Plinge (Christine Ellis) prepares the refreshment for the visiting world famous, Italian Tenor, Senior Enrico Basilica (Jim Chantry). Basilica cannot speak a word of English so relies upon his manager (Maria Passalacqua) to translate.

       Soon, random corpses start appearing; have they been murdered? Then the witches find that the Opera House is haunted, so decide to investigate the mysterious deaths. They come face to face with a threatening thief (Elizabeth Meath) and the production manager, André (Brendan Ellis) is acting strange. Could the murderer possibly be the innocent scenery painter, Mr Cripps (Donald Weaver) or stagehand, Amo (Ned Wolf)?

Director Simon James has been bringing joy to the Perth audiences for 30 years, winning many awards on the way for his directing, acting and set designs. This is Simon’s sixth Pratchett play, and he has regathered his regular team for this show. When you have a great cast, stick to them.

This troupe was superb, not a weak link anywhere, they had pace, empathy, good comedic delivery – even the ballet dancers brought a big smile with their subtle, fun movements. The script was like that of a pantomime, plenty of one-liners and written on two levels, one for the young audience (this show would suit 10 years and above) and the ‘mature’ double-entendre jokes for the parents.

With a larger cast, one often spots the daydreamers who are not too sure what is going on, here the cast were word perfect, attentive and moved beautifully.

Special mention should go to the two witches, Perdita and Christine who were magnificent; however, from Opera House owner down to the rat catcher and Walter, the cast were exceptional.

A very funny show, with plenty of dry humour and the odd reference to well-known phrases from the cinema. A reasonably priced, most professional, fun night out.