This very diverse 80-minute selection has ‘curtain-up’ at 8.00 pm nightly until Saturday 10^th September.

For all of the plays, the stage has black drapes on all sides and various tables and chairs.

The quality lighting and sound design were by John Spurling and operated by Evan Skinner.

‘Widow’s Peak’ was written and directed by WA’s Noel O’Neill.

      It is 1917 in a small, sparsely furnished room in Eire. Two middle-aged women, Peggy (Denice Byrne) and Siobhán (Mairead Dempsey) are dressed in their widow’s weeds discussing the loss, some months earlier in The Rising, of their husbands at the hands of the Black and Tans.

     As they share a drink, young Moira (Roisin Nash) who is also a widow, calls around. They notice she has a ‘bump’, and her husband has been dead for almost a year – could it be a miracle? On the other hand, has Moira been unfaithful to her husband’s memory? The older women have plenty to say.

This is a beautiful tale, touching, humorous with a powerful and angry message in the storyline. Noel has a wonderful ability to write dialogue that flows naturally, and with which everyone can connect. The three women are typical of those in a small community, and are portrayed perfectly and with genuine emotional depth by the cast. A fresh topic, most enjoyable.

‘Moby Dick’ is a 25-minute farce, in the unruly style known as ‘coarse acting’; which is a skit with things going wrong in theatre. This madcap adaption of the 685-page novel by Herman Melville was by Mike Green. Directed by Sarah Christiner.

        A thumbs-up signal from the wings to the bio box sets the amateur approach (as deliberately requested in the script) of this talentless, but self-admiring troupe to community theatre.

       The lights come up, and Ishmael (David Heder) makes a false entrance and exits quickly. He re-enters and does a short monologue, mispronouncing numerous words. He wanders into a local pub searching for crew, where he sees the landlady (Noah Humich) and a serving wench (Eileen Leake) taking jugs of beer to a rabble in the corner. Starbuck (Michael Dornan), Elijah (Phil Barnett) and friends are the worse for wear and volunteer for his crew.

       A scarred seaman (Sarah Christiner) says he knows a talented harpooner, the highly tattooed Queegueg (Josh Harris). As a carpenter (Kit Leake) joins the crew, the pub doors fly open and an old salt, Captain Ahab (Chris Thomas) staggers in on his peg leg. He wants to join the gang and wreak revenge upon the white whale, known as Moby Dick who ate his limb!

There follows a series of quick-fire scenes, all of them a shambles. Props fail, the actors are under rehearsed, and the play staggers from bad to worse.

Director Sarah Christiner has grasped the fact that this type of sloppy presentation actually requires hard work, slick staging, with the actors retaining unflinching, poker faces. This shambolic style of presentation is similar to that in the ‘Farndale Avenue Housing Estate’ series of plays. I found Farndale to be annoying as they are so close to the truth, whereas with Moby Dick, because the whole genre is slapstick, the pandemonium works so much better.

There were plenty of belly laughs, fun props and the genre well presented. However, I think the audience could be split 50/50, with some absolutely detesting the style.

‘Under The Rainbow’ was the evening’s second play written and directed by Noel O’Neill.

      The scene is several years after Dorothy’s magical trip to see ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

      Still dressed in scarlet shoes and her pale blue, gingham check dress, Dorothy (Valerie Dragojevic) goes to a rundown bar, known as ‘Under the Rainbow’. Despite the colourful rainbow design and the twinkling lights on the bar front, the barman known, as Wiz (Noel O’Neill) is less than welcoming.

    Cackling in the corner is Witchy (Lindsay Cliff, alternating with Siobhán Robertson-Skinner), an enchantress who is determined to ruin Dorothy’s night. Seated at a table, with party hats on their heads, are three old friends, soft-hearted Leo (Yad Sand), callous Rusty (Cameron Leese) and the lovable, but brainless, Mr Crow (Andrew Hobbs). Sadly, for Dorothy, as the evening goes on, the original warmth of the groups seems missing.

Many of us will have been to school reunions, and for some it is fun and a great success, for others it can be a regrettable embarrassment. Likewise, this dark comedy is really quite poignant, giving us an ingenious and novel look at a possible sequel of the world famous tale.

The cast were delightful, with each member totally embracing their characters.

The array of plays ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, so you are guaranteed to enjoy yourself.

On arrival everyone was greeted with a free glass of champagne, delicious canapes and melodious live jazz music from Nicola Milan and Stray Cats.

