The scene is around the 1950s in Ménilmontant, a poor area of Paris. On each side of the stage is a ramshackle, three-storey house with shuttered windows. At the rear of the stage is a park with a small hill. At the edge of the stage is a rubbish tip, where vermin gather.

A young pupil, Pascal (Dylan Christidis alternating with Rory McLaughlin and Jack O’Neill), is late for school as usual. En route, he finds a large, red balloon tangled around a lamppost. He unties it, only to discover that the balloon has a mind of its own. Forgetting about school, the boy meanders around the neighbourhood entranced by his find.
In the early morning sun, a rat (Ben Mortley) searches for food in a dustbin. A pigeon (Ella Hetherington) looks for a statue to ‘decorate’. Pascal soon finds that the massive balloon is not as popular with everyone; his mother will not allow it in the house and the bus driver (St John Cowcher) will not allow him onboard.
The local wily cat (Sarah Nelson) rubs herself against Pascal, looking for affection and a chance to burst the balloon.
Soon Pascal meets a young girl with an equally large, blue balloon (Eloise Hunter alternating with Katie Price). Naturally, a friendship follows, but with bullies in the area, the two must take care.
Will the balloon stay safe? (Sky flying puppet by Chloe Flockart)

How often do producers think, ‘it is a kids’ show, the story can be simple, the scenery undemanding and the acting effortless – they won’t know any better’. However, nowadays the children are discerning. This simple story was filled with warmth, the outstanding scenery most impressive, and the acting first-class.
Nationally recognised director, Chrissie Parrott, has transferred her acclaimed ballet skills to these dramatic performers, they glide across the stage. The controllers of the balloon meld into the background as the children become hypnotised by the mobile, mysterious balloon.
Creative mentor, Kate Cherry, has helped assemble the atmospheric production.
The magnificent set and costume design is by possibly WA’s best designer, India Mehta. India’s sets always show a brilliant use of materials and ingenuity of construction, whether it is a house, boat, animal costume her work is jaw dropping. These Parisian houses had smoking chimneys, fire escapes, balconies, working shutters – and the whole assembly could be moved by two stage crew, Georgia Landre-Ord and Claudia Blagaich. With talented sound designer and composer, Ash Gibson Greig and lighting designer, Trent Suidgeest every sense was stimulated. You could feel the poverty, smell the decay and hear the creatures just out of view.
This was an extraordinary piece of theatre.

When the play premiered at the Versailles fête, because of Tartuffe’s attitude to religion, the archbishop of Paris, Hardouin, threatened excommunication for anyone who watched, performed in or read the play. Moliére therefore asked his friend King Louis XIV for support. The play was rewritten and called ‘Panulphe’ – a Sudanese word – but it was again banned. However, the King allowed private performances for the French aristocracy.

This presentation is by the Actors’ Hub, a wonderful training ground where quality, acting students, still at school or early university, are selected, encouraged and refined – a kind of ‘finishing’ school.

The two-hour performances start at 7.30 (not 8.00 as shown in some publications) each evening in the Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre, 174 William Street in Northbridge. The season runs until Saturday 25^th July.

The scene is Orgon’s Paris house in the 1660s. The set is a large, metre high dais against the rear backdrop; it has a chequered floor with steps at each side. A wooden dressing screen is at one side and a chaise lounge sofa at the other. Centrally is a bright red wooden chest. There are several, very large Chinese Ming-style urns.

           The rumour is that the stubborn, head of the household, Orgon (Jordan Holloway) would like his flighty daughter, Mariane (Emma Harvey) to break off her engagement to her handsome fiancé, Valère (Quaid Kirchner) and instead marry a guest in the house, Tartuffe (Adam Droppert) an amoral, hypocritical, religious aficionado whom Orgon admires very much.

         When Mariane’s stepbrother, Damis (Danen Engelenberg) hears of the father’s match made in Hell, he gathers Mariane, his uncle Cléante (Justin Gray) and even Dorine (Angela Mahlatjie) the nosey housemaid, to devise a plan to expose Tartuffe. The haughty, single-minded Grandmother, Madame Pernelle (Nicholas Allen), will have none of it and becomes angry.

        Damis tries to explain what a conman Tartuffe is, but Orgon whilst talking to Tartuffe, becomes convinced into thinking this is a deceitful, slanderous plan of Damis. Orgon becomes furious, cuts Damis out of his Will and casts him from the house. Tartuffe is thrilled when Orgon declares that he, Tartuffe, will become his new heir, even receiving the deeds of the house as a prenuptial gift.

        Tartuffe immediately corners Elmire, Orgon’s beautiful wife (Ashana Murphy) and tries to molest and seduce her. When Dorine comes to the rescue, a threesome almost results.

