Secret Bridesmaids' Business

‘Secret Bridesmaids' Business’ is a 1999 box office record-breaking, Australian comedy, penned by NIDA trained playwright, Elizabeth Coleman. Elizabeth, who recently turned 50, started by writing scripts for the ‘Flying Doctor’ TV series.

This 130-minute play is showing at the Old Mill Theatre, corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road, South Perth. Curtain up at 8.00 pm until Saturday 16^th February, with one matinee on Sunday 10^th at 2.00 pm.

          Demure Angela (Elethea Sartorelli) recalls that since her junior school days, her best friend, reliable and caring Meg (Rebekah Easton) spent all of her time planning weddings, especially her own dream day. Now that time has arrived, and Meg and her finicky, over anxious but loving mother, Colleen (Susan Lynch) are in a Melbourne hotel bedroom the night before the happy day.

         Unfortunately, for Colleen, the food, décor and worst of all, the bridesmaids’ outfits are completely wrong and totally unacceptable. When the wild and fun loving, second bridesmaid, Lucy (Nicole Meyer) arrives at the hotel room things get worse. Unfortunately, Lucy speaks her mind, whether it is to the poor room maid (Bianca Stewart) or the bride herself, she has no qualms about speaking out.

         When a predicament arises, another friend, Naomi (Zoe Cole) is asked to assist. Now everything is on track for the perfect wedding, until Meg sees her fiancé, James (Bennet Andrews) on her wedding day! Does this mean bad luck?

The script of the play lacks lustre in the first Act, but certainly makes up in the second. So good were the excellent actors in capturing their characters, that the audience became like children at a pantomime, shouting comments like ‘don’t do it’ and ‘disgraceful’ the performers, and finally booing two of them – in good humour - at the end.

The director is Mary Wolfla, who is well known for her theatre work with children now tackles this adult comedy, and what a superb job she has done. There was plenty of natural flow to the action at times when it could have looked clunky or staged. The rapport and flow was fantastic, the married members of the audience really did connect with the dialogue. Each member of the cast had a short monologue, putting forward their side of the relationship. The arrogance of one person was such that I thought a riot would start.

The scenery was excellent with a genuine feel of a luxury hotel room (Peter Bloor and Siobhan O’Gara). Jenny Prosser’s costumes were perfect, helped by the generosity of the sponsors the Bridal Shop ‘Elegant Amore’ and The Bra Bar with their stunning outfits – certainly not like that in my day, unfortunately!

I have seen this play performed a couple of times by professional companies and quite liked the script, however, this director has correctly concentrated on the depth of the characters rather than going for the easy laughs and this has given the play a whole new depth and genuine perspective.

A fun play but let your hair down and voice your disapproval at the appropriate places. Tragic, funny, sexy are all apt adjectives, but be prepared to see your own relatives portrayed with astonishing accuracy. Great fun.