This hour long World Premiere can be seen at the Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, 53 James Street, Northbridge at 7.00 each evening until 7^th November.

The anteroom has a display of various items, central to the lives of some of the characters. The main auditorium is painted black, there is a swing hanging central stage; this also acts as a house window. There are a couple of other clever surprises (Set designer India Mehta). A great deal of the atmosphere was thanks to the inventive lighting by Tegan Evans.

       The cast enter the stage one at a time, looking and chatting to the audience as though they were arriving to see the show. Then one of the cast starts to tell us about an 8 yr. old boy, Tim, who lived in the area about 1955, the austere period shortly after the Second World War. the year is now 1972.

       Middle-aged Clyde (James Sollis) is about to leave for his house-to-house collection, on behalf of the Heart Foundation. His fawning wife (Janet Pettigrew) pins his badge of authority to his chest before he leaves.

      Down the street he calls at the Daveron home, where the shy and nervous music teacher, Olive (Nichola Renton) gives a donation, however, Tim gets something more rewarding – special gossip about Olive’s Irish husband, salesman Mick (Andrew Hale). Next door to the Daveron’s home is the rather strange and bad tempered, Mr Figgis (Kingsley Judd).

      In another house, Ms Le Cornu (Anna Brockway) spends most of her life dressed in her Japanese dressing gown. What can be her contribution to the street, and what is her dark secret?

      Could the local wildlife be a true indication and reflection of how healthy the human lifestyle is in the street?

This wonderful tale of life in an Australian street has many similarities to Dylan’s ‘Under Milkwood’; with poetic passages and the interlinking of the complex characters. Andrew Hale, the director has developed the personalities beautifully, with some of the delightful and most experienced cast playing two or three different characters. These exceptional, richly observed occupants show us a full range of moods, traits and emotions.

The body language and the general finicky attitude of the street’s tenants, have been developed with clever choreography by Claudia Alessi. The action is fast moving and the pace breakneck at times. The treatment of a damaged cockatoo is guaranteed to raise the emotions.

The musical composition by Ash Gibson-Greig, and the soundscape from Will Slade are subtle and perfectly conceived, excelling in their understatement. Heavy handedness could easily have ruined the effect.

It is no surprise that Patrick White is Australia’s most respected writer, and this brilliant troupe have given us a magnificent rendering of his striking play.

Although Patrick White was born in one of the wealthier suburbs of London, Knightsbridge*, he is considered Australia’s greatest twentieth century writer. He won almost every prestigious literary prize around.

He was brought up in Sydney, but being a delicate child, he lived with his nanny who stayed in the flat next to his parents’ home.

* For quiz goers, whilst on the topic of English, ‘Knightsbridge’ is the only English word with six consonants in a row.

This very well produced version of the play is being presented by The Harbour Theatre, in conjunction with the Patrick White Literary Estate. The season runs at the Harbour Theatre, Fremantle until Saturday 3rd August, with shows at 8.00 pm. There are matinees on Sundays at 2.00 pm.

The tickets are selling VERY well, and even though I went on one of the stormiest nights of the year the auditorium was packed.

The wonderful set must have taken many hours to construct. The stage is divided into thirds, to depict three brightly painted, pastel coloured houses, similar to a painting in the WA Art Gallery’s latest exhibition. The back wall of the house – nearest the audience – has been removed, so you can see straight across the back garden, over the planks around the under space and into the cramped kitchen / dinette.

Françoise Hardy can be heard singing on the radio. It is 1961 and the start of another day in the Sydney suburb of Sarsaparilla. Young teenager, Pippy Pogson (Darcie Azzam) is out in the back garden searching for the pregnant bitch that has been barking all night. ‘Bitch’ and ‘in heat’ being terms taught to her by Nola (Ann Speicher) the wife of the local night-soil man, digger Ernie Boyle (Kenneth Gasmier).

Pippy’s father, Clive (Michael Dornan) is a businessman interested in world affairs. He has strong opinions, but little tolerance of his smartly dressed, prudish wife, Girlie (Nicola Bond). Soon Pippy is joined in the garden by her best friend Deedree (Paris Doick) hoping to learn more of the street’s gossip. Meanwhile the strains of violin playing by Pippy’s elder sister, Judy (Chelsea Hankin) can be heard drifting from the upstairs bedroom.

On the other side of the Pogsons’ live the Knotts. Harry (Sam Christiner) is a caring husband faced with the imminent birth of his first child. His wife, Mavis (Teigan Isobel), staggers into the kitchen in search of her craving – bananas. Mavis has a brother, Roy (Mark Tilly) who is trying hard to write his first book. Roy also helps narrate the story.

Violinist Judy really fancies Roy, but it is the postman (Scott Wilson) that shows most interest in her. Then there is Julia Sheen (Olivia Clark), a beautiful young woman who likes to flaunt herself and is now courting a sugar daddy, Doug Erbage (Mark Edwards).

Will the ambulance driver (Brian Mahoney) arrive in time for Mavis? Will Ernie’s reunion with his old Desert Rat friend, Rowley (Trevor Dhu) go as well as expected?

 

This fifty year old play, thanks to the superb direction of Peter Kirkwood and his assistant Tina Barker, still has a fresh and exciting vibrancy to it. The directors employed the aisles of the theatre as the main roads and back lanes; this made the audience become part of ‘the street’. The performers were all very good, with special performances from Trevor Dhu and Ann Speicher; both these actors can always be relied upon to do a first class job, but this is them at their very best.

The chemistry between the actors was superb, even the youngsters, Darcie and Paris, gave convincing performances. The story demands that the action moves constantly from one house to another, so with appropriate dimming of lights and ‘freezing the action’ the pace flowed superbly. The dialogue has been built around vivid, rich characters and each actor has totally captured their personality.

The full upper-lid eye shadow, the large roller hair-dos (Nicole Miller and Rachael Knight), along with some wonderful costumes of the day, remind us how fashions have changed. The sepia photos (Julie Hankin) recreated for the programme is a fun touch showing how much thought has gone into the production. As always, the subtle touch of the lighting controls by Peter Kirkwood and Rob Tagliaferri and the carefully constructed sound by Vanessa Gudgeon gave a truly professional finishing touch to the whole production.

This insight to the occupants of the suburb is fascinating and has you in curious suspense as to the next happening. A very good production of an Australian classic. Highly recommended – if you can get a ticket.