After Dinner
Sat, 1 Oct 2011, 11:07 pmGordon the Optom1 post in thread
After Dinner
Sat, 1 Oct 2011, 11:07 pm‘After Dinner’ is by the Kalgoorlie born, acclaimed and adventurous playwright, Andrew Bovell. He is the writer responsible for such diverse plays as ‘Lantana’, ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and ‘When the rain stops falling’ which will be at the Heath Ledger Theatre soon.
Andrew started writing plays in his final year at UWA. This 1988 play is still as fresh as ever, and is being presented at The Old Mill Theatre, Corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth.
The start time for this one and a half hour, hilarious adult themed play is 8.00 pm, with shows nightly until Saturday 15th October. One Sunday matinee on the 9th October at 2.00 pm.
It is Friday night in an Essendon pub bistro; the patrons are starting to arrive. Three girls from the same office are going to meet for their end of week celebration, and naturally the pedantic, pain-in-the-bum is always first there. In this case it is Dympie (Emily Rowe) the plain and dumpy one, who is easy going - so long as she gets her way! She has booked the table for her attractive, but ‘far too thin’ friend Paula (Jacinta Tavelli) who has invited along a new girl to the group, a stressed and depressed, newly widowed Monika (Jayma Knudson). Soon the girls are gathered and Dympie sets out to organise the night.
On a nearby table, recently separated, boring and shy Gordon (Jason McFarlane) is waiting for his work pal to arrive with another friend Stephen. Handsome, hot but cool, Stephen (Alex Littlewood) arrives alone, the boys introduces themselves and start eyeing up the talent on the next table.
Could it be that Gordon isn’t interested in girls? Will the night be a total disaster for all?
This fast paced comedy is slickly directed by Matt Longman. With two or three laughs a minute throughout the play, the result is one of the funniest observations of life that I have seen in some time. Although the characters’ behaviour is, at first glances, a little extreme, the audience will have left the theatre with a lucid picture of people they know just like them.
Although the cast teamwork was magnificent, the timing smooth and the deliveries faultless, an extra special mention for Emily Rowe who is new to WA. Emily’s, or Dympie’s, bitchy comments and total lack of conscience about what she was saying, was horrifyingly natural. Jayma Knudson gave a superbly funny portrayal of an under-the-weather, but randy man-hunter. We were treated to an extra laugh during our performance as a linen serviette accidentally went up in smoke.
There is intimate bedroom talk, so perhaps 14 or 15 years and up may be an appropriate minimum age for this very well written adult comedy. Try and catch it before it sells out, I would certainly rush back to see it again.
‘After Dinner’ is by the Kalgoorlie born, acclaimed and adventurous playwright, Andrew Bovell. He is the writer responsible for such diverse plays as ‘Lantana’, ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and ‘When the rain stops falling’ which will be at the Heath Ledger Theatre soon.
Andrew started writing plays in his final year at UWA. This 1988 play is still as fresh as ever, and is being presented at The Old Mill Theatre, Corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth.
The start time for this one and a half hour, hilarious adult themed play is 8.00 pm, with shows nightly until Saturday 15th October. One Sunday matinee on the 9th October at 2.00 pm.
It is Friday night in an Essendon pub bistro; the patrons are starting to arrive. Three girls from the same office are going to meet for their end of week celebration, and naturally the pedantic, pain-in-the-bum is always first there. In this case it is Dympie (Emily Rowe) the plain and dumpy one, who is easy going - so long as she gets her way! She has booked the table for her attractive, but ‘far too thin’ friend Paula (Jacinta Tavelli) who has invited along a new girl to the group, a stressed and depressed, newly widowed Monika (Jayma Knudson). Soon the girls are gathered and Dympie sets out to organise the night.
On a nearby table, recently separated, boring and shy Gordon (Jason McFarlane) is waiting for his work pal to arrive with another friend Stephen. Handsome, hot but cool, Stephen (Alex Littlewood) arrives alone, the boys introduces themselves and start eyeing up the talent on the next table.
Could it be that Gordon isn’t interested in girls? Will the night be a total disaster for all?
This fast paced comedy is slickly directed by Matt Longman. With two or three laughs a minute throughout the play, the result is one of the funniest observations of life that I have seen in some time. Although the characters’ behaviour is, at first glances, a little extreme, the audience will have left the theatre with a lucid picture of people they know just like them.
Although the cast teamwork was magnificent, the timing smooth and the deliveries faultless, an extra special mention for Emily Rowe who is new to WA. Emily’s, or Dympie’s, bitchy comments and total lack of conscience about what she was saying, was horrifyingly natural. Jayma Knudson gave a superbly funny portrayal of an under-the-weather, but randy man-hunter. We were treated to an extra laugh during our performance as a linen serviette accidentally went up in smoke.
There is intimate bedroom talk, so perhaps 14 or 15 years and up may be an appropriate minimum age for this very well written adult comedy. Try and catch it before it sells out, I would certainly rush back to see it again.