This 140-minute spectacle can be seen at the Old Mill Theatre, Corner Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth, with performances each night at 7.30 (not as some adverts say ‘8.00’) until Saturday 13^th December  7.30 pm.

        When a typhoon passes through Kansas, Aunt Em’s house is hurtled through the air and lands on an evil witch, killing her. Her sister, Olga (Craig Menner), the ugly, wicked Witch of the East decides to take revenge on Aunt Em (Trish Theisinger), young Dorothy (Arianne Westcott-King), and their scruffy dog, Toto (Harrison Wake). However, Olga notices that Dorothy has bright ruby-red slippers with magical properties and is determined to have them.

        Dorothy was getting very worried about Olga’s threat, when Glinda (Nicole Miller) the good Fairy of the West arrives with her hapless friend, Letitia (Trevor Dhu). Glinda explains that Dorothy should travel to the Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz and seek his help – just follow the yellow brick road. So, guided by the gatekeeper (Rex Gray), Dorothy set off in search of the Wizard with a group of delightful, little people – the Munchkins.

        On her way, Dorothy met a scarecrow (Tim Prosser) leaning on a fence, he had a beautiful singing voice, but no brain. Next, she met a very timid lion (Neil Cartmell), who desperately needed some courage, and finally she met a Tinman (Sarah Christiner), who would love to have a heart. Farther down the road, Dorothy was surprised to meet a famous pop singer, a King from the 70s (a totally unrecognisable Ted Bull). Olga’s mischievous helpers, the wild monkeys, attack the party. Even if the group survives this, there is still the Wizard’s obstinate Chamberlain (Matthew Styles) to get past.

The children, aged from 5 to 14, played the loveable, happy Munchkins and the diabolical, trouble-making Monkeys. The children were magnificent, the Munchkins smiled constantly as they performed, danced in perfect sync and sang with gusto. Their costumes (as for all the others, were designed by Jenny Prosser, Susan Sator, Maree Grayden) were delightful. The Monkeys, with their threatening baboon like faces, glowered and snarled as they leapt around doing cartwheel. Their makeup (designed by Nicolle Miller, and Lisa Piggott) was most impressive, and considering the number of youngsters involved a huge amount of work. Jenny Prosser made most of the costumes. The Tinman’s costume really rattled and clanged as he walked – poor Sarah must have suffered inside, but it was worth it.

Once again, the sets needed that extra sparkle and with Maree Grayden, Ben Davis and Phil Barnett’s input Tim Prosser has done another sterling job with artworks for his set painting.

The Old Mill has some several LED lights that gives a new dimension to the scenery and the atmosphere. Ben and Flynn Vincent operated Ben Davis’ complex lighting design. Flynn is new to the bio box, so on the preview there were a couple of slow light changes, but considering the complexity of the show, I was most impressed and am sure he will be ‘spot’ on for the opening. Bree Vreedenburgh’s sound design required one or two unusual snippets, but this went well with crisp control by Jeremy Skinner.

As musical director, Bree Vreedenburgh had a huge amount of singing and dancing to cope with but the whole team worked very well.

The Munchkins were:- Sienna Birkett, Abbey Breust, Charlotte Broadbent, Caiden Cartmell, Kian Cartmell, Indigo Ellis, Anna Grayden, Hannah Harrison, Tahlia Menner, Grace Pooley, Atira Shack, Brooke Skinner, Naomi Skinner, Adele Stewart.

The evil Monkeys were:- Alexander Broadbent, Hannah Claux, Ryan Drummond, Megan Grayden, Madeline Hooker, Matthew Hutchinson, Kasey Pavlovich, Digby Petit, William Sartor, Aaron Skinner, Georgia Weston-Arnold.

Director Maree Grayden and her assistant Kylie Bywater’s can be most proud of this pantomime; it has all of the magical elements with some wonderful performances from the main characters.

Thoroughly enjoyable, children of all ages will love it – oh no they won’t – oh yes they WILL!

With a very warm welcome from the Mosman locals, this 120-minute award winning romantic comedy has been fully booked on most nights, well in advance.

The Art Deco style venue has recently been modified and has about 110 tiered, folding seats. Originally the location would have been used for ballroom dancing to an orchestra, and so the stage was almost 2 metres from the floor. This has now has been lowered to two thirds of a metre, a more comfortable height for the seated audience.

Considering the difficult move from the old theatre premises, the set built by the regular team of Brian Mahoney, Harry Schultz, Matt Cuccovia, Phil Redding and David champion was quite impressive. Tina barker and Trevor Dhu’s scene painting completed the effect.

 The rear of the set is raised and represents the loft of the Diamond’s home in Malibu. The front of the stage is their bedroom. Both areas cover the family life between 1953 and 1991.

        The year is 1991, and easy going Jimmy (Ted Bull) and his matriarchal wife of forty years, Alice (Vickie Billingham) are about to move to a smaller home for economic reasons. Jimmy is revelling in finding all the ‘treasures’ in the loft, some of which he hasn’t seen for decades. He is helping Alice throw out her rubbish, as the new home will not have room for both his treasures and her trash.

