Strathmore Theatrical Arts Group (STAG) has opened their third season for 2025 with a rambunctious jaunt through Sherwood Forest and Nottingham Castle.
If you thought you knew the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, think again (and think ‘more merry’, and ‘less men’…).
‘Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood’ details the ‘real’ story of Robin Hood, where all is not as we thought: Robin Hood is actually Maid Marian in disguise, The Merry Men are by and large made up of women pretending to be men, and love runs (very!) rampant in all its glorious forms across Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest.
Director Brian Edmond has drawn together an utterly fabulous cast, who all bring their individual and diverse characters to life in hilarious fashion. Each actor gave strong and nuanced performances across the board. The sometimes witty and sometimes crass humour kept the audience smiling and laughing throughout the entire show.
‘Marian’ is a smorgasbord of entertainment: wall-to-wall jokes, strong and quirky characters, an abundance of action and fight scenes, and love in all its glory (be that queer love, straight love, lost love, self-love, and of course plenty of sex).
The play has a strong (and overtly obvious) theme of sexuality and gender identity, very cleverly approached through humour. Using such a well-known story as Robin Hood to tackle these important topics is a testament to the play’s writer, Adam Szymkowicz. It really is a genius way to address issues and ideas around gender and sexuality in a way that can easily appeal to a wide audience.
STAG has really done a fabulous job bringing ‘Marian’ to life, with a simple but effective set and lighting, fabulous costumes, and oodles of (very fun to watch) fight choreography.
If you want an entertaining night out a good laugh, definitely go and see ‘Marian’!
‘Marian or the True Tale of Robin Hood’ is on for a limited season at STAG from Thursday 21 August to Saturday 30 August 2025. With some shows already sold out, make sure to book in quickly to not miss out!
Keep an eye out for the fourth and final season for 2025 from STAG, ‘The Beaty Queen of Leenane’, directed by Matthew Freeman, with performances running from the 13th to the 22nd of November 2025.
Educating Rita is an interesting and thoughtful but slow-moving show. Consisting solely of conversations in a single room, on a single topic of education. This show follows Rita, a 27-year-old hair dresser in Liverpool beginning university, and engaging 1:1 with her professor, Dr Frank Bryant, in his office. Rita and Frank debate and discuss education, class, and alcoholism. Educating Rita’s strong script consistently obtains laughs from the audience, a credit to the comedic timing of the actors and the keen direction of Sharon Maine. This show was engaging and pulled in the audience through the powerful relationship it builds between its protagonists. The morally split and endearing characters create space for the audience to ask themselves the value of education, and its impact on social class.
This production boasts an interesting and authentic set, with piles of books that weaved in and out of the story. The characters moved about the office comfortably aided by simple and appropriate lighting. Rita and Frank sport funky costumes, exhibiting era and class appropriate wardrobes that support the audience’s immersion into Rita and Frank’s world. All the components of the show worked well together to bring Frank’s office to life.
This is clearly a show that wants its audience to question education and its value, as opposed to or in direct conflict of social capital and value. Rita and Frank toy with the educational imbalance and social inequality between them, creating and building tension in their relationship. Appropriately, or sadly (for me), the show contains some literary references that went over my head, but likely more educated people will understand. Perhaps that was a purposeful design, for the characters to highlight their educational and social superiority. Either way, the literary references enhanced the experience of the show, bringing literature to the forefront of Rita and Frank’s discussions.
At different points of the show Rita struggles with writing papers, alluding to the challenges of womanhood. Rita struggles to balance her work, domestic duties, and school. In her dissolution of society Rita notices neighbours becoming numb and looking for purpose, Frank and Rita’s conversation turns towards the awe and wonderment of life, traversing trivial struggles and mounting monumental issues we all face in life. Rita notes that there is ‘not enough time to find myself,’ alluding to the feminist struggle and desire to take on the world. Rita faces the struggle of conforming to society and giving in to peer pressure, or pushing against social expectation to achieve academically.
This play determines how education changes us, or not. It maintains a quiet sense of humour throughout, allowing the impact of heavy themes to wash over the audience amongst light hearted quips between Rita and Frank. The divergence of ideas and values pulls the characters apart, the central relationship splintering over time.
Ms Julie Gabler: Trapped is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Othello, set in a modern Australian household with a diverse cast of intense characters.
Handled with an unapologetic honesty, the two act play explores the power dynamic between an interracial, heterosexual couple, delving into unflinching portrayals of domestic abuse and generational racial trauma.
All the characters in the play are professional actors who structure their lives around their love of theatre. The tone of the play is instantly set in the first scene when, while rehearsing for an audition for Othello, Robert actually attempts to choke out his partner Julie, causing her to knee him in the groin to break free. Tensions rise rapidly when Julie receives that role of Desdemona but their friend Mal receives the role of Othello instead of Robert, causing Rob to spiral into a violent rage fuelled by jealousy and paranoia.
