All in the Timing

‘All in the Timing’ is a series of strange short plays, written in the early 1990s by American playwright David Ives. Six of the fourteen plays were performed at the Stirling Theatre, Morris Place Innaloo by SPY - the Stirling Players Youth – for two or three nights in late May.

Each play cleverly uses a different aspect of the English language to give a variety of word play scenarios.

 

Sure thing        directed by Cassie Vagliviello            

A man (Skyler Ellis) and a woman (Ella Evans) meet for the first time in a cafe. He tries to strike up a conversation with the girl who is reading a book at his table. Whenever a performer reaches an awkward situation, the other person rings a bell and the play goes back a paragraph or two and the situation restarts on a fresh note.

This short play relies on a rapid fire delivery, and several recoils to previous situations. This means that the script has many similar feed lines which could easily have caused the actors to become confused, however both gave very solid performances. Excellent.

 

Variations on the death of Trotsky      directed by Keren Schlink       

The wife (Adriano Carlino) of revolutionary, Leon Trotsky (Josh Walker), reads in an encyclopaedia that her husband died some days earlier. She tells the very much alive Trotsky, and despite all efforts to avoid death, he dies several times from a mountain-climber's ice axe head wound inflicted by their gardener Ramon (Tahlia McQuade).

Again another repeated scenario. Well acted but wasn’t as appealing as the first.

 

The Philadelphia         directed by Alex Littlewood

A man (Danen Englenberg) is advised by a friend (Andrew Clark) that his exasperatingly miserable day is the result of an ‘anomalous pocket of reality’, called a ‘Philadelphia’, in which he must ask the waitress (Danielle Goder) for the opposite of what he wants.

Despite a good cast and direction this play didn’t quite work. It missed the mark last time I saw it performed, so I suspect there may be a problem with the writing. Again a difficult script to learn.

 

Philip Glass buys a loaf of bread       directed by Iskandar Sharazuddin      
Musical accompaniment by Amanda Timler

A musical spoof on the real-life composer, Philip Glass (Matt Lawrence), when he simply goes into a shop to buy a loaf of bread. The baker (Jacob Dibb), in operatic style, starts to sing accompanied by two of his customers (Taylor Buoro-Long and Madelaine Page).

A clever combination of singing and dancing, delivered with enthusiasm.

 

The Universal Language         directed by Celeste Underhill

Don (Josh Lang) has invented language Unamunda and has opened a school to teach it. When a woman, Dawn (Emily Cribb), arrives they fall in love in spite of the language barrier. Will they take on the new student (Tahlia Norrish)?

This play must have been a nightmare to perform. Both of the leads had to learn a script of gibberish and perform it straight faced and with conviction. Amazing performances.

 

Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue        directed by Joshua Walker and Leah Bennet

Chuck (Madelaine Page) takes his latest girlfriend, Annie (Taylor Buoro-Long), for a game of miniature golf. Chuck glibly uses all of the charm he can muster to gain the love of this poor naïve girl.
As they move to the next hole, another couple arrive on a similar date, Chuck (Ella Evans) and Amy (Courtney Turner). This Chuck has a very similar chat up line to the first, but his date is a little different. Then we see Chuck (Clare Housley) with a third date, Alma (Danielle Goder) a completely different type of woman.
The three miniature golf games take place simultaneously, as the script jumps from one group to another.

Excellent pace as the dialogue changed from one group to another. Good comedic delivery.

 

The set design, Cassie Vagliviello, ingeniously involved a simple rotation of the neutral grey flats (scene changes very efficient and silent). A different colour of clothing accessory was used for each play, e.g. the skirts and ties would be scarlet in one act and bright yellow in the next and on through the rainbow of colours. Clever touch.

I have been very impressed over the years by the quality of this group of youngsters’ productions. Perhaps a few more groups could start youngster classes. Some of community theatres would do well to see their work and learn. I look forward to possibly seeing the remaining eight plays in this series in the future. An enjoyable night out.