My father-in-law Des is a retired engineer and at a spritely 82 has been volunteering his time at the Heidelberg Theatre Company for 20 years helping to build an array of amazing sets. Through him, Lynda and I attended our second play at the HTC, Gaslight, after last year having witnessed an impressive performance of Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers.This pretty much sums up the synopsis of the play:

The play was written by Patrick Hamilton  in 1938 and is set in London in 1870. A movie of the play was made in 1940 as was another of his plays, Rope which Alfred Hitchcock adapted for the big screen.

There is an ensemble of only 5 actors and they do a sterling job, in particular the 2 x leads who play Mr & Mrs Manningham, Claire Benne and Liam Gillespie. The setting is an upper class 3 storey house and the accents and elocution of both actors is spot on. The language written by Hamilton depicted in 1870 was interesting and intense at times. As maniacal as Mr Manningham becomes and as borderline psychotic as Mrs Manningham becomes, there is an almost agreed level of politeness and good manners that was around in those days! Classic English decency despite all emotional walls crumbling around you!

The play has some timely messages in regard to domestic abuse given the recent shock of what happened in Brisbane. We all need to remember that we lose on average a woman a week to domestic violence in Australia and it’s simply unacceptable. Given this was set so long ago, says a lot about how far we’ve come when it comes to addressing this problem.

I don’t profess to be a theatre expert but there is something edgy about it that is intoxicating. I really admire the actors, particularly these guys who have day jobs, and the hours they must spend rehearsing. Other than a slight deviation from their allotted British accents the other 3 actors were also script perfect and just as engaging. There are no second takes in theatre so hats off to anyone with the courage to take it on.

The HTC is located opposite the Rosanna train station and is a beautiful, intimate theatre that seats about 100 people. They have a tradition of serving free sherry, sweet and dry before the show and the average age of the audience would be approximately 75 so at 57 I was simply jail bait! At the kiosk we asked if there were any potato chips and the gorgeous elderly woman in her 80’s upon having us repeat the question again said, “no chips but we’ve got lollies” and pointed to a wicker basket filled with Kit Kats and Werthers. Can’t get enough of the word lollies or sweets coming out of the mouths of our elderly citizens. Takes me right back.

HTC put on professional, authentic plays with great costumes, lighting and acting…not to mention awesome sets! Gaslight is playing until February 29th and HTC run plays all year. For more details go to https://www.htc.org.au.  Highly recommended