This tightly written, cleverly structured, 55-minute play can be seen Studio Theatre at the Subiaco Arts Centre, 180 Hamersley Road, Subiaco each evening at 7.30 until Saturday 25^th June.

The set shows several roadside shrines, shaded by overhanging branches. Memorials set up by the families and friends for their recently departed. The tree stumps are surrounded by a collection of their friend’s personal treasures, varying from religious statues to fun junk.

The scene is completed with Joe Lui’s incredible lighting and soundscape. The tech operator is Jarrod (?) who applied one of the slowest and most subtle light changes I have seen – great work.

      A young couple are laughing and joking as they drive along a remote Australian country road. Suddenly, their car runs off the road and into a tree. Luckily, they are not injured, but their car is in a sorry state. Even when they realise that they are stuck in the middle of nowhere, the young girl, Abby (Amy Johnston) just chuckles nervously at having avoided death; and asks her angry boyfriend, Sam (Barnaby Pollock) what the Hell had made him run off the road.

     As Sam explains, unconvincingly, how he thought he had seen someone and had swerved to avoid hitting her, a dishevelled old woman steps out of the forest. She introduces herself as Ruth (Nicola Bartlett) and starts chatting to Abby. She asks what Abby does for a living, and discovers that she works for a company called ‘Moving On Inc.’ that carries out house clearances for the traumatised families of recently deceased. Abby chuckles as she explains how many unusual treasures she seems to gather.

      After a while, Ruth says she can get the couple’s car repaired, if they can do her a favour in return. A rather demanding favour!

 

There are plenty of laughs in this creepy and haunting play, as it grabs your attention and keeps you in its grip throughout. The three, very different characters are beautifully portrayed by the cast. Amy Johnston, who is in her first major professional production, played Abby; WAAPA graduate, Barnaby Pollock, accompanies her. Nicola Bartlett, who has been much admired for decades as one of WA’s finest actors, gives a superb performance as Ruth.

Directed by Mikala Westall and dramaturged by Will O’Mahony, the body language and chemistry flow naturally in this most enjoyable piece.

This production oozes quality in every department. Many congratulations to all concerned.

This 60-minute, disquieting mystery is a The Lost Boys presentation, produced by Georgia King. It can be seen at the Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street, Northbridge at 8.30 nightly until Saturday 5^th September.

The set is of a cove at the foot of some cliffs near Blackpool. Set designer, Patrick Howe, has constructed a most convincing, rugged cliff face with black plastic sheeting. On the ground is the sandy beach covered with thick foam (stage managed by Meabh Walton).

The lighting designer, Chris Donnelly, and the sound designer, Will Slade, have obviously worked together very well, to produce the tremendous atmosphere. The play calls for dramatic, threatening storms with periods of enlightenment, which Chris has captured beautifully; when coupled with possibly the best soundscape I have ever heard, the overall effect is outstanding. For the full 60 minutes of the play, Will’s sound is a subtle blend of rumbling, low level music and wonderfully vibrant, stereo, seaside sound effects that really built up the tension.

        It is early morning in a small cove on an island close to shore. A middle-aged woman (Claire Munday) wakes to find herself covered in spume. She sits up and looks around. Where is she? What is worse – who is she? Along the beach comes a teenage girl (Tessa Carmody) who looks familiar. She has the same mannerisms and body gait as herself. They talk and it becomes apparent to them that they know each other; in fact, they could even be related.

     The women talk and soon discover that they had both been to a dance at the hotel on top of White Climb. The older lady remembers meeting a terrible old woman called the ‘Crab Turtle’ and believes that she may have stolen part of her memory.

     As they chat, a girl (Jo Morris) in her mid-twenties walks out of the crashing waves. Again they notice the resemblance. This soaking girl is covered in blood; and is that a piece of flesh that she is carrying?

   What has she found in the stormy sea? What made her lose her memory too? Could it be depression, worry or even conscience?

The director, Mikala Westall, soon after winning a Fringe World award, received a prestigious ‘Emerging Artist Award’. Mikala has been mentored by another respected director who has given her confidence over the years, Joe Lui.

This is a very difficult abstract story to produce. It is important to retain the suspense, and drip feed the story to the audience. Often this results in a tedious presentation that can become frustrating, and you find yourself continually looking at you watch – talented director Mikala and her superlative cast have handled this story with an amazing amount of skill, making the audience want more in an attempt to piece together this captivating, beautifully written complex story.

All three actors conveyed the confusion and fear of their isolation with delicate skill. Beautiful team work and sensitive acting.

Driving home you will be asking ‘Does that mean she ….?’ as the tale finally clicks into place. A brilliant production that will give you food for thought.