       Every object that they pick up seems to bring back clear memories of them as a courting couple. As they stand in the loft, the couple watch as the happy and tough memories are played out before them, with young Jimmy (Glen Scott), a very different man in those days, and Alice (Maree Andersen) was a subservient wife. Subservient that is, until Jimmy’s sexy, work colleague (Emily Lloyd) comes on the scene. Even decades later, Alice still suspects a lot more went on behind her back.

Will Alice ever find out the truth?

 Under the watchful eye of Finley nominated director, Trevor Dhu, Emily Lloyd played a few very different parts convincingly. Thanks to good makeup design (Nicole Miller) and clever costume variation (Nicola Bond) there was no confusion in the appearance of the characters played by Emily.

The main characters delivered the very funny one-liners, especially those referring to Jimmy’s aging body. There was a sprinkling of warm and sensitive moments, with a pleasant little ‘duet’ from the two actors playing Alice. The two couples were most believable, I am sure many of the audience would be watching their own youth unwind. Great chemistry between the players. The director had the difficult task of seamlessly moving back and forward from one era to another, this he successfully achieved with inspired lighting design (Rob Tagliaferri, aided by Peter Kirkwood) and employing a follow spot (Rachel Knight) to suggest the earlier period. The soundscape by Vanessa Gudgeon included instantly recognisable 45s from the two eras. Both techies had more than their usual share of cues and were spot on with their timing. The stage manager (Meredith Hunter) and her assistant (Tanya Rumithya) were practically invisible in their numerous set changes and modifications.

The warmth of the Harbour’s welcome has transferred well and the reputation has obviously spread around their new territory. A most pleasant night at the theatre, with a fun production and slick production.

This quality production is at the Melville Theatre, on the corner of Stock Road and Canning Highway in Melville, the curtain rises on this new play nightly at 8.00 each Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 8^th March.

The sitting room and kitchen set is very well designed and solidly constructed (The Hansens, Jensens, Ross Bertinshaw, and Kim Taylor). The abundance of props and furniture give a very real ‘lived in ‘appearance (Cally Zanik, Dan Madgwick, and Barbara Lovell). Excellent set well lit by Lars Jensen. The lighting was even over the large room and of a pleasant domestic level and tone. How often are the lighting designers happy to simply flood the area with cold bright light? 

       After the tragic end to his 1969 election night party when his favourite – Labor – lost, retired schoolteacher, Don Henderson (Tom Rees) and his wife, Kath (Val Henry) who still trying to come to terms with Don’s minor infidelity decades earlier, decide to host another revelry for the August 2010 federal election. Don invites the same left wing friends and a few new acquaintances; however, the years have changed their views and allegiances.

      As Don and Kath are plating the nibbles, their Bolshie, judgemental teenage granddaughter, Belle (Ellie Bawden) arrives. She is swiftly followed by the ever lecherous, Mal (Ted Bull) a psychologist now in management consultancy. To Don and Kath’s horror, Mal asks along his wretched ex-wife, Jenny (Lis Hoffmann), to whom the hosts have not spoken for twenty years, after a very minor disagreement.

      Suddenly, Don’s ‘baby’ son Richard (Neal Lucanus), who is now in his forties – and is Belle’s father – announces that his estranged wife is seriously ill in hospital. Torn between his wife and his new partner, the neurotic ‘Italian’ Roberta (Cally Zanik), Richard is not sure whether a visit would be appropriate.

      The doorbell rings and it is the love machine from the sixties party, the exceptionally wealthy, right wing lawyer Cooley (Kim Taylor) with his very patient wife, Helen (Rosalba Verrucci – Jeffreys) carrying an oxygen bottle and mask for his emphysema.

     The group sit to watch Kerry O’Brien on the ABC, but within seconds, the sound is turned down and the various political arguments begin, with all the old history being dug up.

Director Jeff Hansen has gathered a magnificent cast, with references and acting history to die for. Their teamwork and performances were slick. The atmosphere in the room changed rapidly back and fore as the cast skilfully confronted each other. Thankfully, the stentorian voiced Ted Bull, as Mal, brought light humour to the whole play.

Sadly, the drawback was the clunky, repetitive script, I felt that this was one of Williamson’s poorest, and could easily be trimmed by 20 minutes. It was a completely different genre to the original ‘Don’s Party’, being a little preachy in pushing Williamson’s left wing views. Having said that, the story had several thought-provoking developments, good storyline threads and it was interesting to see how the years had changed the characters since the first play.

The sound operator had a myriad of split second cues, as mobiles went off and the TV volume and station was changed – but not a beat was missed. Good bio box work from Barbara Lovell and Ross Bertinshaw.

The direction is inventive and the cast go along with the fun scenes, such as the hilarious Credence Clearwater performance. Lis Hoffmann gave an emotional and moving speech as she unburdened her troubles.

There were some fine performances in this enjoyable, quality drama.