Community Theatre

ONE of theatre’s great dramatic roles is coming to Perth’s  Melville Theatre from July 13, 2012, when Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 masterpiece Hedda Gabler is staged.

Olivia Darby takes on the title role of Hedda Gabler, commonly referred to as the “female Hamlet” in theatre circles, because of her strong and complicated nature and an energy both attractive and destructive.

2012 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Hills Musical Society located in the Hills District in Sydney, and the Society is celebrating the occasion with a production of Eurobeat! Almost Eurovision from June 15.

THE Old Mill Theatre (WA) is staging the world premiere of the latest play from Hollywood writer and director David Stevens (best known forThe Sum of Us, A Town Like Alice and Breaker Morant) from June 22.

Described as a “love story re-invented”, The Beast and The Beauty re-works the classic tale of magic and enchantment and sets it in the Australian outback of the late 1880s.

The so-called beast is an ordinary man, horribly disfigured in a bushfire as a baby.

South East Queensland audiences can catch David Williamson’s highly regarded 1997 play After The Ball when thePhoenix Ensemble presents it over it over four weekends in June, at the Pavilion Theatre, Beenleigh (Logan City), half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Director Maria Grills has assembled a cast combining Phoenix regulars and newcomers for this drama, which offers a frank, critical look at Australian suburban family life in the 1960s and 1990s.