Productions

Billy Liar

25/11/1967

By Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse
Directed by Alex Henderson

Season: 25 November - 2 December 1967

A teenager in a North Country town, Billy Fisher weaves a world of his own out of his day dreams. He is an incurable liar, idle and dishonest, and to escape from his dull job as an undertaker's clerk and his dreary domestic background he imagines himself in so many different situations that truth and fiction become hopelessly intermingled. His family is unable to understand or control him, though they realise that he is a good for nothing. The cast is completed by the three girls to whom he is simultaneously engaged. When he is given the chance to start a new life, he turns it down, preferring his dreams to reality.

Cast:
Florence Boothroyd - Alison Alston
Geoffrey Fisher - Peter Francis
Alice Fisher - Chris Joyce
Billy Fisher -Bill Hayward
Arther Crabtree - Campbell McKay
Barbara - Diane Bridges
Rita - Judy Scollay
Liz - Terry Whitehand

Time to Kill

23/9/1967

By Diana Morgan
Directed by Taura Henderson

Season: 23 - 30 September 1967

Cast:
Roland Grover - Rodney Leonard
Joyce Kenway - Janette Williams
Migue - Bryan Brodie
Pilar - Mary Hudson
Lisa Kenway - Audrey Clark
James Howard - Peter Brown
Dr Margaret Francis - Linley Holland
Chief of Police - Jack Baird
Sergeant of Police - John Bateman

One Act Plays 1967 (July)

12/7/1967

Season: 12 - 15 July 1967

Song of Louise in the Morning
By Patricia Joudrey
Directed by Ivan Finlayson

Cast:
Louise - Francie Pattinson
Stanley - Norm Diehl
Kate - Sue Stanley

A Resounding Tinkle
By N F Simpson
Directed by Ron Hawkins

Cast:
Middie - Sue Ryan
Bro - Mervyn Glue
Uncle Ted - S Low

Grave Expectations
By Ernest Adams
Directed by Alex Henderson

Cast:
Sexton - Barry Clark
Caroline - Audrea Beddie
Abigail - Ruth Winstanley
William Shakespeare - Keith Cooke
Charles Dickens - Basil O'Sullivan
Charles Peace - John Milligan
Dr Crippen (as Kit) - Richard Gates
Guy Fawkes (as the grandfather) - Brian Deavoll
Nell Gwyn (as Little Nell) - Glennis Paine
Queen Victoria (as Kit's mother) - Margaret Collins
Mrs Pankhurst (as the parson's wife) - Helen Browning
Lady Hamilton - Helen O'Grady

The Pohutakawa Tree

20/5/1967

By Bruce Mason
Directed by Brian Deavoll and Ron Hawkins

Season: 20 May - 1 June 1967

Cast:
Queenie Mataira - Cherie Baunton
Roy McDowell - Chris Howell
Rev Athol Sedgewick - Ron Hawkins
Aroha Mataira - Sue Ryan
Johnnie Mataira - Basil O'Sullivan
Mrs Atkinson - Kath Milligan
Sylvia Atkinson - Prudence Harper
Clive Atkinson - Jack Baird
George Rawling - Bryan Brodie
Dr Lomas - Norman Diehl
Claude Johnson - Richard Gates
Mrs Johnson - Meryl McClurg
Sergeant Robinson - Campbell McKay
Wedding Guests - Members of Elmwood Players Inc

One Act Plays 1967 (March)

13/3/1967

Season: 13 - 18 March 1967

The Request
By Ernest Adams
Directed by Ernest Adams

Cast:
Warder Blake - Allister Stewart
Warder Clarke - John Bateman
Mr Benson - John Milligan
Mrs Benson - Lillian Lawrie
Benson Junior - Robert Russell
Rev Parker - Richard Gates
Albert - Ron Hawkins
Fred - Campbell McKay
Jeanie - Sue Snelgrove
Warder - Jim Erikson

