Ready for some retail therapy

The need to portray a multitude of different Melbourne locations has made things interesting for both the set designers and the actors in Centrepoint's play Shop 'Til You Drop, opening this Saturday. It has to cover streets, an airport, a mall, a Melbourne apartment, and Sanjit's Emporium, and it's the actors who have to move the walls around.

"It's been good for me because I haven't a clue where I am at any one time," says actor Peter Hawes. "We've got a bit that goes 'zhrzhr!' and another bit that goes 'zheuw!"'

His character is a grumpy old academic, in Melbourne for a conference, just one of the seven diverse characters who will be thrown together by a case of double (or triple) booking.

You've got Hawes and his wife; there's Craig Geenty's rugbyhead and his two mates, over for the Bledisloe Cup; and then there are Darlene Mohekey and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, two "gals from Rongotea" who are planning some serious retail therapy in the Melbourne shops.

"The girls have been saving for months. They're going to buy everything. They're pretty darn excited," says Rutherford.

"Wear earmuffs for the first three or four minutes, for the squeals and screams of delight," advises Hawes.

He is reprising the role he played when Shop premiered at Centrepoint 15 years ago.

"I'm back in the same role because I'm cheap; they don't need makeup," he chuckles. "I look like this anyway."

Rutherford too is no stranger to Centrepoint, being an actor and director here a number of times over the years - in fact she directed Hawes in his last major role here, Who Wants To Be 100?

His curmudgeonly persona rapidly brings him into conflict with his youthful roommates, as everyone must cram into just a single hotel room. "No noise after the hours of darkness!" he declares.

That room is the centre of the action, and allows for some hilariously farcical carry-on, but it's also where these chalk-and-cheese individuals are forced to get to know one another better.

"The play's got a lot of heart as well. All these people that are thrown together, and they end up having a bit of respect for each other," says Rutherford. Mostly it's about realising that their companions are human after all.

"There's a little bit of a serious theme there, and that is the relationship between people accepting people and getting to know people. There's good and bad to all of us. Every character in this show has a journey of self-discovery. It's really lovely."

Shop 'Til You Drop, Centrepoint Theatre, from April 13. Call (06) 354-5740 for information and booking details.