Although I may be known for being politically incorrect at times, I still found the amount of coarse language and some of the themes of this ‘fun’ rock opera unnecessarily objectionable. I would suggest 14+ as an advised age group.

In 2000, ‘High Fidelity’ was also adapted by Stephen Frear into the hilarious, top box office family film.

This 150-minute show can be seen at the octogenarian Roleystone Theatre, 587 Brookton Hwy, Roleystone on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 until 19^th March, with one matinée at 4.00 pm on Sunday 13^th March.

The front half of the stage was Rob’s home, with settee, foldaway bed and shelves of LPs. When the mid-stage screen was rolled up (flies by Ruby Higgins), there was a busy, specialist record store (clever designed by James Earnshaw, with excellent props Kathryn Ramsell) revealed.

The flowery shirts, vinyl skirts and unusual hairdos (Genevieve Brown) beautifully captured the 1980s atmosphere.

Montanna Tickner’s colourful and lively lighting design was well thought-out (rigged by Simon Walters). Cassidy Bodenham and Catherine O’Donoghue carried out the smooth stage management.

The lively and at times quite complex choreography was conceived by Kristen Twynam-Perkins and Emily Botje. It was enthusiastically performed by the cast.

Ethan Walters conducted the live, but hidden orchestra, comprising Liam Gobbert, Vlad Sturdy, Liam Richer, Paul Marion, Megan Pedlar, Krispin Maesalu and Emma Mondy. Dylan Shelton and Paul Marion were in charge of the sound. Although the live band was well-balanced, the overall sound balance between band and performer was a little off, with some of the dialogue lost to the accompaniment. Rob wore a headset, which helped, but perhaps a headset is required for every singer with live music, so the audience can appreciate the clever lyrics.

     Rob (David Wallace – well done), runs a specialist record store, the ‘Championship Vinyl’, with his assistant Barry (Richard Maganga) – a bandleader who is into weird music – and the nervous, slightly dim, Dick (Kyle Kash). Rob is getting fed up with the business as he spends hours dealing with strange nerds like ‘TMPMITW’ (Jake Tolich) – no one knows his real name – and the odd, unfashionable, middle-aged man (Paul Treasure) who is requesting a tasteless Celine Dion record for his daughter. Rob’s depression eventually reflects on his attitude to his loving partner, lawyer Laura (Caroline Perks).

     Laura, partly on the advice of her outspoken friend Liz (Kimberley Harris – excellent) leaves Rob to live with tantric-loving Ian (Luke Daly). Meanwhile in the shop, Dick has been spotted by attractive Anna (Molly Earnshaw), who is now trying every trick in the book to capture his heart.

     Rob feels alone, so goes to the local bar where he reminisces on some of his old loves, Charlie (Alyssa Burton), Alison (Emily Botje) and finally Sarah (Natalie Cox) who he drove to lesbianism. On the pub stage, the roadie (Caelan Steedman) and the sound engineer (Tyler Eldridge) have set up the microphones for the evening’s star act, Marie La Salle (Allison Harrison).

       Is there any love left in the world today? Or is there only heartbreak?

This is the type of play where everyone in the cast got their 5 minutes of stardom. Without exception, every singer performed mellifluously and some great singing. From the soft tones of Laura’s distress, to the powerful ‘belters’ by Liz. Dick sang a couple of songs with his shy approach; deliberately sounding a little like Kermit, he brought a smile to the audience’s faces. Paul Treasure and Jake Tolich provided a whiff of fame to the show, with quality, instantly recognisable, impersonations.

Director Kristen Twynam-Perkins, who won the ‘best musical of the year’ award for the rock opera ‘Bare’, has done another wonderful job with this musical. Faced with a poor script and mediocre story-thread, she has still managed to pump life and interest into the performance.

It is a little sad when you see so much skill and enthusiasm being put into a show, which is doomed from the beginning to being unremarkable.

The whole cast and team can be proud of their efforts, they gave their all.

The two and a half hour production can be seen each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 pm with a ‘Christmas Matinee’ on Sunday 13^th December at the slightly later time of 4.00 pm.

The scene is 1942, in a down market, second floor flat in Sydney’s Kings Cross area. The scruffy walls are cream, with pale blue paint below the dado rail. The set designed by Kristen Twynam-Perkins was built by Phil Barnett, Travis Markham, Michiel Van Doorn and Sarah Christiner.

The quality props (Kathryn Ramsell), the costumes and uniforms (Jenny Prosser) were all accurate for the time.