Julie, portrayed by Ruth Gilmour, brilliantly expresses the trials of a woman trapped in a bad situation, through sobbing, bribing and desperate pleas towards her partner. Her moments of silence and stillness where Julie has completely emotionally detached herself truly evokes the pain experienced by an unfortunately rising number of women in this country. Gilmour’s role is beautifully balanced by Lenny Cullen Gorman who brings a touch of lightheartedness to his scenes while still maintaining the importance of the messages he is portraying.
However the atmosphere of the entire production is dictated by Sermsah Bin Saad who plays Robert. His erratic, almost constant presence leaves audience members feeling edgy and unsafe, an experience that is amplified by the live soundscape being created in front of them by Cansu Ceren Gonen, Terry Novel and Zac Rose.
Set on a single minimalistic set, the brutal nature of this play and its unflinching portrayal of domestic abuse is sure to linger in the minds of audience members, long after the final curtain.
A hilarious spoof of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunits, written by Cenarth Fox and directed by David Dodd.
In the south-west of England soon after World War 1, the unknown writer, Agatha Crispie, pens mystery stories. In vain she longs for their publication. Agatha’s family despise her writing and ridicule her plots. Agatha gets a lucky break. A body is found in the library. The police arrive as does a grey-haired, cardigan-wearing spinster with a knack for solving crimes. Suddenly the pressure is too much. Agatha disappears. Then a dapper foreigner appears. He too has a knack for solving mysteries. Then a Scotland Yard detective makes a surprise entrance. There is a dead body, a suspect or three, amateur sleuths, red herrings and dithering cops. It’s just like the life and characters of another scribbler, the slightly better-known Agatha Christie. There are surprises, mystery, drama, humour and that infernal, eternal mousetrap!
Once, I had read the promo I could not possibly miss this one. I grew up with my Mum reading an Agatha Christie mystery every chance she got and our holiday house literally had an entire bookshelf dedicated to the famous writer – who is noted on the program tonight as only outsold by Shakespeare and the Bible! Whether or not that is true to date, I’m thinking to myself no wonder my Mum loved her mysteries. I have read over the years those same books and have eagerly seen all the related movies and series’, so I’m fairly familiar going into this play with knowledge of the murderous titles and there are many cleverly interwoven references to the books in this play, including that body in the library.
‘Agatha’ played by Catherine Christensen is wonderful. Yearning to become a published writer in this story, she must convince her husband ‘Archibald’ played strongly and funnily by Neil Barnett, to let her continue to work on her writing or she must find a way to be rid of him and his family so that she can write her mysteries in peace and without the constant put down of Neil’s mother, ‘Lavinia’ played sternly well by Kerry Hollier.
Equal in putting down Agatha is the daughter of Archibald and step-daughter of Agatha, ‘Elvira’ played by Bel Shields – she is so entertaining! Absolutely loved watching her either as the main stage character when she had the floor or on the side; her mannerisms, voice, and everything else about her was a spot on stuck up Daddy’s girl wanting only the best for herself in society. Will she get it? Her ‘divorce’ scene was impeccably delivered.
I highly praise Rob Coulson as ‘Dithering’. It was easy to see he’s been doing this acting thing for quite a while as soon as he entered the room and delved fully into his character; he was very enjoyable to watch and reminded me of my Pop.
The set is fantastic. You feel like you stepped into the pages where Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple might lay down their reasoning on the suspect murderer, but here we will see the excellent dramatization skills of Gilbert Gauci playing ‘Hercule Grey-Cells’ and Mandy Vicsai as ‘Mary Mead’. I found it hard to believe that Mandy is a newbie to the world of acting, she was perfect in her role, as was Gilbert with his magnifying glass out sleuthing to themed music whilst everyone else was out of the murder scene room.
Outstanding casting on all characters, but my favourite was undeniably ‘Pimms’ played by Annie Laurenson. Annie’s comical timing is excellent and she seemed to feed even more into her character off the audience reactions; her performance throughout the show just got better and better right to the end punchline (which is a hoot!).
If you love Agatha Christie, you MUST SEE this show.
Congratulations to the cast and the hard working production team because yes, it is definitely as you promote: a fast-paced mystery-comedy filled with witty dialogue and outrageous characters, a clever parody of Agatha Christie’s famous detectives— perfect for fans of classic whodunits, and certainly an experience of intrigue, humour, and theatrical fun!
Venue: Clayton Community Centre Theatrette 9-15 Cooke Street, Clayton Vic. This is a very comfortable small theatre so don’t worry where you sit, you can see great from all the seats and it has wheelchair access. There is heaps of parking and the welcoming Encore volunteers served us free tea, coffee, biscuits and a glass of sherry at interval.
Playing: 18 – 27 July 2025 with some sold out shows already!
You can find out more about the lovely ENCORE THEATRE group via:
