Pavilion Theatre - Whats The Show

Still Savouring: Castle Hill Players’ Tender and Sweet Production of ‘The Last Five Years’

26/07/2025 Isobel Knight🥉

The Last Five Years Rating

★★★★★

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‘The Last Five Years’ is an ambitious show to take on; a Jason Robert Brown score is no tame beast, and the intimate vulnerability required for this particular show to really fly asks a lot of its two actors. Castle Hill Players’ production, which runs from the 25th of July to August 16th, and has the pain and humour, the nuance and stillness, that this book and score deserve.

Director Julian Floriano has done a really wonderful job. The staging has to hold together story threads that are moving in opposite directions, and actors who barely have any points of physical interaction; Floriano has created spaces for the songs and actors to shine. Storytelling through character-building is the base required for this show to succeed and it is done excellently here.

Julian Badman of Your Place Architecture has designed a really beautiful and effective set; one of my personal favourites I’ve seen in a theatre recently. Gentle ripples of semi-sheer fabric hang in layered walls across the stage. At different times you can see characters or the band through them, or they are raised to reveal a scene in a new place. Cathy and Jamie (the two characters) move around each other through this mist, the curtains literally lifting to reveal moments of insight.

This show has a rotating cast, and the dates each will be performing is available at the booking link. Opening night began with Cassidy Donovan’s performance of ‘Still Hurting’ which is perhaps the song with the highest profile. Donovan is captivating from the start, and steps to the challenge of such a famous and devastating number with gentle ease. Her comedic moments are some of the highlights, and her energy is excellent.

Levi Burrows’ Jamie is goofy and ambitious, and he nails the moments where Jamie has an open flank. For much of the second act to resonate, Jamie needs to be someone the audience connects to genuinely, and Burrows catches the youthful joy and genuine love to do this.

David Catterall leads the small and mighty band excellently, and the sound mix meant the strings, played by Jade Jacobs, Heather Hinrichs and Ian Macourt, can harmonise evenly and beautifully Chris Everest’s lovely guitar playing. Catterall plays Jason Robert Brown’s intricate piano parts with a delicate touch, and Dominic Yeap-Holliday holds down the rhythm section (on bass) with aplomb. Bernard Teuben’s sound design across the entirety of this trip to the theatre was excellent; I hope the lobby playlist was curated specifically for this because it fit perfectly.

This is the only full-fledged musical on the books for the Castle Hill Players this year, and is definitely worth seeing. If you are not a fan of a the big song and dance of traditional musical theatre, this really good production of this award winning show offers a different way into the art-form. This is a very human story told with both humour and compassion by a skilled cast and band.

To book tickets to The Last Five Years, please visit https://paviliontheatre.org.au/the-last-five-years/.

Photographer: Chris Lundie

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Rehearsal For Murder: A Classic Murder Mystery That Keeps You Guessing

03/06/2025 Linda Lokhee🏆🥇🦉

Rehearsal For Murder Rating

★★★★★

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To me, a ‘Whodunnit Mystery Murder’ should encompass suspense, have interesting characters – each one having a cloaked shadow of suspicion, unforeseen twists and of course, an untimely demise. The Castle Hill Players performance of Rehearsal For Murder had all of this, and more.

Set in the 1950’s in an empty theatre on New York City’s Broadway, director Grant Brennan and the cast and crew drew us back to a time on the cusp of colour television where viewers were used to watching dramas in black and white. This theme was well integrated into the play, noticeable in the costume design of the main characters’ clothes which were all grey. Far from being a dull grey through, costume designer Leone Sharp ensured a timeless and classic feel.

The play opens with the narrator, Alex Dennison (wonderfully portrayed by Thomas Southwell) a successful playwright who lost his fiancé to an apparent self-harming circumstance one year ago. On this anniversary, he has invited his Broadway colleagues to partake in the reading of a new play he’s written, one which coincidentally, (or not so), involves the people who were last involved with his fiancé, actress Monica Welles shortly before her death. Alex’s script plays out certain circumstances that involve Monica and the characters and allows the audience to immediately see that they all have a motive to murder her!

Through cleverly orchestrated visual and audio theatre, the audience becomes involved with the plot, questioning who would benefit from Monica no longer being in the Broadway play. Who’s the murderer? Was it the best friend, Monica’s understudy? Her husband? The producer, an actor, director or the leading man? Through clever use of lighting (by Casey Moon-Watton) dimming and spotlighting at opportune moments, combined with sound effects and the use of The Pavilion Theatre’s space around the audience, it produced a dynamic atmosphere.

Showcasing the typical music of the time, sound designer George Cartledge creates a feel reminiscent of an olden-days radio drama. Alex Dennison narrates the play to the audience, with the backdrop of the music underlying his words. Thomas Southwell’s calm demeanour as a narrator carries the play’s tone throughout the performance.

A standout from this play was from Gina Willison, who portrayed the producer, Bella Lamb. She states that she’s ‘not an actor’, but Alex forces her to read the script he’s prepared, and I sympathised with her indignation at what she was forced to do.

Monica Welles, portrayed with an innocence by Lola Carlton, appeared not in ghostly form but as herself in flashback scenes. It was clever the way the scene seamlessly blended into the past, with Monica interacting with the other characters, each time leaving another hint as to what may have happened to her.

Rehearsal For Murder has a big cast. Brett Watkins (Leo), Ben Wheeler (David), Ella Rose Titterton (Karen) Brett Joachim (Lloyd), Sophia Laurantus (Sally) David Senior (Ernie), Chris Scarpellino (Man) and Melissa Applin (Loretta) all portrayed their characters well and created an interesting storyline. I attended the opening night, and as the production progresses, the New York accent should become more consistent.