The Award Night was introduced by Meredith Cook, as her co-presenter Jarrod Buttery was appearing in the first snippet from the plays seen in 2015. There followed some wonderful reminders of why The Old Mill is one of WA’s leading community theatres.

Meredith and Jarrod were in excellent fun form as they called out the names of the winners.

The actors were most pleased to have the daughter of Constance Ord – the leading light in the setting up the theatre group many decades ago – to present the Ord Award.

BEST PRODUCTION Wolf Lullaby (Director Alide Chaney)

BEST DIRECTOR Noel O’Neill (Hail Mary)

BEST ACTOR Phil Barnett (Summer of the 17th Doll)

BEST ACTRESS Anna Head (Summer of the 17th Doll)

BEST SUPPORT ACTOR Tom Rees (The One Day of the Year)

BEST S/ACTRESS Beryl Francis (Jigsaws)

BEST STAGE MANAGER Ruhama Geiger (The One Day of the Year)

BEST SET Wolf Lullaby

BEST COSTUMES Hail Mary

MEMORABLE MILLY Shirley Toohey for an outstanding performance in Summer of the 17th Doll

MEMBER OF THE YEAR Joint – John Woolrych and John Spurling

A few ‘Silly Milly Awards’ were then presented for various theatrical disasters.

A fun night that gave us all a chance to see some of the star scenes of the year.

‘Armistice Day’ poignantly written by Noel O’Neill and powerfully directed by Valerie Dragojevic.

The scene is a down-market pub around 1950, with a bar and hardwood chairs and tables.

     The barman, Blackie (Rex Gray) announces ‘time’, but the two ex-servicemen have no thoughts of going home. They are waiting for their friend Davey (Phil Barnett), after all this is their annual get together to reminisce on their war years.

     As he sinks another whisky, Mick (David Partridge) recalls having his toes blown off, but for poor young, trembling Tommo (Travis McCurry) things are much worse, he has still not overcome his shellshock. When Davey arrives, with fury in his eyes, the conversation turns to an event that happened in the last few days of the war.

     Can their comradery be strong enough to get them through their psychological problems?

For those old enough to remember returning servicemen – from any war – we know their silence, the secrecy as to what actually happened, their character changes and often the inability to see the lighter side of life; Noel has once again hit the nail on the head, he has written a super script, with a huge depth to the four, perfectly conceived characters. Director Valerie has taken the cast, given them courage and guidance to enact the tremendous emotion and tension demanded. The performances were all outstanding, but a special mention must be given of Travis and Phil’s depiction of the suffering vets. A stunning play.

‘The Tip of the Spear’ is richly written monologue from the pen of James Forte. It is based on an actual army Glider Regiment’s mission in June 1944. It has been described as the most daring and clever piece of flying in the whole of World War ll as carried out by Staff-Sergeant Jim Wallwork, who died only a couple of years ago, aged 93.

The star of the play, Ray Egan, directs himself.

The scene is a local bar, just after a Veterans’ parade.

     An ex-army serviceman in a smart suit, proudly wearing his red service beret, and with a beer in hand, takes a seat at a pub table. With a wistful look on his face, he starts to relate the amazing story of his night mission to destroy Pegasus Bridge.

Ray is an extraordinary actor. Famous for his madcap ‘Dinner for One’; he now turns on the pathos, as with tears in his eyes, he recalled the ghastly happenings of that astonishing night. A magical performance.

‘Dolls from the Sky’ is a cleverly structured play, written from the heart by local playwright, Yvette Wall. It is then brought to life by director Mary Wolfla.

It is Australia in 1948; the scene is a comfortable sittingroom, with a three piece suite and coffee tables.

     Anna (Natalie Aung Than) is a widowed Polish emigrant, who has been the housekeeper – ‘and nothing more’ – for an ex-soldier, Tom Johnson (Andrew Watson), who each night, is still reliving his war memories.

     To help her mental state, Anna has asked the local priest if she can help clean the church each week. Snobbish, Miss Betty Brown (Kerry Goode) a ghastly bigot, is in charge of the roster and is sent around, with her assistant Margaret (Yvette Wall) to talk to Anna. Prudish Miss Brown detests this foreigner being on Australian soil; but Margaret, also a war widow, seems to have formed a bond with Anna.

     Will the friendship take an unexpected turn?

Yvette has written a deeply moving script. A tale that starts with the rich characters making the audience laugh and yet cringe at the same time. Award winning Kerry played an extremist, the type that were still commonly around even a few years ago. Then the mood changed to tragic drama, with this dynamic cast firing perfectly on all cylinders.

