Alexandria Virtual Cultural Centre of WA
From the companies that brought you CLOUDSTREET comes a passionate comedy...
Black Swan Theatre & Company B Belvoir
Welcome to Broome
Picture Broome. Its the end of November - buildup time. Its sweaty. The velvet nights are still and everything holds its breath - waiting for rain.... An unlikely group of itinerants shore up in an old Pearling Master's house. Rob and Chrissy and their baby Jack share the place with Charlene - a fashion designer from Perth who has found her way up North. But its the kind of place where you are never alone -Ferris drives in, Jimmy drops in, Uncle Barney might as well move in... and then there's Karl. But Rob is feeling the pressure building, and life with Chrissy isn't simple anymore...
The events that unfold wrench the politically-correct shell off Black and White Australia.
This funny, sensual and compelling play is regional theatre at its best!
Director..................................Michael Gow
Designer................................Robert Kemp
Lighting designer.....................Mark Howett
Music....................................lain.Grandage
Assistant to the Director....Sally Richardson
with:
DESMOND CONNELLAN.................Rob
ANDREW S. GILBERT...................Jimmy
MARGARET HARVEY.................Chrissy
GEOFF KELSO................................Ferris
KELTON PELL.....................Uncle Barney
BORIS RADMILOVICH.....................Karl
SHER WILLIAMS-HOOD............Charlene
"Welcome to Broome is one of those plays that pops up out of the blue and demands to be seen. On the surface it's wonderfully laid back and summery: the constant chatter of bats and thud of mangoes on red dirt, the feeling of warm nights full of yarns and yearning and remembering good times.
But against this backdrop Richard has given us his incisive portrait of Rob: whiteboy 'do gooder' unable to rid himself of his need to control, willing to take on the adventure of 'the blackfella thing' but never able to share the joy and pain that goes with it.
He also gives us a fantastic gallery of Broome pilgrims (some half-doped and looking for themselves, another going there to die) - and in Chrissy, Rob's aboriginal partner, one of the most vital and passionate roles to have crossed the Nullabor."
Neil Armfield
"There is only one road into Broome and one road out. You can't just drive past like a lot of towns. You have to deal with Broome - you have to go out the way you came in. In a way you have to face yourself before you can leave. But change can be incredibly enjoyable if you let it happen."
Richard Mellick
Cas & Crew
standing: Andrew Beck, Sally Richardson, Andrew S. Gilbert, Kelton Pell, Richard Mellick, Robert Kemp, Helen Radbone, Geoff Kelso
sitting: Mark Howett, Michael Gow, Margaret Harvey, Sher Williams-Hood, Desmond Connellan, Desirae Ngatai
flor: Boris Radmilovich, Fiona de Garis, Susan Conoway
....the veranda of a sprawling timber and corrugated iron house (designer, Robert Kemp). This is the home of Chrissie, a young Aboriginal woman, and her husband Rob
(Desmond Connellan) – "middle class white boy on walkabout". Their baby son sleeps and cries behind the closed bedroom door.
In another wing of the house lives Charlene, (Sher Williams-Hood) also Aboriginal, who designs clothes and goes "man-hunting". She's strong and forthright, a big-hearted woman with dancing eyes...
there's manic, muddled, accident-prone Ferris (Geoff Kelso), Rob's old mate from Surry Hills; there's Jimmy (Andrew Gilbert), a glum photographer keen to take Chrissie with him when he leaves for Sydney. There's Carl (Boris Radmilovich), a silent, suffering Swiss visitor dying of AIDS. And there's Chrissie's Uncle Barney (Kelton Pell), all wily ways and boisterous charm.
It's the story that matters. Gow and these actors keep it moving; every performance makes its mark...
Alexandria - Acting on the brighter future for the professional arts in Australia