There are three different, secret venues for this most unusual play. With performances performed in Fremantle for two nights, two in Guildford and two in Leederville. The hour long ‘happening’ starts at 7.00 on various evenings until the 20^th February.

The Fremantle venue was a rustic garden, surrounded by hewn, limestone walls, with fabulous, trailing and potted plants. A large fish pond lay in the secluded corner.

         The crowd are warmly welcomed into the private garden, by the home’s gardener, Greg (Nathan Whitebrook). As he brushes the paving, the visitors settle on cushions and crates. Greg explains how much pride he takes in his work, especially this garden and spins a few yarns. He has the blood group that seems to attract the mozzies, and so he invites anyone who has similar problem to spray themselves, offering around the Aeroguard.

         After a few minutes of light banter, Greg retreats to the BBQ at the rear of the house, to cook the snags.

         Perched on a high wall, a young guitarist (Tom Beech) softly plays his melodious compositions. As he strums, the cat from next door appears (Zoe Street), playing with her favourite musical toy, only to run into the owner’s big savage dog (Monty Sallur); however, when they hear Greg returning, they disappear quickly into the undergrowth.

        The visitors are invited to help themselves to the food and homemade lemonade provided by the host. The perfect host, Greg, continues to tell us of his life and daily routine, when suddenly he discovers that a guest has betrayed their warm invitation. The mood changes.

 

The acting commanded by the three performers was both physically and mentally demanding, but the three performances had every ounce of energy packed into them.

This show must have been a major challenge for clever director Rhiannon Petersen and the producers, Sean Guastavino and Zoe Street, but by moving the venue around it covers most of Perth CBD, giving a very different atmosphere to the loveable creature’s play.

Publicist, Amelia Tuttleby, has advised me that it is a sell-out, with only a few tickets left for the final venue, Leederville.

The performances begin at 7.00 each evening at the Hayman Theatre Upstairs, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley. The nearest carpark is B13, which is free after 4.00 pm. The show has a short season, running until Saturday, 8^th August.

The design for this show is unique and stunning. Everything is white – brilliant white – every wall, floor, blade of grass, every piece of scenery and all of the props. Pure white. However, the clever and most effective point is that every brick, chair, dustbin etc. has black tape along every edge. The effect is striking. (Designed by Sean Guastavino and built by Ian Stewart).

Karen Cook’s colourful lighting design, worked beautifully on the white, bringing it to life. Elliot Macri’s soundscape was well recorded and brought a few smiles in places.

Each area of the set was minimalistic; there was a train station, a train, a laundry, café and a shop all depicted symbolically.

       A nine-year-old girl (Rhiannon Petersen) stands on the station platform; she has lost her mother. She watches the people around her, fascinated by the gays kissing on a bench and the wild woman (Amy Tamati) shouting her disgust at their behaviour. On another seat, a married couple (Daisy Coyle, Jarryd Dobson) are having their morning ‘warm up’, a pointless argument.

       A courier (George Ashforth) delivers a valuable package to a ‘special’ shop, where the manager (Terence Smith) gives him valuable advice.

     When a jilted bride (Ashleigh Ryan), still in her bridal gown, runs past in a flood of inconsolable tears, a young yob (Jeremy Bunny) tries unsuccessfully to cheer her up – by offering to sell her the latest perfume. He then moves on to robbing a young, gullible girl (Madeleine Mullins).

     All of life certainly passes by in this fascinating city.

Very often students’ devised shows are a collection of short acts, joined poorly together becoming a bit of a Curate’s Egg. This show, however, was magnificent from start to finish; beautifully structured with plenty of very different, but instantly recognisable characters and true-to-life situations.

The cast worked smoothly, most actors having two parts to play. The movement, directed by Joe Lui with dramaturg help from Dylan Searle, was slick and flawless.

This hour show was great fun and well worth seeing.

Even in 1963, after being hacked by the English censors, the run was only for two nights. A much lighter Broadway musical version of this play was presented in 2006.

This translation from German is by Johnathan Franzen, with creative collaboration by the cast.

The two and three-quarter hour drama can be seen at the Hayman Theatre Upstairs, building 102 on the Curtin University campus, Bentley. Performances each night are at the early time of 7.00 until Saturday 7^th March.

The stunning set is of a silver birch and bamboo (?) woodland in a German provincial town -the year 1894. The designer, Sally Phipps and her assistant Sean Guastavino, have covered the auditorium walls with bandage width, white strips with bark pattern printed on. The stage is of a bower in a wood. Construction by the ever-reliable, still alive, Ian Stewart.

The set is brought to life by Karen Cook’s brilliant lighting. Karen has employed strong side lights combined with multiple ‘pups’ (small low power spots). The warm soft lighting puts a glow on the walls, and the actors are lit by the incident glow. Lighting operated by Maddi Mullins.

Elliot Macri’s delightful music and soundscape is just the simple unobtrusive style and level required. Sound operated by Georgia Smith.

        Lying on the bank of the wooded creek in the sunlight is innocent, fourteen years old, Wendla (Beth Tremlett), she is dreaming of love and not wearing knickers. Upon awakening, she meets her equally naïve, good friends, Martha (Savannah Wood) and Thea (Amelia Tuttleby). As they are chatting, the handsome Melchior (Sean Guastavino) walks past and their bodies experience a brand new feeling.

