34th Noosa One-Act Play Festival

Hats off to the Noosa Theatre & the Festival Organising Committee. Over the last few years they have implemented a series of innovations and workshops. The dividends from these were self-evident. All three finalists had the feeling that they had been workshopped as opposed to the performance being the workshop. As a further old grey whistle test, the plays and their subject matter dominated the conversation of the intervals. 

Star Crossed by Jenny Bullimore has asimple premise. Set in the 1970’s, a young twenty something drama teacher has a relationship with a student during their school production of Romeo and Juliet, the clincher being she has just turned 18. What a brilliant stick of moral dynamite to throw at an audience. Performed very naturally, mainly through monologues, this two hander skated nicely over the thin ice of public opinion. It worked by concentrating on the emotional reality and not the moral grey zone. Quite nicely handled by director Johanna Wallace and her cast, Rebecca Plint (Meg) and Matthew Ingold (Andrew), the play used “love” as the compass to steer the audience through the moral minefield.

Onya Jane Rivers - the director, and onya cast. Under the classic Seinfeld scenario of “It’s about nothing,” Nothing by Mark Langham,about three close friends hitting the turps for the day, could have easily failed spectacularly. It didn’t. Instead great ensemble work engaged us from the beginning. It used banter perfectly - as life, their failings, their hopes and dreams, the universe and everything was bagged, tagged and slabbed with each tinnie. The fact it didn’t dwell lyrically or emotionally on its subjects made it real. It could have been me and a bunch of mates hanging loose for the day. So, to Michael Morgan (Hamish), Frank Wilkie (Derek) and Meegan Maguire (Fiona) I give you the toast “To the Regiment”.

A house in 1915. A mother nervously awaits news from her son in Gallipoli in The Knock at the Door by Bruce Olive. The same house in modern day and a mother-to-be nervously awaits the return of her husband from Afghanistan.

Well, if that’s not a plot to tug the heartstrings and burst the dam of lacramental fluid then I don’t know what is. And did it work? Mainly it did. I think its main problem was it was predictable. This is possibly due to the fact that Gallipoli is the sacred cow of our nation (a writer is limited to what he can say about it before he’s run out of town) and that within a few minutes you just knew that the son and the husband are both going to die. What did keep it real was the committed performances under the baton of Liza Park. Jenni McCaul as Gladys (the mother) gave an exceptional stand out performance. She was a mother nervously awaiting news from her son in Gallipoli. I will be interested to see what happens to this play from here, because underneath the predictability is a great play.

So. A good night at the theatre. Three good plays and three good productions.

Simon Denver

Image: Finalist Playwrights, Bruce Olive, Jenny Bullimore and Mark Langham  (Photograph: Geoff Powell - Photographica Creative Solutions)

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