Camberwell Grammarians’ Theatre presents ‘The First Curtain Festival’. A 2 hour celebration of seven original short plays, written by local playwrights and staged by Melbourne-born talent. Each play is directed by a seasoned or rising director from the community and audiences are in for a wonderful night of variety.
All plays shown at each performance:
THE LAST OF THE GENTLEMEN SLEUTHS by Noah Sargent, directed by William Rotor
Trapped by a blizzard, five of the world’s greatest gentlemen sleuths must solve the murder of Mr. Corpse before they all turn on each other instead. Who did it?!
BYSTANDER by Jennifer Pacey, directed by Ben Klein
The unthinkable has happened. A man has thrown himself in front of an arriving train. Three women tell the story of what they saw, trying to make sense of it all, and of themselves.
Please be advised this play contains suicide.
CHIPS by James Gordon, directed by James Gordon
It is Ghafour’s first day of work at Apopotatosis: a company that takes randomly selected people from the Australian population and turns them into chips to then sell off for profit. What could possibly go wrong?
Contains coarse language.
DROP DEAD by Benjamin Chesler, directed by Lakshmi Ganapathy
In the dead of night, in the middle of winter, a slapdash team chop firewood – but nature has other plans for them…
An Australian Gothic play that’ll make you think twice about venturing out into the bush at night.
Contains loud noises and strobe lighting.
EMILY TAKES A LOVER by Julie Murphy, directed by Julie Murphy
Emily’s husband is having an affair. Will she get her revenge?
Contains themes of adultery, abortion and toxic family dynamics.
SALMON by Peter Farrar, directed by Angus Fitzpatrick
During rush hour a frustrated chef and an apathetic waiter have a heart-to-heart in the alleyway outside of the fine dining kitchen.
THAT STORY ABOUT THE LOUVRE by DS Magid, directed by Jai Barlow
Ever hear the one about the impressionist who broke into the Louvre to finish a painting?
This was perhaps the most varied night out at a theatre I’ve experienced. Seven different short plays in one sitting, so something for everyone to sit back and enjoy, assess and chat about afterwards.
I love to immerse myself in the world of the actors in front of me for a couple of hours. This one local to me in my favorite little Clayton Theatrette, easy to get to and park – bonus!
All the scripts were pretty clever, but I liked best ‘CHIPS’ surprisingly which I guessed correctly in advance would be crazy! It was definitely super dooper crazy! ‘CHIPS’ received the biggest laughs of the night so it made the perfect Final piece. Imagine a factory where humans are turned into potato chips – goodness how does a writer come up with such cooky creativity and make it work! Shout out here to Simona Riftin in the cast, her vibrance for roles in community theatre is infectious and I’ve seen her in a number of plays now. Henry Vo had fantastic interaction with Benjamin Chesler who was equally great and his line of being the ‘f….. boss’ spread uncontrollable loud laughter across the entire crowd.
Coming in a close second for me on the program would be my appreciation for ‘BYSTANDER’. Extremely well acted by all the girls; Alexia Brady and Shirin Albert were amazing with their feelings expressed and Crystal Haig (WAAPA grad.) was astoundingly believable in her explanation of how her character felt in watching someone jump in front of a train, and going through the trauma how she was ‘not fine’. I do believe ‘BYSTANDER’ is an award deserving script and took a deep amount of emotional courage from both the writer and actors.
My hubby’s favourite was ‘THE LAST GENTLEMEN SLEUTHS’ as wondering and wandering through a who-dunnit with a cast that also involves the audience with tips along the way is always a lot of fun. The actors’ language accents were excellent and when those same talented people came out in different items throughout the night they really showed off their extraordinary versatility!
Well done everyone!!
Ticket link: https://events.humanitix.com/first-curtain-festival
Seeing original work is a privilege and Camberwell Grammarians’ Theatre Company (CGTC) is a community theatre company formed to encourage alumni, friends and families of Camberwell Grammar School to continue, revive or ignite a drive for the performing arts. It was easy to see their love for the performing arts and what a wonderful way to stay connected and connect to others at the same time. Theatre has so many aspects in which one can be involved, it’s a pity not more schools have these types of groups ongoing after school is finished. I know I would’ve loved to have been involved in one.
To book tickets to First Curtain Festival, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/first-curtain-festival.
