Winter Warmers at Melville
Sun, 18 Sept 2011, 01:56 pmGordon the Optom2 posts in thread
Winter Warmers at Melville
Sun, 18 Sept 2011, 01:56 pm‘Winter Warmers’ is Melville's season of short plays, being performed at the Melville Theatre, 390 Canning Highway, Palmyra. Curtain up at 8.00 pm. With a Sunday matinee at 2.00 pm.
As a bonus Melville is also presenting four original monologues.
Getting the Gig a monologue written and directed by Perth’s own Chris Greenwood.
We find ourselves at a lecture, where a young lady (Angela Johnson) is making us think about the dying rural and country towns. If the people wanted to move into the city how would they cope with such a completely different life?
Jade Nobbs and Michelle Francis wrote a similar piece, ‘Click to Add a Title’, which was performed at the Blue Room and demonstrated how bad a lecturer can be. However, ‘Getting the Gig’ is more informative with less of the catch phrases and mannerisms. Angela captured the slightly patronising, enthusiastic but tedious lecturer well. The script could be thinned a little, but still good fun.
Sienna’s Wisdom written by Angela Pritchard and sensitively directed by Val Riches.
An Italian Mama (Jodie Hansen) arrives carrying a dish of pasta – made with love. She has brought it as a treat for an old friend. She informs us how she has been deserted by her partner and is now looking for a new, genuine love. This is a sincere little tale, with a jovial middle-aged lady smiling but hurting deep down.
Well thought-out script, with a fine blend of sadness and humour. Jodie was superb, really managing to draw sympathy from the audience as she choked on her emotions. Most enjoyable.
The Boat penned by Melbourne born Jill Shearer who has written short stories since childhood, but now writes them between her tasks as a diplomatic secretary. The play is directed by Chris Hughes
After thirty years of dedicated work, Sel (Geoffrey Leeder) was made redundant. A couple of years later he still finds relief in fishing. He knows every fish in the waters around him and which bait to use. However he becomes aggravated when those annoying big ships sail past and stir up the waters.
Sel’s wife (Penny Searle) accompanies him on his outings, as does his son Brian (Jeff Hansen). However when Brian meets a young American university tutor, Jane (Teresa Delany) he seems reluctant to take her home to meet his parents.
The acting in this play is wonderful, the tension and the drama of the situation has been captured beautifully. Very well directed by Chris Hughes, who has managed to convey the delicate sadness and pressures of a family’s situation. A most touching performance by Geoffrey Leeder.
Mistaken Deductibility, a very funny monologue written and directed by Chris Greenwood.
Sitting tied up in a police interrogation room, is an accountant (Doug Hellens), a simple man who for years has done his boring little job most satisfactorily without any problems. Now the police have heard that he is an agent, not a tax agent but a Secret Agent. Can he talk his way out of the confusion?
A very funny and novel situation, delightfully delivered by Doug with a pan-face. The dialogue was snappy and well structured, with a good mix of drama and bewilderment.
The Gumshoe Blues a finalist in the 2011 Maj Monologues competition. This monologue was also written and directed by Chris Greenwood.
A downmarket gumshoe who fancies himself as being in the big time, describes his life with the Mafia and dames.
When I saw this at the Maj, it didn’t have nearly such an impact as it does now. I am not sure whether the script has been tightened, but it certainly seems to have many more laughs. Very funny, with Jeff playing out a hackneyed, stereotypical Philip Marlowe. My favourite monologue of the evening.
The Most Massive Woman Wins a play by Western Massachusetts born Madeleine George, it is skilfully directed by Jodie Hansen.
The writer moved from lecturing in Creative Writing at a New York University, to being in charge of female prisoners’ education section. So she will no doubt have had a mass of subjects on whom to base her characters.
Four women are in a surgeon’s waiting room, all wanting to change the way they look. They start to chat, so learning the strange, and really quite sad reasons why they think that their figures aren’t as they should be.
Will the knife be the answer? Or can they come to love their bodies?
This is a brave look at an everyday problem. The writer has really got into the psyche of the women and developed a strong and moving script. The performances were fearless and demanding, as each girl told her own tale. The director has cast well, by choosing four very different looking women.
There were some very clever touches to this play, e.g. when the details of their problems were common to them all, they spoke in unison. Admirable.