       Back at home, Wendla learns that her cousin has had a baby and so once again tackles her mother as to how exactly babies are ‘initiated’. Her overprotective Mum (Kayla MacGillvray) explains about ‘the stork’, which does little to satisfy even naïve Wendla. Not surprisingly, when Wendla meets Melchior later in the hayloft, the inevitable occurs.

       Melchior meets his school pal, the shy and often teased, Moritz (Alexander Gerrans); they discuss women, and what they know about them – mainly innocent lies. Whilst Melchior faces the mechanical facts of sex with excitement, Moritz seems somewhat traumatised. Their friend, Hansy (Jeremy Bunny) is having more advanced fantasies and imagines himself making kinky love to Thea.

      In the second Act, the cruel and bullying headmaster, Heart Payne (Jarryd Dobson), finds Melchior’s sexually blatant letter to Moritz. Backed by the school teaching staff, the headmaster gets the poor janitor, Fetch (Terence Smith) to carry out his outrageous demands. With little support from their parents – especially Moritz’s father (Aaron Smith) – terrible consequences follow for the two young teenagers. Wendla has just discovered that she is anaemic – or could she be pregnant? The doctor (Gemma Middleton) is called in.

     A masked figure (Nathan Whitebrook) appears, he seems to be the conscience or fate of the people around.

Director Teresa Izzard, with a dozen cast and two dozen techies to cope with, has taken on the dramaturg help of Nathan Whitebrook, and acting coach Phil Miolin. The production is topped off with make-up by Heather Jerrems and a talented costume team (Chelsea Johnston, Kate Phipps) led by Hannah Miller.

This complex play has been admirably stage managed by Samantha Barrett and her deputies, Dylan Dorotich and Laura Beeton.

There are a couple of areas that the script could have been thinned out slightly, but the director kept the pace moving on beautifully. Most of the cast had several parts, but managed to move between the personalities smoothly and still portray their characters with depth. The four or five leading parts were extremely well acted, and were backed faultlessly by the remaining cast.

The first Act of the play (it is the first two Acts of the book) shows the awakening of the children’s youth and their becoming aware of sex. The second Act shows the darker side and consequences of acquiring too much knowledge of intimacy.

The tickets for this epic are almost sold out, but try and get one if you can. There are quite a few players in their first major production, and yet the result is wonderful. Very many congratulations, a most professional production.

This 80-minute, high drama can be seen for one week only, at The Blue Room Main Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge. Performances are nightly, at 7.00 pm until Saturday 13^th December.

A two-metre high, wire fence, with barbed wire around the top surrounds the rough and tough senior school. The yard is littered with leaves, school desk, an old rusty oil barrel and the stark concrete walls of the school, with steel girders as their hard, crowning glory (Designer, Patrick Howe and built by Bianca Stewart, Jennifer Scullion, Annika Jane, Eleanor Davison and Alexander Gerrans). Christopher McIntosh sourced the unusual props.

        In the corner of the schoolyard sits 14-year-old Eva (Eloise Carter), a slightly nerdy introvert. Because her Grandfather was on the Kokoda Trail, and her brother, Clint (Ryan Hunt) is serving in the forces in Afghanistan, Eva is obsessed with war history. Much to her mother, Trish’s (Ashleigh Morris) horror she wants to join the forces.

Latching on to Eva’s infatuation with history, the two school bullies, Sophie (Zoe Street) and Cate (Gemma Middleton) attack her ruthlessly, and regularly, Eva has to be rescued by her caring teacher, Ms Carlton (Amelia Tuttleby).

Eva’s only real friend is the shy youngster, Lucy (Amy Johnston) who may have designs on Eva. Lucy is forced by the school slut, Paige (Holly Dodd) to find her customers. Poor insecure Harry (Kane Parker) is ripped off in his determination to discover ‘the meaning of life’.

Eva’s older sister, Matilda (Violette Ayad) is pregnant to her abusive boyfriend, junky Turk (Sean Guastavino). Will Eva take Ms Carlton’s advice and leave the area?

McCall has cleverly blended present day tragedies with flashbacks of the horrors of war, as Eva recalls her Grandfather’s stories. There are dozens of good solid, interesting storylines in this meld of human psyche and life’s inevitable route. These are brought to life with the photographs (Leigh Brennan) and visual projections, Tristan McInnes.

A few months ago, many of these actors were in the wilderness, but director Mark Storen, to quote a school movie, has ‘taken them from crayons to perfume’. There were some amazing performances, all were WELL above average, but top marks must go to Eloise Carter and Sean Guastavino. The dramaturg was under Michelle Endersbee guidance, and she had the large group of actors perform well in the small space. With a flash of light, or an explosion, the schoolyard was converted for a few seconds to the trenches, the horrors of internment camps with the inmates clawing the wires, before returning to a parallel situation in modern life. The comparisons were at times quite horrific.

The clever costume choice described the wearers’ personalities perfectly (Sally Ostrowski and Amanda King). The lighting effects (designer, Karen Cook) were well thought out and presented. From blood red sets to the stark coldness of the battlefield. The lighting operators were Rhiannon Peterson and Aaron Smith. The sound effects were numerous, but the most spectacular being the overhead helicopter (Soundscape Elliot Macri, George Ashforth and Stephen McGuire).

Samantha Barrett and her deputies, Kharla Fannon and Amy Tamati, efficiently handled the stage management.

A very powerful play, with many metaphors on life over the years. From the seedy to the brave, the controlling to the dominated, this show has it all. One of Curtin’s best presentations. Try to catch it and admire how all aspects have been undertaken and conquered.