       Will the wolf in sheep’s clothing, Tartuffe, get away with his reverse psychology fraud, or will Orgon see through the dastardly plan?

A NIDA acting graduate, the multi-award winning director Vivienne Garrett has worked with the top Australian theatre companies and many stars of the screen. Her calling has spanned decades in theatre, film and television.

Vivienne has shown the cast how subtlety can be achieved even with the brash, larger than life characters. This wonderful cast shone. Faced with a very tricky rhyming script is always a challenge, however, when one actor passes a couplet halfway through, to another to finish, then the pace, intonation and expression must all be the same for the rhyme to work. Even when the fuming and exuberant Orgon passed a line to the calm, manipulative housemaid, Dorine, the whole effect still worked.

The play was sexy, ranging from the girlish, crush-like love of Mariane, to the normally demur Elmire who turns on all her sex glands in an attempt to seduce Tartuffe into her trap. Tartuffe himself was perfectly depicted as a slimy letch, as he tackled every woman in sight. The chemistry and dexterity of the actors was amazing.

This was not as many expected a dry, Shakespearean style drama, but a beautifully adapted and, in parts, an almost pantomime style performance that even the youngest members of the audience could follow.

Actors Hub always produces quality; this was the team at their very best. Many congratulations.

The Perth Theatre Company’s most creative Artistic Director, Melissa Cantwell, has written this innovative piece.

If it was not for directors and playwrights like Melissa, the Perth theatre programme would consist of the ‘old faithful’ plays trotted out annually. Ms Cantwell fearlessly tries new scripts, with daring scenes and brand new approaches to regular themes, giving us intelligent productions; WAAPA postgraduate, Melissa has provided for us some of Perth’s most exciting, cutting edge and memorable plays over the past few years. Theatre MUST progress, and thankfully, WA has a talented leader who is determined to take the Arts to the community.

The scene is the 1970s in an Australian city. To the left is an upright piano. The stage is filled with a display of 1-metre high photographs (set design – Bruce McKinven, photographs by Melissa Cantwell).

      The curtains open to show an art gallery, where dozens of people are milling around admiring the stunning images by French photographer, Cécile (Astrid Grant). At the side of the gallery a Bohemian pianist, Christian (Felix Jozeps) is playing. As the guests leave, Christian starts to play Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’, when his eyes catch those of Cécile, it is love at first sight. He finds his fingers turning the famous sonata into how he feels for the photographer, thus creating Cécile’s theme (composed by Nick Wales).

      Soon the couple are living together and enjoying a passionate affair. However, not surprisingly with two artists, finances become tough and Parisian Cécile becomes homesick.

      We jump forward about 40 years to the present day. A blind man (George Shevtsov) is pushing a pram along the pavement; is this simply a more stable version of the white cane? Or could he have another reason for pushing it. A man (Thomas Papathanassiou) with tears in his eyes is standing looking at the flowers surrounding a florist kiosk on the street corner, he asks the young girl in charge (Jacinta Larcombe) for best bunch as he meeting someone special, someone he has waited to meet all of his life. The next customer is a proud mother (Sarah Nelson), who on seeking advice, has the significance of each of the flowers explained to her.

       The blind man falls in the street and the florist helps him to his feet, a strong bond develops between the two.

       We go back four decades to Christian, and find him a sick man, alone, penniless and distraught, but still filled with determination to seek out Cécile and rekindle their immense love. Will this be the case? Or is he too late?

Cantwell’s play is richly layered, with numerous story threads crossing three generations. It is a tale that requires a great deal of thought, concentration and consideration. You may well go home pondering dozens of questions, such as ‘Did she plant those flower seeds to suggest human fertilisation?’, ‘Was she in the womb?’ and ‘Were those two characters the same person?’ This rare quality of a writing skill demands a second viewing.

Assisted by award winning director, Ian Sinclair, with dramaturgic support from Peter Matheson and John Carter, director Cantwell has gathered a magnificent team of lateral thinkers. She has given them a chance to use their imagination, thus producing a beautiful and exciting visual experience. Some of the audience may leave the theatre asking themselves what certain scenes or symbolism meant, e.g. Christian being so depressed that he became ‘rooted’ to the earth. Little touches like the white contact lenses showing the corneal dystrophy of the blind person. The plane trip, with Sarah Nelson as the passenger, was so well observed that I found myself laughing aloud.

Lisa Scott-Murphy and Sarah Nelson took the standard, plodding stage movement into a breathtaking, almost balletic style. For example, in a crowded street scene – with lines of shoes on the floor representing the crowds – the actors swayed as they ‘danced’ with their spinning umbrellas. Later, there was another piece of visual magic from designer Bruce McKinven, as Christian stood in the pouring rain with water streaming from his umbrella, yet there was no rain from above! Bruce also gave us numerous surreal, ‘living’ locations, including a hospital, the Paris Metro and an ethereal woodland scene. The visual ingenuity was complemented by Ben Collins’ superb sound effects. Cye Wood and Jason Noble played Nick Wales’s subtle, melodic string and woodwind music.

