This 45-minute play is part of the City of Perth Winter Arts Festival, and it is recommended for ages 15+.

This presentation can be seen in the main theatre, at the Blue Room, 53 James Street, Northbridge each evening at 7.00 pm, with performances until 25^th June.

Could Tina Turner’s disc of 1984, with the same name be the idea behind this play?

The scene is a bright, white laboratory and boardroom in a pharmaceutical factory. There is a long white Board table with white leather cubes for seats (designer Olivia Tartaglia). The numerous red rose petals seemed to represent love and truth. The plain set allowed the lighting designer (Scott McArdle) and the soundscape designer (Shaun Pickett) to cleverly add the various moods. The stage management is by Liz Newell

      An International Pharmaceutical Group are developing a complex pill – ‘The Remedy’ – that can cure a broken heart and remove any romantic stress or conscience. The company seems to be run by a Board of automatons, all in mindless tune but sure where they are heading.

     With so much money at stake, and increasing vocal opposition from well-known, global personalities, a Board meeting has been called. The CEO, board member three (Phoebe Sullivan) is a bully who will try anything to succeed.

    In charge of product promotion is smooth talking ‘number five’ (Tristan McInnes), but like the others he has been chosen to be the CEO’s ‘yes’ man. ‘Number one’ (Zoe Hollyoak) has great, but whacky ideas, ‘number two’ (Tristan Balz) is a lacklustre married man and ‘number four’ (Mariah O’Dea) a shy girl, looking for love and attention.

    A mixed team controlled by one omnipotent leader.

    When the CEO comes across a shy, gullible girl (Jacinta Larcombe) who is happy to act as the guinea pig for the drug trial, the drug’s success must surely be just around the corner.

Director, Rachael Woodward, has selected a skilled cast with proven credentials, who physically look different and then carefully matched the play’s personalities to their appearance. With some lateral thinking, the director has given the play a range of genres.

The cast members have created an interesting script, with numerous laugh-aloud moments. The actors have several characters each to portray, and without the need for a costume change, they capture familiar personalities with flare and energy.

This was a fast moving, fun-packed novel show. Professionally presented both by the actors and techs.

This 80-minute (not surprisingly) play is being presented by the Theatre Arts Major Students at the Hayman Theatre Upstairs, Building 102, Curtin University, Bentley.

Performances commence nightly at 7.00 pm until Saturday 10^th October.

Follow the tea light trail from the free carpark, number B13 to the theatre.

Alistair Kennedy’s set is a high-class restaurant, built on a parquet floor revolve. The walls are stretched muslin, lit with blue light – thus allowing the action behind, to be seen on occasions. The scenery being built by Alistair Kennedy, George Ashforth, Reef Jennings and Georgia Lewis. To one side sits a musician (Eleanor Davidson) playing a flute. On the other side of the stage is the dining room in Louis’s home.

       In a restaurant, a nerdy, pedantic author, Louis (Kane Parker) is trying to broach the topic of marriage with his girlfriend, Claire (Lauren Beeton); however, the enthusiastic waiter (Jeremy Bunny) is determined to explain the ‘specials of the day’ to the couple. Louis has no culinary knowledge and relies on Claire to help him choose his food. It becomes obvious that Louis has not had anything published since he was at school, so he has now become a pathetic theatre reviewer.

      Later that night, back at home, Louis’s father (Alex Gerrans) is exasperated by his loser-of-a-son using up valuable space and oxygen in the house, and so evicts him. Tearfully, Louis’s Mum (Kayla MacGillivray) presses a box of his belongings into her son’s arms before sending him forth.

     Desperate and unemployed, Louis goes to see a major agent and publisher, Dan Kurtz (Tristan McInnes). Bumptious, Dan relies 100% on his personal assistant, Carol (Kharla Fannon) to run his office.

     After a tragic accident, it is decades before we catch up with Louis again. We find him shopping for flowers at Mathilde’s Florist Shop. He waits as Mathilde (Caitlin McFeat) serves a customer, a very proud mother (Ashleigh Ryan) looking for the best.

      What will happen to this major failure in life? Will he ever find the perfection he seeks?

Karen Cook’s lighting design (operated by Mai Han), along with Ben Wehrheim’s sound effects (mentored by Ben Collins) brought quite a few smiles to the audience in the restaurant scene. The impressive autumn effect was the work of Phoenix Hudson and Terence Smith, supervised by stage manager Jen Scullion. The numerous props (Shannen Santos) and well thought-out costumes (Alina Sulkowski) added greatly to the atmosphere of the play.

The actors were directed by lecturer, Phil Miolin with movement choreographed by Teresa Izzard; the action flowed at a wonderful pace. The script, which was aimed at mocking the way theatre productions are chosen and how they are produced, gave the actors a chance to do asides to the audience, and subtly ham up some situations. This dry humour was very well presented, bringing numerous belly laughs.

As well as mocking reviewers, the script contained an absolutely gross but hysterical optometrist’s nightmare – so I felt quite at home.

The standard of acting was first class, not a single weak link. Special performance mention of the pathetic Louis (Kane), who was physically abused throughout the play and his partner Claire (Lauren). The unrelenting waiter (Jeremy) and Dan (Tristan) who gave the most hyper performance of the year – tremendous.

This is a most original play in so many aspects, although a brief story thread had an odd similarity to the ending of Melissa Cantwell’s ‘The Song was Wrong’. Very well written, with some weird characters.

Treat yourself to a low priced ticket, and have 80 minutes of raucous fun. Certainly worth seeing.

This 60-minute play runs nightly at 8.30 pm until 6^th June in the Blue Room Studio Theatre, 53 James Street, in Northbridge.

I don’t normally comment on the marketing of productions, but Jamie Breen’s promotional photograph is outstanding.

At first glances the set is simple, merely a rostrum with a couple of buckets of red desert dust sprinkled on top. Then the stars come out and the designer, Tessa Darcey along with lighting designer Emily Crane (operator Daley King), gives us an innovative treat.

The soundscape is beautifully subtle, with the hint of the desert wind, clever work by sound designer Mike Podmore.

         We find ourselves in a pub, just past the black stump. In the bar, celebrating his 18^th birthday is Cooper (Peter Lane Townsend), a bush born and bred lad with very little between his ears. In fact, for his birthday treat, his father is going to abandon him out bush to harden him up. Cooper is being served by Grace (Maja Liwszyc) who spends her time between customers reading legendary Aussie poetry. Grace is worried because five days earlier her brother went out bush and has not returned.

       At the other end of the bar stands city slicker, Jeremy (Tristan McInnes), an adventurous lover of nature, with no real idea how dangerous and oppressive the outback can be. He has come to central Australia to follow in the footsteps of the American poet, Jean-Louis ‘Jack’ Lebris de Kerouac – one of Bob Dylan’s idols and his major source of inspiration.

Director Warwick Doddrell has gathered a wonderful team that has created a tangible desert atmosphere. The audience could really feel the harsh desert sun, the arid atmosphere was palpable. The direction kept the pace moving along rapidly, as the story took us from one location and story thread to another. Each actor created a rich persona that the audience wanted to more about and really cared for. There were plenty of laughs and brief times of terror.

Symbolism was used most effectively on occasions such as in the bar, tending the desert creatures and climbing the local monolith.

A clever production that really captured the atmosphere of central Australia.