Death warmed up

‘Death warmed up’ is an original comedy by local, first-time writer Stephan Jean de Jonghe. It is showing at The Kalamunda Dramatic Society in the Town Square, Kalamunda until 4^th August. It starts at 8.00 pm.

The curtains open to show the smart (fully equipped – great set) offices of the town’s cemetery board. The new girl, Jasmine (Dominique Allis) is a walking fashion statement, ‘certainly not what is desirable in our offices’ said prissy and staid Deidre (Kristine Lockwood). The health freak, office manager Roland (Graham Miles) is under great pressure to raise some income from the cemetery and two crematoria. Under the loving eye of Maggie (Irina Spradbury) he has some magnificent ideas. Head gardener, Bill (Kim Taylor) whose speciality is ‘Roses’ takes his job in this serious environment with some frivolity. Good, original punch line to the whole story.

There are many laughs in this 3-hour play. The acting was well above average, clear diction and good delivery. Even Daniela Guy, who played a crematorium manager, and stepped into the breach at the very last minute for her acting début, did a fine job. The direction was competent, plenty of movement but I felt that there were very slight pauses between each actor speaking, which slowed down the punchy pace required. Congratulations especially to Kim and Dominique for their quality comic renderings.

I don’t want to discourage Stephan, because I did enjoy this play, but 20% of the script could have easily been trimmed off and never missed. At one point, when a cremation was to be held, the details were related 5 times. In the first act, Stephan seemed to feel that an explanation of how the Cemetery Board works was necessary, so that the script became a little bit like a lecture. Perhaps he could arrange an informal, but honest, ‘around the table’ chat with his very talented cast, and so trim out the excess making the whole show more punchy. All the ingredients were there, good structure, plenty of puns and funny lines but they were often lost to the audience because of the dialogue structure. Sincerely, you have the skills and a great future in play writing.

To battling Dominique, try non-branded cold and flu tablets (with pseudoephedrine) to dry up your cold and get you through. We wouldn’t want you dying of ‘coffin’.

I had a long drive to get to Kalamunda, but it was certainly worth the effort. Congratulations.