Renowned Australian designer Aurelio Costarella, who was partnered by Fleur Kingsland, gave us the perfect costumes. Cécile at the photographic exhibition wore a stunning, sheer – almost diaphanous – gown with an unusual nylon sheen to the textile. In one scene, the flower girl wore a colourful tie-and-dye dress with a massive train, giving a dreamlike appearance.

Lighting designer, Matthew Marshall, shared the massive task with his associate, Chris Donnelly. There was hardly a floodlight in sight, instead there were tiny floor level ‘pups’, mobile light boxes containing battery powered LEDs – controlled by an i-Pad, Pendant lights, lights inside umbrellas, an internally lit light-table and a myriad of flowers in the park each one having its own small glow. A huge amount of work but worth every second of effort. Truly an extraordinary design team.

The two main characters not only had to be great performers but have a natural rhythm and musical talent. Cécile, Astrid Grant, worked with the Paris troupe, Théâtre du Soleil, before travelling to Argentina for further theatre know-how. This experience gave her a natural, authentic French accent. Christian’s (Felix) beautifully acted demise certainly hit a few heartstrings. The whole cast did not miss a beat on this complex production.

The stage management was a huge task for SM Louise Wardle and her ASM Rhianne Perrie (production interns – Meabh Walton and Sean Guastavino) as the scenes changed almost every couple of minutes throughout the play. The set moves, props – in and out – and the organisation of the actors, who not only had to play several characters, but also doubled as sceneshifters. The stage work was slick and silent. A memorable visual experience throughout.

There will be the odd audience member who thought it a little too long, with not enough exciting action. Forget them; this is amazing quality in every section of theatrical practise. See this show, be blown away and remember it for years to come.

The fun-filled 45-minute performances can be seen each night at 6.30 and 8.00, with extra 4.00 pm shows on Saturdays and Sundays. The season runs until 10^th May.

The set is on the theatre floor level. The 74 audience seats are arranged in the ‘round’ – or to be more accurate – in the ‘square’. On each chair lies a headset and a smart phone.

The stage square in the centre is about 20 by 20 metres, the size of a large retirement unit. Drawn onto the black floor are white lines, these are the ‘walls’ of the sitting room, kitchen, double bedroom, single bedroom, offices and backyard. The rooms are fully furnished and the garden substantial.

       The theatre lights dim and six spotlights glow (lighting designer – Lucy Birkinshaw), highlighting the six audience volunteers, the actors for this show. The large, non-claustrophobic masks are constructed of fly wire; they are then beautifully decorated with a bright face that suits each character’s personality (mask designer – Rebecca Baumann). Under the ‘head’, the actor wears a headset that guides them through the story, giving them instructions of what to do next.

       There is no script for any actor to learn, the pre-recorded dialogue track features vocal performances by some of Perth’s finest actors Igor Sas, Brendan Ewing, Andrew Hale, Talei Howell Price, Kate Neylon, Adriane Daff, Mikala Westall, Will O’Mahony, Sean Walsh, Kym Bidstrup and Brent Hill. The audience hear the full sound track, however, the cast only the narration and the dialogue of the other cast members in the room. Actors in other rooms do not hear another room’s dialogue. Also missing to the actors is the wonderful soundscape / music by composer Ash Gibson Greig, and the work of sound designer Sam Price.

       The actor is in the same position as the audience members. The gripping tale being whispered into the actor’s ears, it unfolds as in real life with the participants not knowing any of the storyline in advance.

       Using their headphones, the audience can eavesdrop on characters’ private thoughts. They can also chose, which area of the action they wish to follow by selecting from six buttons on the Smartphone, inventive storytelling at its most memorable.

        When a friend arrives at Peter’s house with a large sports bag full of cash, his family find themselves caught up in a sinister and disturbing chain of events. The ‘Confidence Man’ is the story of an ordinary family placed in an extraordinary situation. What should they do?

Director Zoë Pepper with assistant director and creator, Adriane Daff, have devised an ingenious, interactive audio experience that gives the audience and actors a novel happening. The ease of use of the audience and participants’ system, hides what must have been extremely complex to create. Brilliant.

If you do want to take part in this exceptional experience, as I did for this review, get to the theatre early and speak to one of the friendly ushers.

Yet again members of the talented and highly inventive, Pepper Family (Zoë and Gemma) have come up with a piece of dynamic theatre to blow your mind away. With every performance unique, this is the most fun that I have had since my honeymoon night!