During the interval, I heard various audience members talking. They were guessing, calling out the names of characters of who they thought ‘dunnit’. I had a couple of theories, based on who I thought had the most motive. Did I guess right? This was one of the most fun parts of a murder mystery – so I won’t reveal if I was successful or not! You’ll have to see the Castle Hill Players performance to find out.

Rehearsal For Murder is playing at the Pavilion Theatre from 30 May – 21 June 2025. To book tickets to Rehearsal For Murder, please visit https://paviliontheatre.org.au/rehearsal-for-murder/.

Pavilion Theatre
Doran Drive, Castle Hill
Tickets: $30 / Concession $25
www.paviliontheatre.org.au

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Improbable Fiction: A Comedic Delight

04/04/202509/02/2025 Isobel Knight🥉

Improbable Fiction Rating

★★★★★

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There’s something specifically delightful about a farce with a lot of heart. Castle Hill Player’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s ’Improbable Fiction’ has a charming ensemble cast, a Shakespearean change-maker of a storm, and several comic surprises that had the house in stitches.

Jem Rowe is warm and funny as our anchoring host Arnold Hassock. The characters he welcomes to the house he shares with his aging mother bemuse and enthral him (and the audience) in turn. This is a show for you if you’re interested in writing and the oddball folks who do it.

Abby Bishop’s set, in concert with Mark Dawson’s lighting design, is incredibly effective and is the key support for good actors working with a good script. They’ve created a little world that it was a delight to fall into for the night, and Alan Ayckbourn’s skill with words is shepherded effectively by director Dave Went.

Leone Sharp’s costume design is excellent, and the pace of some of the changes was very impressive. Each detail gave richness to the whirl of the second act. Some of the prop work drew gasps and cheers from the audience and facilitatedsome of the big surprises and delights across the show.

The second act swings at quite a different pace to the first and gives the ensemble more space to stretch their muscles. Anthea Brown is a comic highlight throughout, and the whole cast embodies Gina Willison’s choreography with verve. Brendan Iddles enters last in the first act, and has some of the stand-out moments in the second; his transformations are some of the most striking. Will Shipp drew out some of the most vocal audience responses, and Lauren Asten-Smith’s characters (and late second act reveal) were all some of the strongest emotionally connected moments in the scheme of the comedy of the show.

George Cartledge’s sound design is, like the set, effective and integrated, with musical moments and audio gags all landing. The storm he created was one of the key elements of the plot, and the design and delivery was seamless. The mood-setting musical moments were effective enough to situate you instantly without feeling repetitious, and Jem Rowe was particularly good at working with them to carry the audience along through all the different twists and turns of the show.

For this reviewer, the second act was the highlight, but all the threads that ran through from first-act conversations really did add to the story. There’s a lot to love and laugh along with in this show, and the cast and crew have put on a lovely production of a fun piece. There is more wordplay the more you look, and plenty of clowning and character comedy besides, so I would recommend catching this show while it’s on.

To book tickets to Improbable Fiction, please visit https://paviliontheatre.org.au/improbable-fiction/

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Isobel Knight🥉

Grand Horizons

04/04/202517/11/2024 Anastassia Gerakas🥈

Grand Horizons Rating

★★★★★

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The name “Grand Horizons” evokes an image of expansive possibilities, a bright future, and a world of untapped potential. It suggests a place where grand things await, a sense of hope and excitement about what lies ahead. In the context of the play, however, this promise is ironically deflated. The “Grand Horizon” is revealed to be not a metaphor for limitless opportunities but rather the confines of a retirement village.

From the very first curtain rise, director Jason Darlington expertly transports the audience into a space that is reminiscent of a sitcom, with musical tunes such as “Love and Marriage” from the TV show “Married with Children”, setting up the scene perfectly. The story is indeed about a married couple with children, only in this tale Nancy decides one day that she wants to divorce Bill, while their two grown up children come to the “rescue” by trying to stop the divorce from happening.

The children’s behaviour is somewhat sitcom-like, with over-the-top acting and facial expressions. Both are oblivious to their parents’ true nature: no matter how many times they ask what the reason for the divorce could possibly be, they never stop to actually let them answer and instead continue on their own trajectory.

It is deep into Act One when we finally hear from Nancy about her rather superficial marriage to Bill. Her confession of long-held desires for an old high school crush feels like a tipping point. It’s here, deep into Act One, that the play shifts gears from sitcom-style comedy to something more poignant, building toward a climactic moment where the walls of the retirement unit—quite literally—come crashing down. This marks the moment when “Grand Horizons” takes a profound turn, offering a raw and vulnerable exploration of the emotional truths that have been buried for decades.

Act Two is the standout, with Nancy’s meeting with Bill’s new girlfriend serving as an acting high point. The final confrontation between Bill and Nancy is both explosive and deeply revealing, a gut-wrenching moment where both characters come to realize how much they’ve actually known about each other’s desires all along.

In his directorial debut at the Castle Hill Pavilion, Darlington wisely lets the seasoned actors take centre stage, and it’s their performances that resonate most strongly. “Grand Horizons” blends comedy with pathos in a way that’s both funny and cringeworthy, ultimately leaving the audience with a bittersweet sense of reflection on life’s fleeting promises and the often-unspoken truths we carry with us.

Grand Horizons is running from 15 Nov – 7 Dec.

To book your tickets, please visit https://paviliontheatre.org.au/grandhorizons/

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