The Women of Troy
By Brian Gallas
Directed by Hunter Bell

Cast:
Kassandra - Helen O'Grady
Polyxena - Glennis Paine
Eurynome - Nell Gillespie
Melanthe - Vanda McLeod
Prodota - Margaret Hempseed
Captive Women - Sue Hill, Pamela Barnard, Mary Harrison, Pat Orr, Noelene Orr
Agamemnon - Selwyn Hamblett
Odysseus - Bryan Brodie
Aias - Len Barnard
Calahas - Ron Palmer
1st Soldier - Ian Orchard
2nd Soldier - Jim Hopkins
3rd Soldier - Kevin Alderton
4th Soldier - Bill Polson

Still Grows the Tawny Weed
By Joan Drury Calder
Directed by Keith Cooke

Cast:
Mavis - Patricia Rittey
Eddie - Jack Baird
Ruth - Shirley Low
Mr Buckland - Ross Inkster
Mr Frobisher - Percy Moore

Dinner with the Family

8/12/1966

By Jean Anounilh
Directed by Hunter Bell

Season: 8-10 December 1966

Delachume, a young man of considerable charm and no scruples, is married to a rich, hysterical wife; they live in luxury in Paris, and their worldly goods are shared by Georges' parents and his best friend Jacques, not to mention Jacques' wife Barbara, all of whom have been in comfort for years.

Then into Georges' life comes Isabelle, a quiet young girl with a kind heart and none of the sophistication to which he has been accustomed for so long. Georges is swept off his feet by her simplicity, and succumbs to a longing for an uncomplicated life - shared, of course, with Isabelle. He spins stories for her about the parents and friends he would like to have, and the sort of home where he would like to ask her to dine with the family - she accepts.

He must obviously reproduce this fictitious background for one night, or lose Isabelle. He hires house, servants and stage parents, but his real family materalise before his dream, and Isabelle discovers the truth. Georges, after a scene with his wife in which she tries to shoot him, thinks he has lost both his present and his future. However, Isabelle's love is not the love "which alters when it alteration finds" and, as the hangers-on recognise defeat and retire one by one, Georges and Isabelle are left to a future of love and simplicity far away from Paris and its intrigues.

Cast:
Proprietress - Mai Willers
Georges - Peter Brown
Butler - Gregory Downing
Delmonte - Bryans Eliott
Mmd de Montrachet - Marilyn Eales
Barbara - Sue Ryan
Jacques - Jim Hopkins
Delachaume - Dermott Holland
Mme Delachaume - Shirley Low
Esme - Sue Easterman
Isabelle - Helen Browning
Doctor - Kevin Alderton

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

4/10/1966

By Raw Lawler
Directed by Hunter Bell

Season: 4 - 11 October 1966

This play is the poignant story of two sugar cane-cutters, who, for seventeen years, have spent their lay-off season in a Melbourne suburb with two local barmaids. Over the years this annual stay has become to them a type of dream-world of perfection, with gay times for all for six months, until the lay-off season is over.

Seventeen years have passed, and suddenly one of the girls is gone, married. The cane-cutters turn up in Melbourne. But the atmosphere is different, they are too old to live on dreams, and gradually the dreams of seventeen years turn into a horrible nightmare.

Cast:
Bubba Ryan - Glennis Paine
Pearl Cunningham - Muriel Greenwood
Olive Leech - Frances Pattinson
Barney Ibbot - Jack Baird
Emma Leech - Nancy Sheard
Roo Webber - Doug Finch
Johnnie Dowd - Peter Ormsby

