Category: Entertainment

COMEDY and war aren’t often two things you’d put together.

But Plantagenet Players managed to do it delicately and with style in their latest production 1918 The War is Over.

From cooking shows in the trenches and marriage proposals with an elderly nymphomaniac, to operations with a kooky doctor armed with a mallet for anesthesia, the Players embraced the costume and attitudes reminiscent of the wartime era and breathed hysterical slapstick life into it.

A few serious moments were fed into the script to reflect on those who lost their lives and souls in the war, but the mood was brought back up with dimwitted chefs and drunken mothers.

It was a perfect way to lightly reflect on the past amidst other more sombre Armistice centenary events held across the Great Southern.

The Weekender’s Andy Dolphin showcased the broad spectrum of his acting skills by portraying a surgeon, chef, snobby father and larrikin farmer, triggering fits of laughter in every scene he graced.

Pat Topping surprised the audience with her cheeky lines and animated facial expressions – her mature age making them even funnier.

Co-producer Helen Jeffery smoothly and hilariously transitioned from a thickly moustached sergeant to a singing nurse and later, a half-cut mother.

To top it off, the tale of a boy eaten by a lion – read by Siobhan Gallagher – was woven in between scenes and made eyes water from giggling.

1918 The War is Over will play for two more nights – this Friday and Saturday, and tickets were still available at time of going to print from Mt Barker’s Scrap Shak.

THE Swing Kings will be going their separate ways this November after three sell-out performances and a debut EP, but not before hitting the stage for one more weekend to bid goodbye to the Great Southern.

The Weekender had the chance to stop by during one of their rehearsals for a chat about their rapid rise to local fame and their plans for the future.

The band, which consists of Evan Ayres on guitar and lead vocals, Oliver Tetlow on bass, Mollie Hare and Bonnie Staude on backing vocals, Bryce Taylor on trumpet, Anna Leach on saxophone, Hunter Ewen on trombone and Jeremy Staude on drums, said the experience had been very rewarding.

“It’s been terrific,” Ayres said.

“It’s been such a great opportunity.”

The group has a wide range of talents and interests, which is evident when talking about their plans for after the final show.

Front man Ayres plans to pursue music, hoping to score a place at the WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) next year.

The same goes for backing singers Mollie Hare and Bonnie Staude, who are both hoping to study musical theatre at the Academy.

Oliver Tetlow is going to university to study engineering, Anna Leach to study social work, Hunter Ewen plans to go into pathology, Bryce Taylor’s going to university in Canberra, and Jeremy Staude said he’d like to go on holiday to Japan.

When asked how being in the band had impacted their lives, the band agreed that it had made life a whole lot busier, but more exciting too.

“It’s a bit tricky to balance our workload with all of us still in school – well, except for Mollie – but I think Evan’s got his priorities straight: music first,” Bonnie Staude said, much to the amusement of Ayres.

“But yeah, it’s definitely worth it.”

The band were quick to respond when asked about the highlights of their brief Swing Kings career.

“It’s probably the adrenaline of performing,” Bonnie Staude said.

“It’s cool to be in a band that’s so high calibre; it’s really good music that you don’t always find.”

Ayres said that having five sell-out shows – including the two upcoming farewell performances – had been one of his major highlights.

“One sold out in two hours, which was pretty amazing,” he said.

Tetlow said his high light came after their first performance.

“There was a lady who came up and said that I was her hero,” he said, sparking a collective “awww” from the rest of the band.

Taylor explained how supportive their fans had been.

“It’s the response we get after the shows; we have people coming through with CDs asking for autographs or just saying how much they enjoyed the show,” he said.

“I like playing fast songs,” Jeremy Staude said plainly, causing an eruption of laughter from his fellow band members, who joked that they’d often catch him nodding off during the slower numbers.

Though the band is splitting up for now, they are all hopeful there will be a Swing Kings reunion in the future.

“It would be sad if there wasn’t,” Bonnie Staude said.

KATANNING’S newest art exhibition looks deep into the past at how the humble domestic sewing machine changed the lives of women at home.

Curator of Machines and Makers Jude van der Merwe said it was when she discovered her neighbour’s collection of 260 old domestic sewing machines that she learned about the impact the device had on women during the world wars.

She said her neighbour had been an apprentice sewing machine repairer during World War II and had maintained his passion for them ever since.

“That was the starting point, really,” Ms van der Merwe said of the exhibition.

“I didn’t realise that the domestic sewing machine had changed the lives of women so much…they could make a living, and make clothes for their family.”

Machines and Makers features the work of 12 artists, responding in their respective mediums to the notion that sewing machines changed the lives of women.

It is part of Art on the Move, a Perth-based organisation dedicated to touring contemporary visual art exhibitions across the country.