The Blue Room and New Ghosts have collaborated to give us this one-hour production, which can be seen for one week only, in the main theatre, at the Blue Room, James Street, Northbridge at 7.00 pm each night until this Saturday, 27^th June.

The set is a kitchen / lounge in a student style flat. It has a working sink unit, fridge, table, chairs and settee. In a first time ever (?) there are all four walls to the room set. It is viewed in the round. The walls are waist high with a metre break – like an all-around window – and then the walls (suspended) continue to the ceiling. This gives the drama the desired claustrophobic effect, and gives the audience members a true feeling of being a voyeuristic fly on the wall. Clever design from Patrick Howe, aided by stage manager Daley King.

        Three months ago, when young Charlie’s (Paul Grabovac) world came crashing down, he went to stay with some caring friends, Clara and Tommy.

        It is now 2.00 am, and in the dim light Charlie, who has fallen asleep on the sofa, awakes from a recurring nightmare screaming the name ‘Lily’. Bleary eyed, Clara (Mikala Westall) comes rushing through from her bedroom to console him, and drags him off to his bed.

        Next day, Clara and her partner, Tommy (James Marzec) try to cheer up Charlie, by offering to take him to the footie, but this is to no avail, his depression is not improving.

       A few days later, to Charlie’s horror, his fiancée Grace (Salacia Briggs) arrives at the flat unannounced, wondering why he had ‘disappeared off the Earth’ with quite a few problems requiring to be resolved. The story takes a dramatic twist.

       Who is Lily? Are Clara and Tommy the sincere caring friends Charlie thinks they are?

What an amazing cast director Joe Lui (assisted by playwright Lucy Clements) has gathered. The four actors gave an immense depth of feeling to the script, and held the suspense and mystery of the play right to the end. Their parts all called for a full range of emotions, from tenderness to outright anger, and were beautifully acted.

The soundscape of deep rumbling music and clever lighting (Joe Lui) emphasised the trauma and misery in Charlie’s head.

The rapidly twisting story threads may leave some of the audience reeling and wondering what is happening, but this is certainly an outstanding production that I would love to see again, but the rapidly filling houses may make this impossible.

Every now and again a play comes along that ticks all of the boxes, this is one of them. An intelligent piece of theatre, highly recommended.

This Perth Theatre Company’s fascinating and gobsmacking production employs paper, projection and performance. It is presented in association with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, at the PICA theatre performance space in Northbridge.

The 1-hour enthralling performance starts each evening – Tuesday until Saturday – at 7.30 until Saturday the 28^th March. There are various matinees and school performances (for years 9 – 12), at 11 am and 2.00 pm.

The stage is enclosed by the front of three, whitewashed mud and brick houses in a Middle East remote area. Rubble is strewn around the conflict zone. The town appears deserted.

       Three young girls (Tina Torabi, Mikala Westall and Mei Saraswati) are playing in the rubble, dreaming of owning a home. A home being somewhere that they can have their family and a few treasured belongings, rather than the room they exist in at present, with 50 relatives.

      Well-known TV new reporter, Tracey Vo, cowers as she relates the terrible happenings taking place around her.

      We follow them through war, attempts of escape, along with the deaths of their relatives. We learn of their hunger and having to survive in an area covered by the toxic white dust of bombs.

       Raed Al Athamnen sums up his story in a brief film.

Perth Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Melissa Cantwell, has proven herself many times over the years, giving Perth a selection of top rate plays. However, she reaches a new zenith with this magnificently conceived production. PTC’s writer-in-residence Ian Sinclair being Melissa’s most capable assistant director,

Much-admired, audio-visual designer, Mia Holton has produced an hour of video that, in its precision and beguiling content, surpasses any AV that I have ever seen in the past. Total genius. The visual artist, Fleur Elise Noble, used stop motion animation of her clever puppets.

Along with the outstanding soundscape from Joe Lui that ranged from exploding hand grenades, full warzone effects, to the beautiful melodies of a honkey-tonk piano, eastern instruments, and of course the flutter of symbolic doves. The sweet tones of Mei Saraswati, in her theatre debut, were a wonderful poignant contrast to the distressing clamours of war. The audience did not simply watch the lives of these poor unfortunates, they were there, immersed in the dust and rubble, suffering it with them.

Stage Manager, Hugo Aguilar Lopez, has created and controls the many special effects, then has to rebuild the set. Stunning work.

This is not a heartless, ill-informed lecture on refugees. At the end of this masterpiece, the audience sat stunned, struggling to find enough energy to produce a VERY well earned applause. This was after only 60 minutes, these poor people have had years of unrelenting suffering, and yet the one thing that shone through at every stage of this play was their constant optimism and that light at the end of the tunnel.

Prepare to be stunned. Tremendous.