One man shows can be tough to pull off, but when I saw a familiar face in Steve Turner (Tartuffe, Dinner, Glengarry Glen Ross) take to the stage as Victor O'Meara, son of the Great Ridolphi, I knew that we the audience were in for an entertaining night at the Subiaco Theatre Festival.
The Great Ridolphi is a one hour distillation of all that is great about theatre. An intimate venue, a sparse but very cleverly put together set, a large helping of comedy along with a side portion of moving drama, along with an intriguing detective story that rattles along at a cracking pace.
Can you imagine being a recipient of a heart transplant at a tender age of 19?
This is the central theme of Heart Lines – the 3rd instalment of a 4 play season as part of the Subiaco Theatre Festival.
The play centres around Tim, James and Anna - a group of young students who live in a share house in Perth.
Busy with studies, work, socialising, dance, music and surfing – life is good and just starting for the trio.
Meanwhile, on the Gold Coast, nineteen year old Noah is doing it tough as he waits for a life saving heart transplant which is his only chance of making it to age 20.
In 10,000, we are introduced to Edie and AJ through the characters they are playing in a video game. The game, which AJ bought when he and Edie first got together, acts as a metaphor for their troubled relationship.
10 years on, they are married with a three-year-old daughter, but Edie (Jessica Messenger, who also co-wrote the play with Nick Maclaine) has recently moved out.
A keen gamer, AJ (Tristan McInnes) hopes to repair their marriage by sharing one of his passions with his sceptical wife.
But before long, the lines between reality and the game’s science fiction adventure world become blurred, and Edie and AJ find themselves fighting for their very survival.
You’ve finally found your perfect love to propose to - or you think you have.
But if they turn down your marriage proposal, what does this bode for the future of the relationship? They say they love you but plainly don’t want to get married - why would that be?
These are some of the central themes that are explored in playwright and director Jeffrey Jay Fowler’s latest play The One as part of the Subiaco theatre Festival.
The One invites the audience to consider the contemporary construct of marriage and the societal norms that are associated with having a perfect wedding day.
The Sense of an Ending is a poignant movie that follows the life of the key character Tony Webster (played by Jim Broadbent).
Based on the novel by English writer Julian Barnes it won the acclaimed Man Booker prize.
As the movie unfolds, a surprising event leads Tony to reflect on his younger days, especially for his first love Veronica Ford (played by Charlotte Rampling).
The story pans between his youth and time spent with his first love and peers at school, to his current life as a middle aged man leading a comfortable existence running his vintage camera shop, and on occasion, seeing his ex-wife Margaret, and daughter who is expecting her first.
As Tony explores his past, he uncovers both happy and painful memories, and reflects on the choices made from his past that have had consequences on his current life.
As I waited for the Perth premiere of The Lighthouse Girl to begin, I felt like I was on a boat drifting towards an island, with the sound of waves crashing around the intimate theatre, the rocky landscape on the stage in front of me, and even the way my chair shook as the audience walked down the steps to find their seats.
Adapted by Hellie Turner from Dianne Wolfer’s award-winning books, The Lighthouse Girl and The Light Horse Boy, the play is set during the outbreak of World War I. Fay lives an isolated existence on Breaksea Island, south-east of Albany, with her father and old Joe.
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