One Act Plays 1966

19/7/1966

Season: 19 - 23 July 1966

Salome
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Alex Henderson

Cast:
Captain of the Guard - Mike Lynch
Page of Herodias - Mandy Weekes
1st Soldier - Peter Ormsby
2nd Soldier - Kevin Beaumont
3rd Soldier - Brian Marshall
4th Soldier - Kevin Alderton
Nubian - Nick Price
Cappadocian - Ron Hawkins
Salome - Helen O'Grady
Jokanaan - Brian Deavoll
Naaman - Graham Loader
Herod Antipas - Keith Cooke
Herodias - Betty King
Tigellinus - Hugh Thompson
1st Slave - Jannette Baxter
2nd Slave - Sue Easterman
3rd Slave - Margaret Marshall
4th Slave - Julie Angus
1st Jew - Jim Hopkins
2nd Jew - Sue Stanley
3rd Jew - Jack Baird
4th Jew - Paula Ryan
1st Nazarene - Alison Alston
2nd Nazarene - Lilian Lawrie
Saducee - Neoline Calvert
1st Torch Bearer - Graeme Newbery
2nd Torch Bearer - Jim Browning

Elektra
By Brian Gallas
Directed by Brain Gallas

Cast:
Elektra - Judy Scollay
Orestes - Rodney Leonard
Chrysothemis - Shirley Low
Klytemnestra - Chris Joyce

Dark Lady of the Sonnets
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Helen Browning

Cast:
The Beafeater - Peter Livesley
Shakespeare - Chris Howell
Queen Elizabeth - Sue Ryan
Dark Lady - Glennis Paine

Trelawny of the Wells

25/5/1966

By Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
Directed by Alex Henderson

Season: 25 - 28 May 1966

The zany, lively, and irresistible world of the London stage in 1860s, as theatre began to transition from Victorian melodrama to modern naturalism. Rose Trelawny, the star ingenue at the Bagnigge-Wells Theatre, is leaving the stage to marry her sweetheart, the young gentleman Arthur Gower. Arthur’s conservative family, led by his staunchly traditional grandfather, Sir William, object to Arthur’s marriage to an actress 一 they find Rose irrevocably raucous and wild, whereas she objects to being confined to their stuffy, strict upper-class code of conduct. Rose may never be able to abandon her art and her lifestyle in order to please the family of the man she loves; if she returns to the stage, though, she may never be able to perform with a broken heart.

Cast:
James Telfer - Brian Deavoll
Augustus Colpoys - Peter Brown
Ferdinand Gadd - Jack Baird
Tom Wrench - John Milligan
Mrs Telfer - Taura Henderson
Avonia Bunn - Glennis Paine
Rose Trelawny - Helen Browning
Imogen Parrott - Sue Ryan
O'Dwyer - James Erikson
Mr Denzil - Ronald Palmer
Mr Mortimer - Peter Ormsby
Mr Hunston - Peter Livesly
Miss Brewster - Faye Hewson
Hall-keeper at the Pantheon Theatre -
Ronald Hawkins
Vice-Chancellor Sir William Gower - Alex Aitchison
Arthur Gower - Michael Lynch
Clara de Foenix - Shirley Low
Miss Trafalgar Gower - Betty King
Captain de Foenix - Kevin Beaumont
Mrs Mossop - Shirlye Rushton
Mr Ablett - Graham Loader
Charles - Douglas Finch
Sarah - Elizabeth Reed

Gigi

26/2/1966

By Collette
Directed by Hunter Bell
Note: this is a production of the straight play, not the musical

Season: 26 February - 5 March 1966

This is the classic story of a young girl who wins at the game of love. Gigi has been brought up by her Grandmama and Aunt Alicia, an old-school courtesan, to be a stylish coquette and set her sights on a rich man. When Gaston visits, he brings her candy and lets her cheat at cards, captivated by her girlish ways. Now 16, Gigi is ripe to put away childish things and prepare to become Gaston's mistress. The clever girl however, has other plans...

Cast:
Gigi - Judy Scollay
Mme Alvarez - Audrea Beddie
Andree - Natalie Brittenden
Gaston Lachaille - Robert Russell
Victor - Stan Cunningham
Alicia de St Ephlam - Muriel Greenwood
Sidonie - Helen Browning