This delightful, Kalamunda Dramatic Society presentation, just short of two-hours, can be seen at the Kalamunda Amateur Dramatic Society Theatre in Barber Street, Kalamunda nightly at 8.00 pm.

This fabulous show finishes its three-week season on Saturday 3^rd December.

The scene is the present day, in the sitting room of a rundown house in the North of England.

The stage apron and the auditorium aisle became the local club. The artwork was by Olivia Peters.

The set designer (Alastair Woodcock) has stripped the small stage back to the bare brick walls. The furnishings are meagre and tatty. To one side of the stage is a staircase leading to a teenager’s bedroom. The bedroom walls are pink and adorned by the LP covers of singing stars from the 1960s and 70s. The props were few but probably very difficult to source, well-done Linda Murray. The busy stage manager was Karen Woodcock.

The lighting (Stephen Marr) and sound (Julie Hickling) designs were very well thought out. With several special visual effects required from a limited lighting rig, a most impressive result. The efficient technical operators were Alexis Marr, Lesley Broughton and Anita Bound. Greg Rusha engineered the sound.

       After her husband died, Mari (Sandra Sando) feeling abandoned, took to the drink. She is desperate for affection – and a regular sex life. However, life has passed her by, and this tarty woman finds herself throwing herself at any man that shows even the slightest interest. Her immature, 15 year old daughter, Laura ‘Little Voice’, or ‘LV’ as her Dad called her (Madeleine Shaw) was devastated by her loving Dad’s death. With only a mug saying ‘The World’s best Dad’, a photo of him on her bedroom wall, and his LP record collection, LV locks herself away. All day she listens to his discs, hoping to find some ethereal, paternal connection by impersonating the singers.

      Mari’s friend, Sadie (Rose Weighell – enchanting) is short of a few brain cells, but understands the circumstances of her friend and her daughter, and shows LV genuine affection. As Mari and Sadie are having an afternoon nip of Bacardi, the telephone men arrive to install Mari’s lifeline to her clients. Mari moves in on the older technician, Clark (Stephen Marr) whilst the very shy young assistant, Billy (Jack Williams) smiles fondly at introverted, nervous LV.

     No sooner is the ‘phone installed but the village’s ‘impresario’, Ray Say (Keith Scrivens – best I have seen him) arrives to ‘see’ Mari. Her neckline lowers and there is more flesh on show than in a butcher’s window. He hears LV singing in her bedroom and cannot believe the quality. Anticipating being the agent to an international star, Ray calls the local club owner, greasy Mr Boo (Derek Russell).

     Could fame be just around the corner for LV? Will Mari find the man of her dreams?

Director Terry Hackett has once again worked her magic. This is basically an absorbing comedy, but with her clever direction and a magnificent cast – not a weak link anywhere – Terry has brought out the frustrations, deep sadness and pathetic lives of the mother and daughter. There are several poignant scenes where the mother grasps at ‘affection’, and poor LV just feels totally unloved and reclusive.

Narelle Belle mentored Madeleine’s numerous vocal characterisations, and in one scene, Madeleine rattled through several well-known personalities, with a confident, powerful, and beautifully melodic voice with the perfect style of the person she was impersonating. The cameos changed in microseconds, requiring a modification of vocal delivery, accent, and body action. A stunning performance.

Sandra Sando was outstanding as the debauched and pathetic mother, filled with jealousy and frustration. Her rough Edinburgh accent grated, and her whole demeanour was daring and repulsive. Superb.

Every aspect of this show was exceptional.

This Kalamunda Dramatic Society’s two and a half hour performance starts at 8.00 pm at the Kalamunda Theatre, Barber Street, Kalamunda – be warned the car park has disappeared, being replaced by a tasteless concrete monolith. This Sandra Sando production can be seen on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until 5^th December.

The time is early October 1993, the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of Verdi’s birth. The scene is a sitting room / music room in Beecham House, a retirement home set up for elderly, famous musicians and singers by Sir Thomas Beecham.

