Perth Theatre

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall Rating

★★★★★

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This was my first time at The Garrick Theatre in Guildford, where patrons are warmly welcomed by the smiling front of house team.

Those of us in amateur theatre truly know it takes the assistance of many people to bring a show to life, not just those on stage; whether it’s long-standing members of the group, or the spouses and family who have been dragged along to help out. The experience of live theatre begins from the moment you enter the venue and friendly faces and enthusiastic raffle ticket sellers ensure the evening starts on the right note.

It is that hard work and determination that makes up the premise for Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall, and the age old saying ‘the show must go on’ no matter how dire things become.

It’s opening night of a new murder mystery. Seven of the cast are down with the dreaded lurgy and local councillors will be in attendance to decide the fate of the club’s funding and future. So, the Middling Cove Players’ director, two of the remaining actors, a stage manager who is only there to serve her community service hours and her 13-year old niece band together to ensure Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall takes to the stage as planned. Juggling nerves, props, and absurd miscasting, will they manage to pull it off? Or will everything go horribly and terribly wrong?

Bringing nearly 60 years of theatre experience between them, Kirstie Francis and Sarah House have banded together to direct this Australian farce, written by Mark Kilmurray and Jamie Oxenbould.

Act one takes us behind the scenes as the Middling Cove Players’ arrive ahead of the evening’s performance. Stage manager Karen (Jay Shaw) is hard at work trying to fix the sound system, the group’s leading lady Phillipa (Meredith Hunter) is in the middle of her lengthy warm up routine, Director Shane (Jim Brown) who is not-so-secretly in love with Phillipa, is struggling to contain his nerves, and Barney (Jarrod Buttery), who can only be described as the person in any group you try to avoid, is ready to provide unwarranted advice.

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall
Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall

When the cast receive the news that the rest of the players won’t be making it to the show, the obvious thing to do is cancel; but with the fate of the group’s future hanging in the balance, Director Shane decides there’s only one thing to do – the remaining actors will just have to play multiple roles.

The opening night crowd at The Garrick Theatre was clearly a mix of theatre lovers, and theatre folk; with many a relatable moment of life in the world of community theatre gaining a chuckle or slight cringe from those who know the feeling all too well.

After the interval, the stage is set, and The Middling Cove Players’ production begins, following a suitably awkward front-of-stage welcome by Director Shane, where various members of the audience audition unsuccessfully to fill some remaining roles until latecomer Richard (Jack Riches) is thrown backstage and cast into the spotlight. The production starts off well enough, but soon descends into chaos with the realisation that several of the characters being played by one person are on stage at the same time. To complicate matters further the group find themselves running out of time to finish the show with Jenny’s 21st Birthday party, complete with a DJ, due to start in the hall next door any minute.

Any farce strongly relies on the comic timing of its actors and can be a challenge to get right, but this talented cast of recognisable local actors are spot on; you can feel the tension and determination of their characters to ensure that the show does go on. Juggling multiple costumes, accents, and props can be tricky at the best of times, but the degree of difficulty to make the production look like a shambles (think The Play That Goes Wrong) requires a great cast and strong direction, which The Garrick Theatre Club delivered in spades.

Most groups often joke that you could write a play about the behind-the-scenes drama of amateur theatre because nobody would believe half of what goes on. So it’s a joy to watch when someone actually does, even if it does, at times, feel a bit too close to home.

To book tickets to Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall, please visit https://www.taztix.com.au/garricktheatre/.

Performance Dates:
March 29 at 7.30pm
April 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 at 7.30pm
March 30 at 2pm
April 5 and 6 at 2pm
Tickets: Adult $28, Concession $23, Members $22.
Processing fees apply.
Bookings: Phone TAZ Tix 9255 3336 or BOOK ONLINE

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Opening Night Review: After Dinner

After Dinner

After Dinner Rating

★★★★★

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3

It’s Friday night at the pub. The stage is set as five lost souls, and a distracted waiter, embark on a quest. On the surface, they appear to have different agendas, but underneath the bravado, they all share a desperate need to feel a little less lonely in After Dinner.

Set in the late 1980s, where the fashion and daggy pub restaurant are practically characters in their own right, big points go to the production team for nailing the brief. Under the direction of Tim Riessen, the cast does a magnificent job delivering the dialogue and mannerisms that are intentionally stilted to demonstrate the awkwardness of their relationships and scenario.

