Briefs: One Act Play Season
Gold Coast Little Theatre
Thursday 17th July 2014
This weekend saw the Gold
Coast Little Theatre’s annual Short Play Season staged at their
intimate Southport venue. Interestingly, many of the works were locally written
and then directed by the playwright.
What a great opportunity this is for budding writers to
workshop and stage their plays in a “proper theatre” … just a shame the
audience didn’t seem to be as supportive as perhaps they might have been. (I
counted fewer than 40 people in the house on Opening Night!)
Libby
Bancroft and Kellie Eatcok
have both been busy ladies with two plays each on the bill. Ms Bancroft’s The Price of Fame was a clever and
slightly disturbing look into the way social media may influence our lives in
the decades to come and Ms Eatock’s Bumpy
Ride amusingly reminded me of why I like to slip on my eye-mask and
headphones the moment I take my seat on an international flight!
Other works included Two
Men on a Park Bench by Rob Doran,
Richard Lamont and Greg Stone (also
the director) and The Locker Room,
written & directed by Gillian Crow.
The afore-mentioned Libby Bancroft also offered us a look into exercises
classes entitled Fitter! Faster! …
Fatter! And Ms Eatock gave us Is This
Considered Bad Luck?
However I will save my greatest accolade for local theatre
icon Joel Beskin who had us roaring
with his delightful portrayal of James the devoted butler in Laurie Wylie’s
classic play, Dinner for One (directed by Claudine Anderson).
I applaud the GCLT for their maintaining the Short Play
Season … and I “boo” the alleged
theatre devotees of the Gold Coast for not supporting this brief run. You not
only gave up a good night out but the chance of being there at the birth of
something potentially quite wonderful.
By Glenn T