A Broadcast Coup

This play has been a long time coming. Caught up in the COVID mess, it now emerges over two years later, running behind playwright Melanie Tait’s hugely successful major hit The Appleton Ladies Potato Race, first as an Ensemble play, soon to be released as a movie. No doubt the Race is more whimsical than the current play, but it certainly hit home harder.

The coup in question might face top-rated radio star Mike King (Tony Cogin), returning from an anger management course in Fiji. Though protected by long-suffering executive producer Louise (Sharon Millerchip) and new girl Noa (Alex King), Mike has learnt absolutely nothing from the course and means to carry on exactly as before, to the contained fury of Station Manager Troy (Ben Gerrard).

And there’s a new problem. Podcaster Jez (Amber McMahon), who once worked at the station with Mike, is on the hunt for revenge, full of anti-male zeal. Mike can hardly believe that this woman, with actual vibrator ads on her podcasts, could be a threat. Of course, producer Louise sees the danger from Jez immediately.

But Mike is slow about everything, and here is the main problem: the play is out of date as far as he’s concerned. Tony Cogin plays Mike as from another era in broadcasting. Even his on-air chatter is suspect. Perhaps the play would have been better set twenty years earlier.

The women are good, especially McMahon’s headstrong and campaigning podcaster and Millerchip’s quiet, all-knowing producer. She’s seen it all before and sits serene and powerful. She watches the action closely and you want to go with her. The scenes between the two are excellent.

Director Janine Watson keeps the action moving on designer Veronique Benett’s excellent setting which can turn from functional radio studio with flying, overhead mikes and notice boards, to a local bar, and to a large harbour-fronted house in a few moments. Bravo! 

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Prudence Upton