Dympie (Kezia George of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Hansel & Gretel), Paula (Lisa Divall of Short ‘n Sweet) and Monika (Amanda Alderson of Squid Games and Frankenbolt’s First Christmas) work in the same office, and had they not worked together, it is unlikely they would have socialised outside of work. The handsome Gordon (Altus Vernooy, making his stage debut from behind the scenes) and Stephen (Ian Fraser of Cracked and Done to Death) meet up at the pub through a mutual friend who never shows up. The waiter played by Tarek Jabado (Frankenbolt’s First Christmas and Under the Table) is a man of few words, but his looming presence (and often absence) is a steady shadow among the chaos.

 

With the ladies at one table and the men at the other, it doesn’t take long for them to notice each other, much to the dismay of the controlling Dympie, who just wanted a quiet Friday night with Paula.

Except this is no typical Friday night as Paula invites the grieving Monika, whose revelations into her marriage reveal a tirade of confronting and intimate truths. The exploration of adult themes and graphic nature of After Dinner suggests you might want to pick your theatre date carefully as some audience members may find the content uncomfortable.

Just as you need to break an egg to make omelette, the messy characters dissolve and then evolve, albeit subtly, as life often does before epiphanies set in.

Performed at the Roxy Lane Theatre just behind the Volare bar on Whately Crescent, this retro theatre is the perfect backdrop to the 1980s. Written in 1984 by Kalgoorlie-born playwright Andrew Bovell, who wrote Strictly Ballroom and Lantana, the fact that it’s still being performed decades later demonstrates the timeless theme of loneliness and the human condition. Poignant, funny and relatable, if the audience’s response to opening night is anything to go by, After Dinner will continue to leave a lasting impression for many more decades to come.

Performance dates: 7, 8, 9*, 14, 15, 16*, 20, 21, 22 & 23* March
Recommended MA 15+
Times: Evenings at 7.30pm, *Matinees at 2pm
Tickets: $23 adult, $19 concession, groups of 10+ $18 each

To book tickets to After Dinner, please visit TAZ Tix.

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Two Churchill Plays: Presented by Melville Theatre Company

Escaped Alone and What If If Only

Escaped Alone and What If If Only Rating

★★★★★

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Melville Theatre has brought two thought-provoking performances to the stage in their latest double-bill offering, Escaped Alone and What If/If Only.

Both written by British playwright Caryl Churchill; each brings to the table deep themes of the human experience – that being catastrophe and grief.

Starting the night with Escaped Alone – director Lucy Eyre has brought together a strong group of four women whose chemistry excels on stage. Set over an afternoon tea, each woman reveals and grapples with their own personal form of catastrophe, leaning on each other to navigate their struggles.

Susan Lynch leads the group as Mrs Jarrett – dealing with PTSD as a survivor of a natural disaster. Her emotive asides are a driving force of the piece, and it’s evident she is pulling from raw emotion to bring the scripts to life.

Having later discovered that these scripts feature no punctuation, Lynch is to be commended for letting the actors really make it their own.

In her Melville Theatre debut, Caroline McDonnell is another standout as Vi, providing a raw authenticity to the role as she navigates family troubles.

Natalie Burbage and Suzannah Churchman nicely round out the group as Lena and Sally, respectively, bringing some light-hearted comedy to the show’s more serious tone.

With strong performances and a solid foundation, my only real qualm with this production was more a matter of the writing than this particular performance itself. Mrs Jarrett’s alluded trauma felt rather ambiguous and left both myself and my friend feeling a little lost at times, though we were still able to enjoy the show regardless.

 

Escaped Alone and What If If Only
Escaped Alone and What If If Only
Escaped Alone and What If If Only

What If/If Only was much more my speed. It offered a poignant 20-minute look into human grief and the spectrum of emotions that come with it.

The immediate clinical feel of the box-like set by Lars Jensen – mimicking the small acrylic box at the front of the stage – creates a strong impression, soon filled with the tableau of the characters within to make it feel as if we are watching some kind of study in a lab.

The stark black-and-white costuming provided by the cast further contributed to this idea.