Magnificent performances that made you gasp at the tension within the house, and what a broken heart can do to a person. Luckily, we still had a few tissues left from the first play.

Often with short play productions, there is one good play with the other one or two sadly there to give a local author a chance to try out their first – sometimes, very average – play. On this occasion we had three, truly outstanding pieces of writing, cleverly directed and presented by three hugely talented casts. Not a weak link to be seen.

The middle play, is at the Old Mill for two nights only, before it moves over to the other side of the suburbs, Marloo on Greenmount Hill, where it will play for a couple of nights there.

You do not have many opportunities to see these plays, but cancel everything else to see them. An amazing night of theatre.

The two and a half hour performances can be seen at the heritage-listed, Old Mill Theatre on the corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth (opposite the Windsor Hotel and Australia Post). This is the third of the all-Australian plays being presented by the Old Mill Theatre Group to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015.

The performances are at 8.00 pm on a Thursday Friday and Saturday nights until 20^th June, with a 2.00 pm matinee Sunday 14^th June.

The play is set in Emma’s home in Carlton, Victoria during the summer of 1953. The scene is a typical working class house, clean but basic. There is a table and four chairs centre stage, a twin settee, patio windows with a garden outside and stage right, a staircase leading to the bedrooms (Props Emma Ketley). The walls are the popular post-war colour – dove grey, the floor is mottled linoleum. The set was built and decorated by Trevor Dhu, Tim Prosser, Sarah Christiner, Patrick Whitelaw, and Rex Gray.

Jenny Prosser and Diane Zaikos perfectly captured the era with the button up the front dresses and the floral, semi-flare frocks for the young ones. 

         Olive (Anna Head), who is in her early thirties, still lives at home with her powerful, controlling but loving mother, Emma Leech (Shirley Toohey). The mother is awaiting the annual return of her two lodgers, Barney (Jarrod Buttery) and Roo (Phil Barnett), a couple of rough, but kind, sugarcane cutters who work all winter and return to Melbourne for five months at the end of the harvesting season. They have done this for years; this will be their 17^th summer at Mrs Leech’s house. This year, Barney’s regular girl, Nancy will not be there for him.

       Olive, who can barely contain herself at the thought of seeing Roo again, is sitting on the settee chatting to her haughty, smartly dressed friend, Pearl (Jennifer McGrath). Olive has arranged a blind date for recently widowed Pearl, with larrikin Barney; however, in fear, narrow-minded Pearl is close to backing out. Bubba (Jesse McGinn), the twenty-two year old Woolies shop girl, who has lived next-door all of her life, listens on in wonder.

       When the lads arrive, Roo presents Olive with yet another kewpie doll, confirming his love for her. This year, instead of being flush with money to fritter on his beloved Olive, Roo is broke. To make things worse, he is depressed because another cane cutter, Johnnie Dowd (Patrick Whitelaw), may be after his job.

       This summer is going to be very different to those of the past.

Director, Trevor Dhu, has proved over the years what a most capable and talented director he is; rarely does he tackle something simple such as a comedy, preferring to go for a complex character study or a highly dramatic script.

This Classic is capable of being ‘acceptable’ with very little input from cast or director, but when you see it performed by such a highly skilled, amateur team, their result could be acceptable in any professional theatre.

The story requires the cast to change from being jovial friends, to a situation of harsh tension and tragedy. The cast has to bare the raw souls of their characters, and in today’s climate, it was truly disturbing to see the sexism and domestic violence, along with the extreme depression and tension caused by financial problems only a couple of generations ago. Trevor has guided his exceptional cast to give wonderfully powerful performances. Andy Fraser’s leadership with the confrontational scenes ensured the cast made the audience squirm in their seats. Exceptional performances by Shirley Toohey and Anna Head.

Sadly, the lighting left me a little disappointed and confused. A New Year firework display could have shown more imagination and had better sound effects. Then, when the drama was reaching a climax, the dining room lights suddenly went out, and the actors were picked out by a spotlight. A few sentences later, the lights came swiftly back up. The couple moved across the room, and the lights rapidly dimmed, leaving the actors off their mark for the next spotlight. Once again, the lights shot back on. No subtlety. Sorry, it ruined the crucial flow. A very slow fade in and out might have worked, but the actors must hit their mark accurately, as though in a TV production. I understand that this lighting design has now been modified.

The play finished with no curtain call, an unusual choice to make, but one that seemed to work well, as the traumatic tension of the play could have been extinguished in seconds by a smiling line up.

Gee, the community theatre standard is magnificent this year. Certainly another treasure to seek out. Many congratulations.