The team at the Waipukurau Little Theatre want to see you at their next production.
The team at the Waipukurau Little Theatre want to see you at their next production.
Have you ever been on a committee and sat through another monthly meeting and wondered where you would find the patience to get through the next 40 minutes without murdering your fellow members?
We’ve all been there. Monday morning office sit-downs, school committees, local community meetings - the Waipukurau LittleTheatre’s latest production, deftly directed by Rob Blamires, will have you giggling as you recognise each and every character from your very own experiences.
The lights come up on a simple set for the first play of the evening: Last Tango at the Little Theatre and as we soon discover, the Little Theatre is in trouble. The membership has dwindled to four - the audiences aren’t much bigger - and if they don’t come up with some rent money soon, they’re going to be thrown out. Their chairman Gordon announces that he has found a clever way out of their predicament: he has written a play, and furthermore: “There’s only one thing that sells tickets these days: SEX!”. Ticket sales go through the roof based on his idea.
Gordon is played to perfection by John Chalmers, the frustrated captain of this theatrical ship, desperate to steer his fellow passengers and theatre out of the icebergs and into calmer waters. His portrayal at the helm of the theatre is both natural and believable as he strains to keep the theatre afloat and keep his fellow committee members on course. Every word, every facial expression is funny and utterly convincing as a man who is exasperated by the situation he finds himself in.
He is of course thwarted at every step by a cast of delicious characters, each intent on their own course. Kate Taylor plays Margaret, the theatre’s pernickety committee member demanding that rules must always be followed and splitting hairs on the tiniest of details. She is hilarious. David Berry is Bernard, the theatre’s set-builder, who is pressed into action as an actor - much to his dismay. His laid-back portrayal is a comedy foil to Margaret’s intensity. Rounding out the four is Joyce the committee’s secretary/treasurer, played with naive sweetness by Eleanor Norris. Joyce is a wonderful cross between Frank Spencer and Frank Pickle, the Vicar of Dibley’s pedantic and dim-witted darling.
After a brief interlude we have our second “play within a play” for the evening, Last Panto at the Little Theatre, and welcome back our four characters as they yet again traverse the complexities of rehearsing their new show with familiar attitudes and comical outcomes. There are several moments that involve a laser printer mishap and a spot-lit Joyce that will have you in stitches.
The great Stella Adler, actor, director and acting teacher once said: “The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.” And watching these two entertaining one-act farces on stage at the Waipukurau Little Theatre definitely presented us with characters that will seem remarkably familiar to all. I had the pleasure of watching alongside the drama students from Central Hawke’s Bay College - and if their whooping laughter and applause was anything to go by, you are in for a night of joy.
Last Tango at the Little Theatre and Last Panto at the Little Theatre are onstage at Waipukurau Little Theatre, Ruataniwha St Waipukurau, from Thursday June 1 - Saturday June 10. Tickets available at Betta Electrical Waipukurau, or eventfinda.co.nz.