Ongerup-bred Susie Vickery is featured in Machines and Makers and has created embroidered smaller-scale sewing machines for the exhibition, which Ms van der Merwe described as “absolutely beautiful”.

Other artists have submitted works such as paintings of sewing machines, and even animations – Perth artist Tee Ken Ng has created an animation of mice, which is projected behind a real sewing machine, and the mice are hanging up washing and repairing machines.

Ms van der Merwe was impressed with the range of artwork created.

“It’s an extraordinary medium. It’s very flexible,” she said of textiles.

“I think we are all close to textiles, because we wear it, we touch it and we feel it, and so many people can express their love for it in many different ways.”

Machines and Makers is at the Katanning Public Art Gallery until November 24.

PROCEEDS from next month’s collaborative performance between Albany Sinfonia and the City of Albany Band will fund renovations to their shared home, Lancaster Hall.

City of Albany Band conductor Colin France said the Lancaster Hall committee had recently installed new lighting in the hall but other amenities required upgrading to make the hall more comfortable for users.

He said the building, which used to be a church, had basic toilets, a simple storeroom and limited facilities, and that the urn often had to be filled from the bathroom sink.

He said ticket sales from Last Night of the Proms, to be performed on November 24 at Oceans Church, would go towards funding the hall’s upgrades.

“We don’t really have a kitchen, so we are trying to put one in, and we want to upgrade the toilets too,” Mr France said.

“It’s a good building, but it needs a bit of maintenance…it needs painting too.”

Lancaster Hall committee chair Alison Steer said she planned to have a disabled toilet facility added as well as water access in the kitchen.

“The concert should hopefully pay to put in the kitchen plumbing for hot and cold water,” she said.

Ms Steer said the concert, which will include a guest performance from the Albany Choral Society, will be the first performed at Oceans Church.

She said the impressive facility could seat 500 people and that she was keen to test out its acoustics.

“We are very excited to be one of the opening acts to first perform at the church,” Ms Steer said.

“We are bringing back Last Night of the Proms by popular demand as a bit of fun for the end of the year.”

Mr France added the performance will be “typical” of Last Night of the Proms, so the audience can “sing along and make funny noises” at their pleasure.

Tickets for the November 24 show are now on sale from Uptown Music and trybooking.com.

KATANNING actor and silver-screen gunslinger Mitchell Page is returning to his home town next month for the screening of the internationally acclaimed independent film The Decadent and Depraved.

Mr Page filmed alongside Australian TV screen heroes Michael Muntz from A Country Practice, McLeod’s Daughters’ Ben Mortley and Blue Heelers’ Steve Turner during his role.

Mr Page said he initially auditioned for the role of ‘Cattlehandler Number 2’ when he got offered to read the role of Ellis.

“I wasn’t even auditioning for Cattlehandler Number 1,” he joked.

“After auditioning they asked me to read the part of Ellis. I drove off when I was done and they called me back 30 minutes later to do a second reading.

“A week later they asked me if I wanted the part of Ellis.”

Mr Page said Ellis’ character leapt straight off the page when he was reading the script but nutting out the details of his persona was a harder task.

“I started off reading a lot of history on what Western Australia was like back then. It was hard work,” he lamented.

“So I decided to read more about the culture and the poetry.

“There was a lot of Banjo Patterson.

“Ellis’ role was unique in that you just had to dive in, sail over the edge and hope you come back out the other side.”

Mr Page said his character was certainly unhinged and an overall wacky personality.

“I drew a lot of inspiration from ragged bushrangers and Ned Kelly sort of figures,” he said.

“I just really wanted to play on the myth of what it was like back then to be a bushranger.

“I’m definitely drawn to these sorts of characters. I played Monster in the Lockie Leonard series and he was definitely wild and wacky.”

Twenty-one year-old director Jordon Prince Wright said Mr Page jumped into the character of Ellis.

“He starts off as an undeniable cruel villain in the beginning,” he said.

“By the end of the film he’s more of the lovable villain and acts as comedy relief.”

Mr Page said the process of filming The Decadent and Depraved was a great and intense experience.

“It was either scorching hot or below zero,” he said.

“We really had to battle the Australian environment sometimes since we were filming in outback Kukerin, Cue and Yalgoo.

“There were plenty of late nights and rogue animals.

“The fact that we had such a young cast as well with 19 to 20-year-olds was amazing.

“Their work ethic was fantastic. They would just say ‘bugger it’ and have a crack.”

Mr Page said he was ecstatic about the screening at the Katanning Town Hall.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to do a screening of a film I’m in at home,” he said.

“Katanning is known as the heart of the Great Southern and I’m hoping it can be known as the Hollywood of the Great Southern just for one night.

