The Campervan Tales

The Campervan Tales is a collection of short plays by local author James Forte. Six plays, all under 15 minutes, and telling a variety of stories, there is probably something to appeal to all tastes in the compilation.

Playing in two different venues over the very short (two night) season, the sets are necessarily simple, but this allows the acting and storytelling to shine.

The first, Night Train from Rastani, is set during the 1980s in the fictional European city of Rastani. An Australian girl, nicely played by Vanessa Vance, is detained by a soldier - a solid performance by David Heder, in ‘Rastani’. A fellow passenger well played by Ben Hall comes to the rescue, but it soon becomes apparent that he is not who he claims to be. A good introduction to the evening this little play packed a punch.

In The Stained Glass Portrait, we are introduced to Dr Brenda Wilson, a woman who does not actually exist, but nevertheless is beautifully brought to life in a monologue by Ann Speicher. Perhaps the best use of the projections that accompanied each episode, we follow the unlikely life of a very unusual woman.

Sarah Thillagaratnam deserves strong praise for her performance in The Gold-Brick Safety System. Seeing the script for the first time, two days before the opening performance, she delivered a captivating staged reading of this intriguing tale of airline safety and psychic prediction.

After interval A Bloke’s Coda, an unusual story of poetry and pornography, was presented by Josh Harris (Barry) and Paul Cook (Dad). Although there was at least one over-long pause on opening night, this was a convincing portrayal of family relationships.

In Busselton Jetty 1969, Vanessa Vance re-appeared as Dr Amanda Kingston, delivering this award winning monologue about love and nostalgia very nicely. David Heder provided support and good looks as her love interest. There was a lovely and unexpected twist in this one.

The final play was Kurkervation, Volume 6, set at a country writers’ festival. For those familiar with this one act play, there was an effective gender twist in this incarnation, which featured excellent antagonistic rapport between Ben Small as free-spirit Whirl (a superb contrast to his earlier performance) and Sarah Christiner as serious scientist Eddy.

The Campervan Tales was a night of great contrasts and a good deal of fun.

Kimberley Shaw