This riotously funny two and a quarter hour show is being presented by the Garrick Theatre Club, and can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. The performances are every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 pm until Saturday 10^th December. There are matinées on Sunday 27^th November and 4^th December at 2.00 pm.

The scene is the present day, in two nearby London flats.

The stage is divided down the middle. To one side is George and Jessica’s trendy and luxurious flat; complete with white leather couch and contemporary, original paintings on the wall. The other side of the stage is Brian and Hilary’s more staid home, with its unusual wallpaper, a corduroy couch and prints of famous paintings. Designer, Ray Egan has put a great deal of thought into each of the sitting rooms, with many little extra features. He was helped in the construction by Adrian Ashman, Fred Petersen, Owen Davis and Graeme Dick.

The show is stage manged by Graeme Dick and Marion West.

The complex, fast moving script requires slick lighting and sound control – all worked well thanks to Geoff Holt and Mark Owen.

       Middle-aged Brian (Joe Isaia) has the chance of an affair with an attractive young woman, Wendy (Lindsay Cliff), but has nowhere to take her. Thankfully, Brian’s best friend, George (Andrew Govey), comes to the rescue. George’s wife, Jessica (Siobhán Vincent) is away on a work trip in America, and so Brian can use their flat on a Wednesday afternoon whilst George is at his darts match.

     When overweight Brian suggests to his wife, Hilary (Kylie Isaia) that he fancies trying jogging, Hilary is so pleased to see him taking care of himself, that she buys him a bright red track suit for his park runs.

     Brian arrives at George’s flat and finds Wendy, hot and ready – unfortunately, within minutes of his arrival, George’s wife returns home a day early and catches them.

     How will Brian talk his way out of that?

Director, Alice Dale has been part of community theatre, professional theatre and WA TV business for many years. When your brother (Stanley Baxter) was one of the funniest men ever in Scotland, then the genes are bound to help, and not surprisingly Alice’s direction was superb, inventive and slick.

Some of the audience may recall the Whitehall Farces of the 1960s / 70s, with its star philanderer, Brian Rix. Whitehall has always been held as the ultimate producer in farces, and Rix as the best ever, panic stricken lover. This production is the nearest to I have seen to the old days. The script was ingenious, the set superb, the direction perfect and the whole cast unbelievable. The panic stricken faces, the desperate moves, the crouched stance ready to escape, the tremor in the voice – all captured perfectly.

This one of the best structured farces that I have seen. It is fast paced and so takes exceptional actors to carry it off, and that is what we have here – the very best of the best. A must see production.

This Darlington Theatre Company production can be seen at the Marloo Theatre, Marloo Road in Greenmount on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until 12^th December, curtain up 7.30 pm, Sunday matinees 2.00 pm.

Incidentally, the Marloo Theatre website now requires an ‘au/’ at the end of the address. Their real website is not ‘for sale’, so please use   http://www.marlootheatre.com.au/

All of the flats, at the rear and side of the stage, were very pale, dappled blue. Colourful fruit barrows and their attendants stand at the side. There was the exterior of a small cottage. In another scene was the corner of a harem and a small swimming pool.

      Thunder can be heard as beautiful Fairy Bowbells (Natasha Smith) strolls onto the stage, in search of her lost friend, Rosalind (Sophie David). She finds her pal locked in a cage, and as she releases her, there is a flash of lightning and the evil Esmerelda (Siobhán Vincent) – boo hiss – arrives. She cons Bowbells into giving her a magic neck talisman. With this new power, Esmeralda turns Rosalind into a black cat, Kitty (Tanya Doogan).

      In the town square, Bosun Bowleg (David Seman) and two seamen (Adrian Ashman, Paul Presbury) are searching for a new captain for Alderman Fitzwarren’s (Paul Reed) boat. The Alderman’s atrocious cook, Sarah (Suzanna Matla) is destroying even more food in her oven. Two local idiots, ‘I’ (Jonathan Quinn) and ‘Spy’ (Angus Cummings) have been hired to follow and kidnap, Alice Fitzwarren (Melissa Bull), the Alderman’s daughter; however, Esmerelda’s press gang, the evil Rats (Sophie David – radiated stage presence, Thomas Outred, James Dick,) led by King Rat (David Bain) – boo, hiss – were also out to kidnap any able-looking man.

      As handsome Dick Whittington (Channing Whitworth – good singing) is helping scout leader, Miss Peabody (Jacqui Ashman), he is captured and whisked away onto a ship. They set sail for Morocco but their boat sinks.

       The extremely wealthy Sultan (Michael Hart – at his best) and his gorgeous daughter, the appropriately named Maneeta (Tyler Morgan) capture the crew. The Sultan’s butler, Jeeves (Timothy Presant) pleads on behalf of the captives, but the Sultan continues to admire the harem dancers (Jenny Trestrail, Natasha Smith, Rachel Vonk).

       Will dangerous Esmerelda be stripped of her powers? Is there any happiness or love left in the World?

