Reviews

Worstward Ho is not a play, it is ‘prose’ – that is, not written in 1981 as a play to be performed by an actor.  Robert Meldrum and Richard Murphet thought otherwise and over three years, they have been ‘decoding’ (Murphet’s term) it so as to render Beckett’s difficult text clear in performance – but without diminishing its difficulty.

Tea Tree Players are known for their farces, so this year is an experiment to gauge audience reaction to other forms of theatre. Their first production was a fruity melodrama, now The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race, a comedy with messages of equality and inclusivity. Later this year they will present the landmark Australian play Cosi, finishing up the year with A Vicar of Dibley Christmas - The Second Coming (plus a Youth Theatre production and a pantomime). The general public are certainly getting more than their money’s worth!

Though I couldn’t get to this production earlier in its run, it was one I was determined to see. There is no theatre more important than that which exposes wrong and inspires reaction.

Mr. Bailey’s minder – it’s a job no-one wants. Except Therese – desperately searching for something that will turn her life around, she needs to make it work, despite the odds.

Aging, once-famous painter Leo, now a spiteful, aging, self-destructive alcoholic, needs a full-time carer to remain in his eccentric home, decorated (if that’s the word for it) with his abstractions - yet he has driven away all previous comers, driving his daughter to distraction.