Recent Shows

Here are a selection of photos, stories and reviews of productions recently undertaken by the Samford Valley Theatre Group.

 

"Deathtrap"

Written by Ira Levin

Directed by Colin Russell

Season - March 2010

 

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Unoriginal Sin

Written by David Tristram

Directed by David Coleman

Season: August 2009

Jenny (Christine Lea Powell) and Bill (Matthew Bass).

 

 

Eve (Ellen Hardisty) receives coffee from Bill (Matthew Bass)

 

 

From Left to Right: Jenny (Christine Lea Powell), Eve (Ellen Hardisty) & Bill (Matthew Bass)

Eve is twenty-four and never been kissed. Well, not properly.

Bill is thirty-five, rich, alcoholic and with the sex drive of an adolescent bull on steroids.

Eve is engaged to Neville.  Bill is married to Jenny.  Jenny is having an affair with Jeremy, but she remains utterly devoted to her husband's cheque book.

Miles is Bill's best friend.  Or at least he was, before he discovered Bill's underpants hanging from the lightshade in his bedroom.

Then there's Father Tomlin.  At least he's taken a lifelong vow of celibacy.  Or so his daughter claims.

Original Sin?  It seems there's nothing very original about it anymore.

 

 

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Post Horn Gallop

Season: April 2009

Written by Derek Benfield

Directed by Colin Russell

Venue: Samford Community Centre

The play centres on Elrood Castle, the family seat of the Elroods who are forced to open their home to the public because of financial difficulties.

The trigger-happy Lord Elrood believes his is commanding an army and spends most of the time taking pot shots at an imaginary enemy, which usually turns out to be the postman.

The plot is complicated by the arrival of Lord Elrood's daughter and her husband who is being pursued by two gangsters who were convicted of robbery because of his evidence. And to muddle the situation even more, 50 scouts arrive to camp on the castle lawn for the weekend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See How They Run

Season: April 2008

Directed by Colin Russell

Venue: Samford Community Centre

Set in 1943, this hilarious farce invites the audience into the living room of the vicarage at the fictitious village of Merton-cum-Middlewick. Many of the cast are local to Samford and surrounds including Werner Kroll, David Coleman, Chrissy Russell, Lucy Knowles, Erik De Wit, Diana Black, Glen Male, Darren King and Rod Hogan.

Penelope Toop (Chrissy Russell), former actress and now wife of the local vicar; the Rev. Lionel Toop (Erik De Wit) and Ida (Lucy Knowles), a Cockney maid employed by the Toops. In addition there is Miss Skillon (Diana Black), a churchgoer of the parish who complains about the latest 'outrages' Penelope has caused.

When the vicar leaves to attend a function, an old friend of Penelope's, Lance-Corporal Clive Winton (Glen Male), stops by on a quick visit. Before setting out to see a play, Penelope and Clive re-enact one of their scenes from a production they were in together. They manage to knock Miss Skillon unconscious, who wakes to think she has just witnessed adultery, drinks a bottle of cooking sherry and is hidden in the coat cupboard.

To add to the confusion the vicar is taken prisoner by an escaped German prisoner (Werner Kroll) from a nearby camp, who takes his clothes as a disguise. Humphrey (Darren King), as well as Penelope's uncle, The Bishop of Lax (Rod Hogan), arrive on the scene and are both are soon caught up in the chaos which quickly ensues. Culminating in a blur of figures, most dressed as clergy.

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Educating Rita

Season March 2007

Director: Lilian Harrington

Venue: Samford Community Centre

Educating Rita is about Susan White (Walters in the movie), a married woman in her twenties working as a hairdresser who signs up for a course at the Open University because she is eager to learn. Susan has changed her name to Rita because Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown is her favourite book. Her husband urges her to have a baby and strongly opposes her decision to go to university. When the play opens Rita meets her tutor for the first time. Dr. Frank Bryant (Caine) is an unsuccessful middle-aged academic with a drinking problem who has no experience in teaching students but who has agreed to tutor OU students because he needs the money to fuel his out of control drinking habits.

For full details, view the leaflet by clicking here.

 

 

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Snow White

Season January 2007

Directed by Natalie Mead

Venue: Samford Community Centre

 

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University Of Life

Season November 2006

Venue: Samford Community Centre

"University of Life" is a series of one acts plays directed by our new upcoming directors.  Themed around important life lessons, these one acts plays are a mixture of comedy and drama.

Break Fast - Summary:

Director: Lisa Jones

One morning over breakfast, a mother and father watch their daughter grow up -- from birth to adulthood.

 

Waiting for Julia - Summary

Director: Russell Sky

As Peter waits downstairs for his prom date, Julia, he strives to make a good impression on her parents - even as they proceed to get drunk, vent their existential frustrations, cajole Peter, attempt to seduce him, and ultimately attack him. It's not a pretty sight, but it ends well (or does it?) 

 

Good Business Sense - Summary

Director: David Coleman

Tonight, businessman Bartholomew Braniff is making the biggest boardroom presentation of his life: a proposal of marriage to the equally industrious Claudia. Everything is perfect -- the numbers have been crunched, the projections have been double-checked, and even the ring has been market-tested. But Claudia wants flowers and violins, not charts and graphs...

 

Life Line - Summary

Director: Lisa Jones

A thin man on a bare stage picks up a phone, desperate for help from the Good Samaritan Life Line. Little does he know that he is about to enter Voice Mail Hell.

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I Have A Hunch

Season Aug / Sep 2006

Directed by Sandra Harman

Venue: Samford Community Centre

“I Have A Hunch”, written by Glen Male in 1995, was a hugely successful theatre restaurant production.

Set in the lab of Dr. Frankenstein, the Doctor’s persistence to create life using bits and pieces of corpses, with the assistance of Igor, his trusty yet moronic servant, doesn’t go exactly to plan.

