On arrival everyone was greeted with a free glass of champagne, delicious canapes and melodious live jazz music from Nicola Milan and Stray Cats.

The Award Night was introduced by Meredith Cook, as her co-presenter Jarrod Buttery was appearing in the first snippet from the plays seen in 2015. There followed some wonderful reminders of why The Old Mill is one of WA’s leading community theatres.

Meredith and Jarrod were in excellent fun form as they called out the names of the winners.

The actors were most pleased to have the daughter of Constance Ord – the leading light in the setting up the theatre group many decades ago – to present the Ord Award.

BEST PRODUCTION Wolf Lullaby (Director Alide Chaney)

BEST DIRECTOR Noel O’Neill (Hail Mary)

BEST ACTOR Phil Barnett (Summer of the 17th Doll)

BEST ACTRESS Anna Head (Summer of the 17th Doll)

BEST SUPPORT ACTOR Tom Rees (The One Day of the Year)

BEST S/ACTRESS Beryl Francis (Jigsaws)

BEST STAGE MANAGER Ruhama Geiger (The One Day of the Year)

BEST SET Wolf Lullaby

BEST COSTUMES Hail Mary

MEMORABLE MILLY Shirley Toohey for an outstanding performance in Summer of the 17th Doll

MEMBER OF THE YEAR Joint – John Woolrych and John Spurling

A few ‘Silly Milly Awards’ were then presented for various theatrical disasters.

A fun night that gave us all a chance to see some of the star scenes of the year.

Sadly, aged 87, Alan died in March this year.

This fine presentation can be seen at the Old Mill Theatre, on the corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth. The two and a quarter hour performances can be seen at 8.00 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until the 24^th October. There is an extra show on Wednesday 21^st and a matinee on Sunday 18^th at 2.00 pm.

The 1958 scene is a lower-class, family home in a high density housing area of Sydney.

At the rear of the stage is a rostrum with two sets, a kitchenette and Hughie’s bedroom. At the front of the stage is the sitting room. The construction and decoration of this first-rate set was by Phil Barnett, Travis Markham, Calvin Munro, Michiel van Doorn and Sarah Christiner.

        Sitting around the kitchen table, is the man of the house, bigoted and opinionated Alf (Chris Henderson) who is lecturing an old digger and lifetime friend, Wacka (Tom Rees) about the bloody Poms and Italians that are pouring into the country. After all, tomorrow will be ANZAC Day, when Australia is solely for the Aussies! Wacka has heard it all before, but tolerantly listens. Alf’s long-suffering wife, Dot (Valerie Henry) arrives home with the shopping, only to find that not a single chore has been done in the house.

       The group chatting in the kitchen don’t hear the arrival of university student, Hughie (Matt Randall), Dot and Alf’s son, arriving through the bay windows at the rear of the house. Hughie is with a fellow student, his girlfriend Jan (Carmen Miles), a young lady from the posh North Shore, certainly not Alf’s type.

      The couple sit on the bed and discuss an idea for a controversial newspaper article that they have in mind, which is bound to cause family conflict.

 

The young, experienced director, Brendan Ellis, was very ably assisted by Hannah Moran. Every now and then there is a community play that comes close to faultless. It is obvious that this play has had a huge amount of work put into every aspect of the production. Christine Ellis’s set, with genuine furniture of the era, the paint colours – especially the arsenic green kitchen units, the old fashioned radios, an old range cooker and an oak dining room dresser. The lighting design by John Woolrych had just the correct hue to give that incandescent lamp feel to the settings; then there were small spots that just give that touch of isolation for certain brief monologues. The choice of music, Josh Lang, had the audience quietly joining in with Pat Boone and Perry Como. The tech operation was a little variable, with a couple of pre-empts and a missed light switch on. The costumes brought back memories and smiles, from Alf’s ill-fitting, double breasted demob suit to the ladies immaculate cotton dresses. The whole production smoothly supervised by stage manager Ruhama Geiger.

This whole production relied upon the subtlety of the acting showing a full grasp of the circumstances along with the old style family values. The result was exceptional; the actors often had tears in their eyes as the conflict grew. Five good, solid and moving performances.

Chris was outstanding as the drunken father and chemistry of the others created a truly believable group. Matt gave his best performance yet, superb as the son torn between his new love and misguided parents.

I have had a few comments recently that I am not harsh enough in my reviews. I actually aim to write reviews, not critiques. If something annoys me I will mention it, but my main aim is to give the potential patrons a basic summary of the storyline and an overall idea of the production quality.

This is NOT yet another ANZAC play, but a wonderful character study and a daring look at the ANZAC day celebrations. An excellent show by a dedicated and talented team – I hope Alan saw it from above.

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.