A very pleasant evening out. Six productions and not a weak one amongst them.
‘Winter Warmers’ is Melville's season of short plays, being performed at the Melville Theatre, 390 Canning Highway, Palmyra. Curtain up at 8.00 pm. With a Sunday matinee at 2.00 pm.
As a bonus Melville is also presenting four original monologues.
Getting the Gig a monologue written and directed by Perth’s own Chris Greenwood.
We find ourselves at a lecture, where a young lady (Angela Johnson) is making us think about the dying rural and country towns. If the people wanted to move into the city how would they cope with such a completely different life?
Jade Nobbs and Michelle Francis wrote a similar piece, ‘Click to Add a Title’, which was performed at the Blue Room and demonstrated how bad a lecturer can be. However, ‘Getting the Gig’ is more informative with less of the catch phrases and mannerisms. Angela captured the slightly patronising, enthusiastic but tedious lecturer well. The script could be thinned a little, but still good fun.
Sienna’s Wisdom written by Angela Pritchard and sensitively directed by Val Riches.
An Italian Mama (Jodie Hansen) arrives carrying a dish of pasta – made with love. She has brought it as a treat for an old friend. She informs us how she has been deserted by her partner and is now looking for a new, genuine love. This is a sincere little tale, with a jovial middle-aged lady smiling but hurting deep down.
Well thought-out script, with a fine blend of sadness and humour. Jodie was superb, really managing to draw sympathy from the audience as she choked on her emotions. Most enjoyable.
The Boat penned by Melbourne born Jill Shearer who has written short stories since childhood, but now writes them between her tasks as a diplomatic secretary. The play is directed by Chris Hughes
After thirty years of dedicated work, Sel (Geoffrey Leeder) was made redundant. A couple of years later he still finds relief in fishing. He knows every fish in the waters around him and which bait to use. However he becomes aggravated when those annoying big ships sail past and stir up the waters.
Sel’s wife (Penny Searle) accompanies him on his outings, as does his son Brian (Jeff Hansen). However when Brian meets a young American university tutor, Jane (Teresa Delany) he seems reluctant to take her home to meet his parents.
The acting in this play is wonderful, the tension and the drama of the situation has been captured beautifully. Very well directed by Chris Hughes, who has managed to convey the delicate sadness and pressures of a family’s situation. A most touching performance by Geoffrey Leeder.
Mistaken Deductibility, a very funny monologue written and directed by Chris Greenwood.
Sitting tied up in a police interrogation room, is an accountant (Doug Hellens), a simple man who for years has done his boring little job most satisfactorily without any problems. Now the police have heard that he is an agent, not a tax agent but a Secret Agent. Can he talk his way out of the confusion?
A very funny and novel situation, delightfully delivered by Doug with a pan-face. The dialogue was snappy and well structured, with a good mix of drama and bewilderment.
The Gumshoe Blues a finalist in the 2011 Maj Monologues competition. This monologue was also written and directed by Chris Greenwood.
A downmarket gumshoe who fancies himself as being in the big time, describes his life with the Mafia and dames.
When I saw this at the Maj, it didn’t have nearly such an impact as it does now. I am not sure whether the script has been tightened, but it certainly seems to have many more laughs. Very funny, with Jeff playing out a hackneyed, stereotypical Philip Marlowe. My favourite monologue of the evening.
The Most Massive Woman Wins a play by Western Massachusetts born Madeleine George, it is skilfully directed by Jodie Hansen.
The writer moved from lecturing in Creative Writing at a New York University, to being in charge of female prisoners’ education section. So she will no doubt have had a mass of subjects on whom to base her characters.
Four women are in a surgeon’s waiting room, all wanting to change the way they look. They start to chat, so learning the strange, and really quite sad reasons why they think that their figures aren’t as they should be.
Will the knife be the answer? Or can they come to love their bodies?
This is a brave look at an everyday problem. The writer has really got into the psyche of the women and developed a strong and moving script. The performances were fearless and demanding, as each girl told her own tale. The director has cast well, by choosing four very different looking women.
There were some very clever touches to this play, e.g. when the details of their problems were common to them all, they spoke in unison. Admirable.
A very pleasant evening out. Six productions and not a weak one amongst them.
Reset posting
Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)
Jeff Watkins
Looking for an Agent? Read this first!!