John Woolrych’s fine lighting was operated by Catherine O’Donoghue. Simon Walters controlled the director’s sound design and the whole show capably stage managed by Cassidy Bodenham.

       Following a party into the early hours of the morning, an American Marine who had been asleep on the settee awakes from a recurring dream. Kathy (Melissa Merchant), the young married woman who is renting the flat whilst her husband is away at the war, rushes through to the sitting room and finds Marine Potter (Cameron Leese), better known as ‘Rebel’ lying on the floor crying and petrified. Kathy then discovers that he is ‘absent without leave’.

      There is a knock on the door and in stagger Kathy’s best friend, Joycie (Sjaan Lucas) and her new boyfriend, US airman Bernie (Joel Sammels). Within seconds, there is another knock on the door. It is the prying, supercilious landlady, Mrs Palmer (Norma Davis), a tenant’s worst nightmare. She suspects that disreputable behaviour has been taking place and emphasises that she will accept no nonsense in her building.

      With the marines (Caelan Steedman, James Smith) searching for him, and the local detective, Browning (Paul Treasure) hunting for spies secreted in the neighbourhood, Rebel realises he must get away as soon as possible. Perhaps the heartless local spiv, ‘Tiger’ Kelly (Sam Barnett), can help – at a price.

Director: Kristen Twynam-Perkins directed this play 13 years ago, and was pleased to have the chance to bring it to life again. Unfortunately the standard of acting was very variable, from powerful and convincing, almost to Harold Lloyd.

When a drama is building up to a climax, the tension is only as good as the weakest link. Even one small, but poor cameo can let the whole scene down and lose the dramatic effect.

One left having had an enjoyable night at the theatre, but not the full ‘dramatic satisfaction’.

Joseph served three years in the West African Republic of Senegal Peace Corps. He then earned a Masters in Dramatic Writing, before going on to teach Essay Writing at a New York university.

This high quality, 90-minute drama is filled with black humour, can be seen at Playlovers, Hackett Hall, Draper Street, Floreat on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 until the 25^th July. There are Sunday matinees, at 2.00 pm, on the 12^th and 19^th.

The set comprises a theatre makeup room, on the apron at each side of the stage; this is where the two cast members get changed, or should I say metamorphosed between every scene?

The stage itself is totally black. There are two metal-framed beds and other pieces of black furniture (stage managed by Cassidy Bodenham). The two cast members carried out the minor scene changes, but Cassidy had a great deal of planning for their costume changes and makeup. Three projectors are used to give pictorial information (Caitlin Telcik, Claire Taylor).

The story takes place from the mid 1960s, over a period of 30 years,. We see a meeting of the couple every 4 or 5 years, but not in chronological order.

 

       Most young boys who fancy a girl at school would, rather than profess his love, pull her hair or hit her. However, for eight-year-old Doug (Sam Barnett), he attention seeks by hurting himself with ridiculously dangerous stunts. The girl he is trying to attract is Kayleen (Kimberley Harris), who has a fascination with scars and blood.

       As the years go on, we see this strange couple maturing; but in his search for empathy rather than sympathy, Doug still needs to share his latest wound – and there are numerous – or a desire to talk about his bodily functions, is never very far away. Yes, Doug is a very confused young man. Kayleen, on the other hand, has a strong desire to better herself, to find someone to love her, but most of all, escape from her uncaring parents.

       Can Doug and Kayleen’s relationship ever blossom? Or will an awful existence befall them both?

 

These two wonderful actors have shown real talent. A two-hander play is extremely difficult at any time, but this 90-minute play has no interval, and the added undertaking of a mild American accent – both actors’ accents matched, yeeh!!, and were natural not grating. Due to an original cast member having other commitments, Kim was only given her part 3 weeks ago, what a remarkable performance. Both characters’ temperaments changed many times throughout the play, ranging from severely ill to downright aggressive, but with the strong guidance of the director, Kristen Twynam-Perkins and her assistant director, Natalie Cox, the result was amazing. Perfect pace, not a line missed genuine rapport and emotion between the characters. Excellent performances.

It was fascinating to see how much thought had been put into the makeup (gore courtesy of Manuao TeAotonga) and the costumes, as the characters’ ages changed, the subtleties of the fashion for the particular era always shone through. The well-selected music (sound operation by Dylan Shelton) set the year, with more serious Russian classical music being played for the reasonably lengthy costume and makeup changes. The lighting design (John Woolrych) was simple but most effective, smoothly operated by Catherine O’Donoghue.

I always admire a team that take on a play that is unusual and challenging, this team went for a difficult experiment and won.