EMERALD CITY

This is a play currently playing at the Roy Edinger Centre in Melville. I went and saw it on the second night, and was met with some rather dodgy tasting sherry!.
However, the play was not dodgy at all.

It is an Australian play set in Melbourne/Sydney and stars 2 fantastic actor's in the lead roles, one being Jarrod Buttery as "Colin", a frustrated writer torn between his dreams of greater things and his ethical beliefs, and his wife, who I cant remember the name of (sorry, i haven't got the program on me) but she is played by a fabulously talented actress who's character is also fabulous.

The play started off a bit slowly, but it didn't take too long before i was hooked. It is a well written play and humourous throughout.

It is still running but i don't think for long, so, for a good night out, check out the timetable under "what's in" on this site and go see it.

Alan
(The tasty biscuit selection made up for the Sherry!)

Although it pains me to say it, Jarrod is very good. I went along last week hoping to be able to say that being a good president does not make one a good actor. Unfortunately, I can't. Jarrod handled the role beautifully and shone out in a uniformally excellent cast. His most difficult scene was when he had to reject the advances of a beautiful woman who was offering herself to him. He even managed to not look sleazy then - surely the Finley judges will struggle to find a performance to match this.
The smallish stage made blocking and staging a play with so many scenes a nightmare - but it was very well handled by Geoff Leeder. I enjoyed the play immensely and encourage all who want to see an intelligent and witty script staged very well to get along to the last three performances.

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the kind words (your cheque is in the mail). The "fabulously talented actress" as you so accurately described her, is Fiona Blakeley in the role of Kate, and she deserves every accolade she receives. (Heck, she deserves a Nobel Prize for going on stage opposite me...)

You are correct when you state that the play is still running: Tonight, Friday and Saturday only.

Thanks again,
JB

This pacey and very entertaining production was ably directed by Geoff Leeder and admirably acted by the 6 member cast, most notably Colin (the esteemed Jarrod Buttery) and his "nice-bitch" wife, Kate (Fiona Blakeley). It would take several viewings and probably a detailed analytical reading of the play itself to appreciate all the allegory, satire and in-house references but nevertheless, one can enjoy it on many levels in seeing it for the first time. I liked the Seinfeldian way the story went in a cycle - more clever than Seinfeld but certainly reminiscent of the older plotlines where everything means something - in this case, be careful how you treat people and situations in life because they may well come back around and bite you in the bum! Set in the late 80s, we are treated to some funny - and sometimes scary - fashion and music references. There are also some other references - to Melville Theatre - cleverly ensconced within the set. As the plot outline has already been mentioned by someone on this site, I won't go into it. The audience last night loved it and many "out loud" utterances were heard where people just couldn't contain themselves, so involved were they with the characters and story. Suffice to say this is a very enjoyable and watchable production which deserves to have full houses for its last two nights, tonight and tomorrow. It's worth it just to see the front of house photos at which my companion exclaimed "So this is what Jarrod looked like before he had a beard!" (you need to see the pic to fully appreciate this). So head off down the yellow brick road to Melville and Emerald City, you won't be disappointed.

(Er, was that OK Jarrod?)

I liked it. A lot. I thought that the cast were consistantly strong. In my (extremely limited) experience, often bad supporting characters can take what would otherise be an excellent show and turn it into a terrible one. This was not the case in Emerabld City.

The script rarely had a dull moment, and I commend the actors on their "freezeing" techiniques while others were making asides to the audience. I admit that I committed the heinous crime of being a "thinker" member of the audience, and not laughing out loud every time I was amused. I do think that I can be excused for this though, as if I HAD laughed at every joke I found funny, I probably would have damaged something.

I also felt that the "feel" of the '80's was captured nicely. Well nicely isn't really the word I'd use, it was the '80's after all, but I did have a series of rather disturbing flashbacks to my childhood conjured up by the set and costumes.

All in all, great job everyone. And Geoff, if you continue to put on shows of this quality, I'm going to have to kill you in a jealous rage.

Troy