The carpeted room has pale green and peach walls. With a fine collection of props (Jason Millman), it looks the genuine article. There are posters of famous classical concerts on the walls. The furniture comprises a writing desk and a solid oak sideboard, with several comfortable chairs and a settee. Various musical instruments are lying around.

The apron of the stage represents a paved veranda garden outside the music room’s French doors. Set design Rose Weighell and Jan Taylor.

The lighting design was quite simple, but operated smoothly by Stephen Marr and James Glasson. Julie Hickling and Alexis Marr’s sound design was clever with subtle low-level bird sounds from the auditorium speakers – placing the audience in the garden.

      Three aging members of a world famous operatic quartet have fallen on hard times and, thanks to charity support, now live at Beecham House.

      Despondent baritone, Reg (Kim Taylor) sits fuming at Matron’s (Lesley Broughton) control on his eating habits – especially breakfast. He consoles himself by silently doing a jigsaw. Across the room, dippy but loveable soprano, Cissy (Kerry Goode) – who was a bit of a girl in her time – sits with her eyes closed, listening to her CD player unaware that the wickedly funny larrikin, Wilf (Douglas Sutherland-Bruce) lusts after her body. In fact, the tenor of the group, Wilf hungers after every woman. However, Cissy much prefers lithe young men like Nobby (Jason Millman) the gardener. Wilf seems to receive most affection and attention from Bobby Swanson (Les Marshall), still struggling after 60 years to come out of the closet.

     Cissy returns from a wander around the home, searching for the latest gossip. She has just learnt that there is a new inmate in the house, non-other than the fourth member of their quartet, feisty Jean (Anita Bound). Jean was the contralto star of their group, but she is now a broken and miserable woman.

     Cissy’s surprise news brings mixed feelings to the group, Wilf is happy but Reg is horrified, because Jean was his only wife and love. 50 years later, he still has trouble coping with their breakup. Perhaps if they join in the retirement home’s celebration, by reforming their quartet and singing together, their ‘good old days’ may return.

As the promotional material said, ‘this is a script that could be an inert embarrassment if performed by less accomplished players’, how very true. The script demands, humour, tragedy, sadness, even a little lust – and so the list goes on – but with the magnificent cast breathing life into every second, the play comes alive. You don’t have to be old to appreciate the predicament of the inmates. Lonely and frustrated they fight in their own way with their aging bodies, whilst determined to have fun and attempt to regain their much admired youth.

The director is Terry Hackett, one of WA’s most competent leaders; she has been recognised numerous times in the Finley Awards. Terry has chosen an outstanding cast, whose names also appear frequently in the nomination and winners’ section of the awards.

KADS is a small theatre, around 70 seats, but Terry has employed every inch of the stage and turned the auditorium into ‘a busy garden’, this made the whole action much more exciting. Clever skilling.

Poor Douglas lost a very good friend on the morning of the show, but like the true trouper that he was on the stage, with a performance that was both hilarious and flawless. His heartfelt delivery of the foibles of old age had many audience members nodding sympathetically.

Kerry Goode was given the bubbly, excitable part of Cissy. One minute, as the Alzheimer’s took over, she was hugging her friends on their arrival home, when most had not even left the room; then totally confused, she would fall asleep, drugged, in the chair. Kerry excelled in the last scene.

Anita Bound had a complex part, upset at the quartet’s proposed reunion, whilst optimistically trying in her stubborn way to unite with her ex-husband. Anita had passages of fast moving dialogue, and next she would be struggling with her aging body, trying in her mind to find some logic. A very moving performance, with a superb final act.

Kim Taylor, as the shunned husband, had hilarious, well-timed, wild outbursts – mainly at Matron – and yet still he manged to show his deep love for his long lost wife. In one scene Kim had to give a bold and assured monologue, before crumbling back to his usual withdrawn state.

This stage play seemed far funnier and possibly bawdier than the film, whether the scripts were different or was it the enormous skills of the director and her outstanding cast? The pace, chemistry, comedy delivery and sad passages were all performed with colossal skill.

I suspect there will be even more Finley Award nominations from this production.