 

Marloo has one of the largest stages in the WA community theatre group, and although the small amount of set was of quality (George Boyd), the quantity let it down. The stage often looked stark. Whenever the chorus left the stage, the two or three actors remaining appeared lost in a void. Perhaps leaving a few ‘peasants’ loitering whilst the singers performed would have helped. There was good and speedy set changes by stage manager Hayley Derwort’s team of Jordan Tabb, Elanor Cooper-Ritter, Graham Dick, Michael Dick and Ashley Johnson. When the LED lighting changed from white to colour, it certainly helped make the scene more intimate and less clinical (lighting designed by Michael Hart and David Bain, operated by Mike Smale).

The lightning and explosion effects were MOST impressive, especially when topped off with Greg Rusha and Brendan Tobin’s inventive sound design.

The costumes (Rachel Vonk, Tracy Vonk, Sallie Ketteringham) were perfect for the characters, ranging from the beautiful gown of Fairy Bowbells, to the ‘horrible rats’ outfits. Then there was the diaphanous dress of the Sultan’s drag queen daughter, Maneeta – great fun. Then there is that very different camel (constructed by Annie Bramble) – not your typical Panto camel – it was meant to be ridiculous, matching the two mad characters inside.

‘Dick Whittington’ was enthusiastically directed by the talented Rachel Vonk. The intricate choreography was clever and well rehearsed, thanks to Joanne Neesham. The musical directors, Brendan Tobin and Amanda Minutillo gave us catchy tunes, with a sensible sound level to ‘accompany’ rather than take over the singer’s vocal cords. At times, perhaps too many different themes were taking place on stage simultaneously. Plenty of action is wonderful, but to have serious singing, with dancing and a comedic camel altogether can be a little overwhelming.

A thought :- Who was the Dame of this panto? What does a Dame normally look like?

When comedians crack jokes, the script can be first-class, but much of the success depends upon the style of delivery. The cast were word perfect and well-rehearsed, but often the lines were delivered as though they were part of a drama – clearly, at a good pace but in the wrong genre, so many of the jokes did not quite work correctly. The corny humour especially needs to be spelt out – as though telling a four year old a joke – with even a boom boom noise from the musical accompaniment or a simple bass drum just to drive home the point. Pantos are the one time that ‘ham’ is best.

‘Marloo’ can be relied on to entertain children of all ages. Your kids would love this.

This very funny two and a half hour, dark comedy by the Darlington Theatre Players, can be seen at the Marloo Theatre, 20 Marloo Road, Greenmount on a Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 until Saturday 16^th May. There are two Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm.

It is present day in the upmarket living and dining area of the Patterson’s home, somewhere in Australia.

Another magnificent set from George Boyd. The dining area is raised and the table is set for a special family meal. The sitting room area has a comfortable three-piece suite and jarrah furnishings. There are two arches leading to the bedrooms and front door. The director and his assistant, the technical crew, George Boyd, Michael Hart, Dennis Sutton and the stage crew, Graeme Dick and James Dick, combined efforts to build this stunning set. Lesley Sutton has carefully chosen props give a truly authentic ‘lived in’ finish.

Very good, well thought-out, lighting design operated by David Bain. Two large pendants light the area. David has taken the time to light passageways, and when the room door was opened the area beyond was lit up and not, as often seen, just a black void. Chantelle Pitt operated George Boyd’s sound design with precision.

       A spotlight picks out a wall clock and dour Ron Patterson (Ray Egan). Ron explains how three months ago his specialist told him he is dying, and that he had three months to live. Ron took him at his word – not 3 and a bit months, but three months precisely to the minute. Today is the day; he has 111 minutes left to live. His wife Dawn (Siobhán Vincent) has decided to gather the family around for party pies and Pavlova, in an attempt to help Ron tie up the loose ends of his strained family life.

      The lights dim, and seconds later we join Ron’s high flying, businessman son, Michael (Richard Hadler) and his elder daughter, Debbie (Belinda Djurdjevic), 35 and still not married! They are trying to decide why their father has called the family gathering. Could he have discovered that Michael is gay?

      The younger daughter, Karen (Laura Williams) arrives, wearing a miniskirt, bright red shoes and a massive chip on her shoulders. She moans and complains, ‘why is her Dad wasting her time?’, but as soon as Ron and Dawn enter the room, her little pet-lip pouts and they tell her how wonderful she is, so much better than the two disappointing older children.

      Before long, at Ted’s request, a young undertaker (Harry MacLennan) calls to check the funeral details.

This is a hilarious script, and with a laugh about every twenty seconds, it required a first class, inspired director and Brendan Tobin was just the man, most capably assisted by Rachel Vonk. The dialogue was perfectly delivered by a cast that thoroughly understood their characters. All of the personality traits were there, brought to life by great body language and facial expressions. The father’s stern and miserable outlook, the loving caring mother who went with the flow, the petulant and jealous Karen, Michael was anxious and impatient with Debbie trying to be patient despite being the one who is bottom of the family tree. The euphoric undertaker, Ron, just sat with an angelic smile. Rarely I have I seen such a perfectly integrated cast, everyone gets 10/10 for performances. The pace and chemistry outstanding. A massive compliment but thoroughly deserved.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow to director Brendan, you deserve a rest and be pampered.

The laughter did not let up for a moment; sit near the aisle you will need it to roll in. Try to catch it, funniest show in years.