When the play was first produced, American audiences were surprised to hear that Australia even took part in the Vietnam War.

ARENA Arts and Entertainment are a highly respected WA independent, not-for-profit arts organisation, dedicated to supporting Community Theatre and Theatre for Schools productions. They are presenting this, their latest drama at The Latvian Centre (LC), 60 Cleaver Street in Belmont, conveniently situated just off Great Eastern Highway, a couple of kms east of The Burswood.

The 2-hour production is nearing the end of its season, with performances on Thursday 23^rd, Friday 24^th, and Saturday 25^th June. All shows begin at 8.00 pm.

The set comprises several black rostra at heights varying from 20 cms to 1 metre across the rear of the stage. There are brightly coloured cubes acting as seats. An impressive tree fills one corner.

The clever lighting and sound design by Simon James gave the impression of a much more substantial lighting and sound rig. The sound and lighting operators were Callum Vinsen and Brendan Ellis.

Stage manager Simon James was assisted by ASMs Stewart Mulligan, Sarah Langridge and Gema Seenarain, who worked speedily as a team between scenes. They were helped by the sprites and fairies from the Shakespearean opening scene of the play. These fairy costumes were made by Phylissa Meagher and Chris Ellis.

       The audience find themselves as parents watching the last few seconds of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Eve’. The sprites and fairies fill the aisles and run onto the stage. Year 12 student, ebullient Tom (Brad Albert) who is acting as Puck, moves to the front of the stage and takes his bow. The surprisingly prejudiced headmaster, Roy (Andrew Smally), congratulates his cast and their director, Miss Latrobe (Gema Seenarain).

     After show, Tom meets attractive student, Meg (Madeleine Shaw). Meg’s hypochondriacal, snobbish mother, Gwen (Valerie Henry) is bossing her hen-pecked husband, Jim (Don Weaver), who loves Meg. Gwen then berates daughter Meg for talking to boys – especially Tom, one of those new Pommie immigrants!

     For their holidays, Meg and her parents are hoping to travel afar in their luxury caravan. Gwen is never happy or satisfied, and even sets up contentious situations.

     As the headmaster and his nervous wife, Coral (Stephanie Locke) leave the school, he starts to bully her for talking to staff and parents. Coral is broken hearted at losing a son decades earlier, and is trying to come to terms with the constant grief and needs friends. Perhaps her overfriendly meeting with Leonie (Sarah Langridge) or her passionate encounter with honeymooner, Rick (Stewart Mulligan) will cheer her up.

     Tom’s Mum, Vic (Phylissa Meagher) proudly cuddles her son; her ‘blue collar’ husband from Nottingham, Harry (Simon James) tells Tom how proud he is. Tom’s parents are struggling financially, and are heading off for a basic camping holiday.

     To everyone’s horror, it is not long before the headmaster and his wife, Meg’s family and Tom’s clan all find themselves in the same camping site for their 1967 Christmas break. The campsite has Christmas entertainment with Hawaiian dancers and a zany and enthusiastic Master of Ceremonies, (Michael Moshos), who parallels Ariel in the ‘Tempest’. However, the weather turns nasty and a storm causes destruction to the camping area – a real life ‘Tempest’.

Director Christine Ellis has lucidly directed this complex character study. Every person has been richly written, and in this production, we can immediately connect and recognise them with people we know in our lives.

The ARENAarts is always keen to give newcomers a chance to act, and in this play the impressive male lead was new to the stage. There were some very good performances, with ‘old troupers’ like Val and Simon giving superb performances whilst generously, but subtly, helping others around them on the stage. One actor was word perfect, with good powerful diction but was so locked off on the script that the acting suffered. Try to think what the words mean as you are saying them, and let your body go with the flow.

The pace was very good, and the mood of the play, which varied from hilarity to deep tragedy well displayed.

It was good to see Simon James – as good as ever – back on the stage, after years of designing the lighting and sound.

A beautifully written play, well presented with some very strong performances.

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.