Rita: Anastatia Ward                                     Frank: Scott Burns

Assistant Stage Manager: Louise Stubs

Set Design: Christopher Oakley

Costumes: Adela Morton

Wig Coordinator: Yolanda Peart-Smith

Lighting/Sound Design and Operation: Rogan Brown

Props/Furniture/Set Dressing: Christopher Oakley, Danni Ashton, Karen Cowen, Janet Smith, Jordon Cowen, Louise Stubs

Company:

Hobart Repertory Theatre Society

Season: 1 - 16 September 2017

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Hobart

Written by: Willy Russell

Director: Danni Ashton

Stage Manager: Janet Smith

Production Manager:  

Shauna-Lee Ward

Assistant Production Managers:

Liz Lewinski, Judy McDavitt

The plays follows the relationship between a 26-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year.

Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature.

The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The two have an immediate and profound effect on one another; Frank is impressed

by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutoring opens doors to a bohemian lifestyle and a new self-confidence.

However, Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises. Susan becomes disillusioned by a friend's attempted suicide and realises that her new social niche is rife with the same dishonesty and superficiality she had previously sought to escape. The play ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change.

ABOUT THE PLAY

CAST

PRODUCTION TEAM

Set Construction: Christopher Oakley, Scott Burns, Rogan Brown, Janet Smith, Danni Ashton, Philip Crouch, Matthew Andrewartha

Set Painting: Philip Crouch, Steve Gallagher, Fiona Muir, Louise Stubs, Janet Smith, Christopher Oakley

Graphic Design: Carolyn Whamond

Program Coordinator: Adela Morton

Photography: Wayne Wagg, Bob Linacre

Video Production: Rogan Brown

Company:

Hobart Repertory Theatre Society

Season: 3 - 18 November 2017

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Hobart

Written by: June Walker Rogers

Director: Mark Morgan

Stage Manager: Louise Stubs

Production Managers:  

Christine Le Fevre, Moya Deigan

CAST

THE LIVING:

Rosie O’Grady: Grace Burdick

John Allen: Joe Fitzpatrick

Bill ‘Bailey’ Burns: Denis Hawkey

Randy Kelly: Sam Dean

Mary: Jean Henderson

Sally: Cammie Mile

Ida: Sam Hunt

Daisy Allen: Jill Holloway

Kevin: Owen Tubb

Mr Van Cleef: Nigel Davidson

Stage Manager: Ben Stoneman

GHOSTS FROM THE PAST:

George M Cohan: Andrew Hickman

Yankee Doodle Girls: Eleanor Lyall, Naomi Jackson

Nora Bayes: Ann Harvey

Jack Norworth: Scott Hunt

Joe Howard: Scott Hunt

Anna Held: Ann Harvey

ENSEMBLE:

Ann Harvey, Ben Stoneman, Caleb Crack, Eleanor Lyall, Jill Holloway, Naomi Jackson, Nigel Davidson, Owen Tubb.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Musical Director: Melfred Lijauco

Choreographer: Sara Goldstone

Assistant Stage Manager: Lachlan West

Set Design: Mark Morgan

Lighting Design/Operation: Rogan Brown

Sound Design: Greg Gurr

Sound Operation: Rogan Brown

Band: Melfred Lijauco, Monique Watts, Luke Sanderson

Costumes: Adela Morton

Wardrobe Assistance: Jill Dobie, Chrissie Fraser, Christine Le Fevre, Robin Rheinberger

Properties: Moya Deigan

Set Construction: Nick Atwell, Mark Morgan, Christopher Oakley, Louise Stubs

Set Painting: Louise Stubs, Mark Morgan, Sam Hunt, Cammie Mile, Jean Henderson

Graphic Design: Nick Atwell

Program Layout: Carolyn Whamond

Program Coordination: Adela Morton

Photography: Wayne Wagg, Bob Linacre

THEATRE REVIEW

There are those who believe musical theatre should be vacuous and undemanding and then there are the rest of us. Yet, Playing the Palace is a flummery that makes significant demands of its audience. It requires an unusual degree of suspension of disbelief, principally, to accept that a play about a theatre is set on a stage partly dressed as a theatre. Ghosts are presaged by the augury of a flickering light and their presence accepted. Every line is a tenuous cue to a song and sometimes the songs just appear like the ghosts.

Denis Hawkey is the lynch pin of the whole show. As the theatre owner, he is a solid and amiable presence. Vocally, it is Grace Burdick who shines. Sam Dean and Joe Fitzpatrick (Allen) offer solid

support. The ensemble is characterised by energy which sometimes tends to caricature. Much of the humour in the show misses its mark.

On opening night, the cast were not performance ready but one week later the ensemble had gained in vocal assurance. The choreography was tighter but still frequently inexplicable. The fan dance, however, was mesmerising.

Ultimately, there is something tiresomely didactic about a show which belabours the message of the great days of vaudeville. This musical would be well adapted to the budget and abilities of a high school ensemble.

Anne Blythe-Cooper