Lucy Eyre is an anchor as the central nameless character who has experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide. She does well to simultaneously appear vacant in her grief-stricken state while also amplifying the range of emotions, questions and ‘what ifs’ people ask themselves when grappling with suicide in real-time.

Personifying said ‘what ifs’ is Jarrod Buttery as the flamboyant future, Clare Talbot as the spunky and matter-of-fact present, and Tanisha Mavunduse as the hopeful yet starkly realistic child future.

Props must go to both Lucy Eyre and Natalie Burbage for pulling together and executing two insightful performances that leave audiences questioning their own battles with emotion and looking internally to reflect on their own experiences.

To book tickets to Escaped Alone and What If If Only, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

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Comedy Carousel

Comedy Carousel

Comedy Carousel Rating

★★★★★

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5

Three one-act plays, one charming theatre and oodles of talent. The Garrick Theatre’s latest stage production, the Comedy Carousel delivers ridiculous hilarity and maybe a murder or two.

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a stage production? ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Murder Mystery’ offers plenty of insight into the pandemonium when dealing with a bunch of actors rehearsing for a murder mystery play. Throw in a script written by Agatha Christie knock-off Magetha Misty, a loopy director and an indecipherable accent coach, and you (and the cast) are left wondering whodunit and what was done to whom.

The actual director, Ali Louise, did a fantastic job of herding the high-energy cast by encouraging them to be as wacky as the show within the show. Among the tantrums, over-the-top death scenes and butchering of Shakespearian references, this tight-knit troupe delivers cohesive chaos with many laugh-out-loud moments. Narrated by Erin Shay Horrigan with Julia Webster playing the director role and Cambren Price playing the frustrated stage manager, the actors include Rebekah Hannah, Samantha Cashford, Paris Romano Jenner, Aaron Wilkes, Kirsty Plews, Quentin Mitchell, Jason Robert Lester and Steve Moloney, who perform as only thespians can in theatre blacks adorned with madcap props.

The second one-act play, Therapy Go Round, centres around a traumatic break-up that sends Brooke spiralling and into therapy. When she arrives at Dr Marita Welsh’s clinic and is greeted by assistant Janine, Brooke soon wonders who is shrinking who. If only her eccentric therapist had paid attention to the details and Janine wasn’t so absent-minded?

 

Comedy Carousel
Comedy Carousel

Written by playwright Sean Guy and directed by Carly Ranger, Therapy Go Round is performed by an all-female cast of Lis Hoffmann (Dr Marita Welsh), Kylie Calwell (Janine) and Casey Smith as Brooke. The simple set of ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Murder Mystery’ was miraculously transformed in moments into a clinic with soft pink lighting, a desk and two chairs – had there been a couch, no doubt Brooke would have needed a good lie-down and cry after her session.

Soon enough, a couch appears on stage for the final one-act play titled The Heist, brilliantly performed in New York accents by Colleen Johnson (Muriel), Karin Staflund (Camila), Marsha Holt (Ingrid) and Julie Holmshaw (Delia). Set in an apartment in NYC’s gritty Bronx, as the four ladies settle into their game of Bridge, there’s a sudden knock on the door. Gangster Lenny (played by Andreas Petalas) barges in full of misguided attitude but soon loses control of the situation as the ladies mess with his head as only a bunch of New Yorker broads can.

Directed by Lynne Devenish and written by actor and playwright Shirley Toohey (with script assistant Christine Offringa), strong characterisation creates an evocative sense of place and poignant storytelling to the background soundtrack of the borough’s sirens as Guildford’s trains and planes thunder by.

The ticket price of $15 is incredible value for three one-act plays and the calibre of talent from the cast and crew, including stage managers Sarah Durack and Jason Blaine, Don Allen (Lighting Designer) and sound designer Geoff Holt. Established in 1932 and situated in the heart of historic Guildford, the Garrick Theatre is one of the longest-running community theatres in Perth and always welcomes new members for ongoing discounts, events, news and auditions.

Performance dates: February 6th, 7th , 8th , 9th*, 13th, 14th & 15th February

All evening shows begin at 7.30pm, * denotes the matinee show at 2pm

To book tickets to Comedy Carousel, please visit TAZ Tix.

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