This 1995, unusual but fascinating, semi-erotic story has been adapted by Humphrey Bower to give us this wonderfully moving tale. ‘Wish’ is a co-production of Night Train Productions and the City of Perth.

A shorter version of this play was performed at the Blue Room Theatre about 18 months ago and was awarded the ‘Blue Room Members’ Choice Award’ and the ‘Best Performance Award’.

This two-hour production can be seen at the Studio Underground, in the State Theatre Centre of WA, 174 William Street, Northbridge until 24^th May. Performances start at 7.30 pm.

The simple set is a dark carpet surrounded by black drapes. To one side is a car tyre hanging from a rope. Nearby is a musician (Leon Ewing) playing his own compositions on an acoustic guitar.

 

       A middle-aged bachelor, John James, known as ‘JJ’ (Humphrey Bower) stands in the spotlight and explains how he is the son of deaf parents who, when he was a child, caused embarrassment by speaking to him with their strange accent in front of his friends. Now JJ is employed in the local deaf institute teaching Auslan – sign language – to the families of deaf people.

        One night his class is interrupted by two newcomers, a rich businessman, Clive and his gushing wife, Stella. JJ recognises the couple as famous animal rights activists who have been on TV, stating that animals should have the same rights as humans. At the end of the class, they ask if he is willing to give private tuition to their eight-year-old disabled, but highly intelligent daughter, Eliza (Danielle Micich) who is too shy to attend the classes.

     JJ drives to their country estate and finds that his task is much more difficult than expected. However, Eliza and JJ both have both had lonely lives, and so find an instant bond.

 

For years, Bower has been recognised as WA’s premiere raconteur. He has a unique ability to draw you into his tale by creating several characters, all with different accents and personalities. Here, he has to give a two-hour monologue, complete with Auslan signing throughout, and yet keep a perfect pace and hold the 250 audience engrossed.

With his Equity award-winning partner of several shows, Danielle Micich, the atmosphere is tender, challenging and at times disturbing. Trained dancer Micich is silent throughout, but assumes her character and with the use of her supple, powerful body, she carries the part off amazingly. Some scenes are semi-erotic, beautifully handled, without being objectionable or embarrassing. The lighting (designer, Andrew Lake assisted by Joe Lui) is simple and unobtrusive.

The overall product is faultless with amazing performances by two of Perth’s best. Goldsworthy’s riveting story is very unusual and perfectly handled. Highly recommended.

This 80-minute, World Premiere runs nightly in the Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre, Northbridge; performances are at 8.00 pm (6.00 pm and 10.00 pm on Friday nights) until Sunday 2^nd February.

The seating is on three sides around the central stage. There is also a balcony on two sides.

India Mehta’s magnificent set, which is at floor level, it is formed in a red, stratified Bungle Bungle-style rock formation around a small fresh-water pool. There is a most effective scenery effect towards the end of the play that would require a great deal of skill, planning and patience.

        At the suggestion of Sal (Will O’Mahony), a group of old Uni friends decide to have a final fling before settling down to their occupations. Sal, who now lives in Melbourne, decides not to ask his girlfriend on the trip but still manages to arrange for three boys and three girls.

       Five of the group are filled with enthusiasm; however, for Vanessa (Whitney Richards), the lack of ‘normal’ facilities and creepy-crawlies fills her with dread. Eventually they agree, deciding on a beautiful, extremely remote spot, 300 kms inland from Kalbarri.

       Although their travel is lengthy, with Mike (Joshua Brennan) at the wheel, and Steve’s (Samuel Delich) juvenile games and wild stories, they love every second of the journey. Soon they arrive at the sheltered creek. Exuberant Elizabeth (Rose Riley) is first in for a dip, but Frankie (Adriane Daff) feels uncomfortable with the area – and what are those strange haunting sounds? Sounds that will change their lives forever.

Chris has cleverly blended several writing styles for his performers. He has incorporated asides, internal thoughts presented as monologues to the audience and bold, punchy interaction between the superbly created characters.

This gripping tale is directed by one of WA’s most talented directors and dramaturges, the adventurous Adam Mitchell. Adam has proved his ability and can be given any genre of script and direct it in such a way that it is exciting and fresh, and always fast-paced whilst still fully comprehensible. Movement director, Danielle Micich ensured that the cast filled the limited set and that the tempo was conserved.

The WA desert has its own unique colours that change dramatically throughout the day and night. Lighting designer, Chris Donnelly, on his first major project has captured perfectly the mood and distinctive colours of the outback. Coupled with the strange and creepy soundscape of composer, Ben Collins, you find yourself there, in the desert suffering with the group.

An unusual play, superbly presented and acted by a young, award-laden team. The first success of Chris Isaacs, I eagerly await the next.