“Mum and Dad are still in town and they’ll definitely be beating the drum, but we’ll definitely do a bit of a shindig.”

Mr Prince-Wright said this would be the first screening of The Decadent and Depraved in Katanning.

“We’ve taken the film on a tour three times already since it has been so popular,” he said.

“Our biggest premiere event was in Perth, but our stints in country towns have had a completely different atmosphere.

“I feel like the one in Katanning is going to be bigger than Ben Hur, that’s for sure.

“The Shire has been treating us like royalty and the locals have been incredibly supportive.

“We had around 200 people turn up in Kukerin to watch Mitchell run his lines.”

Mr Prince-Wright said he was still shocked at how his $100,000-budget film had evolved into a multi-award winning film.

The Decadent and Depraved has so far won six awards at the Los Angeles Film Awards, seven awards at the Oniros Film Awards, three awards at the New York Film Awards and was a winner of the Festigious International Film Festival.

Mr Page said for now he would be concentrating on his most important project yet.

“I have a one-and-a-half year old at home. That is my little project at the moment,” he joked.

“She takes up a lot of my time and energy so I’ll finish off the film tour and spend some more time with her.”

The Decadent and Depraved will screen at the Katanning Town Hall on November 17 from 7.30pm with a Q&A with the filmmakers and actors on November 18 from 10am.

Tickets are available at www.trybooking.com/418922.

A NOVEL inspired by the life of a European settler who named several Great Southern locations is being launched tonight by Albany author and artist Helen Laing.

Circles of Fortune is a fictionalised account of naval surgeon Thomas Braidwood Wilson’s life and tells of his explorations of Australia and his life in the settler colonies.

Wilson explored the south-west of WA in 1829 and named the Denmark River, Mount Lindesay, Mount Hallowell and Mount Barker after his fellow comrades.

Wilson Inlet and the Wilson’s grevillea were named in his honour.

Ms Laing said she decided to write a tale on the explorer’s life after delving further into his history.

“A friend of mine was doing a paper on naval surgeons who contributed to the first settlement,” she said.

“One of them was Wilson.

“He just jumped out at me; he was such an incredible, compassionate man and adventurous, and felt deeply about the plight of Aboriginal people and how European diseases affected them.”

Ms Laing said she chose the fiction format as she is not a historic academic, but that didn’t mean she did any less research.

Ms Laing spent approximately 10 years writing the book, while juggling a midwifery career and later retirement, travelling and renovating a house.

She said she visited libraries in Canberra and New South Wales and spent hundreds of dollars on history books to get all the details on Wilson.

Ms Laing chose to write in the first person as Wilson, but changed Wilson’s writing style to one more suited to her.

“I tried to write with full stops and capital letters everywhere like he [Wilson] did, but it was so stilted!” Ms Laing said.

“So I changed it to modern language.

“But, I included Wilson’s letters to his wife, which are in their original style.”

Circles of Fortune is being launched tonight at the Albany Public Library at 5.30pm and those wishing to attend are encouraged to notify the library prior to account for space.

Ms Laing will join local historian Malcolm Traill for a curatorial next Tuesday at the Museum of the Great Southern at 10.30am to speak about the book further.

Circles of Fortune is available for purchase at Paperbark Merchants, the museum and Bay Merchants on demand.

SEVEN young Albany talents are hosting a variety show on October 28 to raise money to send themselves to Sydney for a national music summer school program.

Siblings Bonnie, Josie and Maggie Staude, along with sisters Bella and Ruby Fasolo and Hudson Bell and Jessica Turner will attend the Gondwana National Choral School in January next year at the University of New South Wales in the hope to further develop their vocal skills and advance their musical careers.

Bonnie, who has attended the Gondwana summer school program four times previously, said the septet will spend two weeks in Sydney and live on the university campus.

They will devote school hours to rehearsals with their designated choir, and spend spare time partaking in specialist projects, which range from musical theatre, to drumming, to Indonesian dancing.

“Gondwana is a great way to build connections with composers and conductors,” Bonnie said.

“The Gondwana choirs are extremely good and of a really high calibre, so it’s pretty exciting to think that little ol’ us from Albany will be singing with an international act.”

Bonnie said funds raised during the October 28 variety concert, Pure Imagination, would contribute to the group’s flights, accommodation and participation fees.

“Tickets are going well at the moment, but we would love more people to come,” she said.

“And if people can’t make the concert, we would greatly appreciate any donations.”

Bonnie said Pure Imagination will feature snippets of musical theatre, instrumental performances, classical and contemporary music, and a little bit of comedy.

Pure Imagination will be held at the Port Theatre at 4.30pm on October 28 and tickets can be purchased through Paperbark Merchants.