Throw in a well endowed monster, a depraved daughter, a female gestapo’ish monster hunter and a lost lispy guy and you have - well… comedy.

 

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 My Fatal Valentine

Season - March 2006

Directed by Natalie Mead

Venue: Samford Community Centre

Murderer Found

 

A play with 9 endings was our first for 2006 and great fun was had by all - 5 minutes notice was all that the actors had to prepare for the ending determined by the audience.

We only had one duplicate ending and everyone enjoyed the interaction with the audience / actors.

 

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Rumors

Season - August 2005

Directed by Colin Russell

Venue: Samford Community Centre

 

Rumors A Hit

by Leigh Lalonde
Samford Local Paper - The Westerner

A gale force has hit Samford in the form of a comedy play.

Rumours opened last Saturday night to the delight of those who attended, calling the play “wonderful” and “very enjoyable”.

It was the first Samford Valley Theatre Group performance for Coral Hallinan and she loved it.

“I thought the cast were very good and the plot was quite enjoyable,” she said.

“Everyone I talked to feels the same way as I do.”

Ms Hallinan said she has visited many play houses including the Arts Theatre in Petrie and Rumours was “definitely on par”.

The classic comedy piece with “masterful one-liners” and “fast-moving farce” attracted over 100 people at its opening show.

 

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Flying Feathers

Season - March 2005

Directed by Noeleen Taylor

Venue: Samford Community Centre

'Flying Feathers' a flapping success

by Noel Reeves
Samford Local Paper - The Westerner

 

Sounds slightly immoral - like something out of a Jackie Collins bestseller - doesn’t it? But in the hands of the Samford Valley Theatre Group it is instead a well written piece of comedic theatre, so good in parts that the actors had to hold back their lines to wait for the audience to stop laughing.

I’m sure if I were to watch the play again I would see a lot of jokes that I missed first time around, not from lack of concentration but from lack of being able to hear over laughter.

If the Samford Valley Theatre Group’s last production ‘Rome Sweet Rome’ was a musical comedy extravaganza, then ‘Flying Feathers’ can be labeled as a surreal piece of mayhem, complete with cover-ups, false identities and even a ghost.

The show contained good performances by the entire cast although a special mention must go to Chris Carroll who brought on the most laughs as the continually abused Mr Tunniclife and Joshua Watson as a client posing as a Vicar and not doing a very good job at it.

Carroll displayed again that he has a natural talent for playing an awkward misfit.

His character in ‘Flying Feathers’ is very similar to his Littleus Whimpus character in ‘Rome Sweet Rome’.

Both plays feature him as a pushover who is badly treated by the cast much to the delight of the audience.

I would like to think that if Carroll comes back for the group’s next production that maybe he could graduate from his likeable loser persona and upgrade to something like an incompetant villain perhaps?

Overall, this show is a must for anyone who enjoys local theatre, and for anyone who wants to be entertained.

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Rome, Sweet Rome

Season - August 2004

Directed by Colin Russell

Venue: Samford Showgrounds

New reviewer, same outcome

by Noel Reeves
Samford Local Paper - The Westerner

 

To be honest, having never seen a local production before this critic was wondering if he was going to enjoy himself or be bored to death. Within the first five minutes all my doubts had vanished. The verdict? A huge success.

The show kicked off with a bang (literally) and the audience was introduced to the players. A no-hope gladiator, a private investigator and a love-struck chamber maiden being the stand out performances of the night.

All genres were given a slap in the fact, not even film-noir was spared. Classic films were given the treatment: Monty Python's Life of Brian and Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove the most obvious tributes.

The performances were terrific, the script was well structured. All that leaves us with is the music, which can be said was the highlight of the night. Whether it was a re-imaging of Old Man River or the Muppet theme, the musical aspect of the show was of such a high quality that I had to keep reminding myself that I was seeing a local play starring local residents.

Overall, great acting, great music, great dialogue, great entertainment. I had a better time watching this than I did watching this year's epic sword and sandals epic TROY (keep in mind Troy cost around AU$370 million to produce). Style over substance never wins out and Rome Sweet Rome proves it hands down.

 

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Wicked One Acts

Season - June 2004

Venue: Samford Community Centre

Play Details

Title: The Pyramid Effect
Author: Marcia Dixcy
Director: Brendan Glanville

The team in early rehearsels for The Pyramid Effect - shortly before it collapsed!

Title: Bed & Breakfast
Author: Richard Dresser
Director: Brendan Glanville

Title: The Seance
Author: Mal Andersen
Director: Lilian Harrington

"Is there anyone out there?" - Can Madame Zetta connect with the other side?

Title: Competition
Author: Brendan Glanville
Director: Brendan Glanville

Title: Big Cats
Director: Noeleen Taylor

Synopsis

An evening of superb one act and 10 minute plays with music provided by the Performers Cafe.

 

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It Runs In The Family

Season - Nov / Dec 2003

Directed by Noeleen Taylor

Venue: Samford Community Centre

An illicit affair between a young, handsome and virile doctor and an obviously accommodating nurse 18 years and 9 months ago, forms the basis for the fabulous hit comedy/farce, "It Runs In The Family".

Upper Kedron computer guru David Coleman, plays an exuberant resident doctor, whose scant regard for authority, or in fact anything other than his hospital Christmas pantomime, provides a continuing frustration and distraction to the main plot. When Leslie, (the long lost punk son), arrives at the hospital, desperate to meet his dad, who didn't tragically die whilst climbing in the Eastern Himalayas, but is very much alive and well in the hospital where his mother once worked.

Set in St Andrews Hospital in the week before Christmas, Leslie embarks on wreaking havoc in his attempts to track down his father, who is equally determined not to meet the boy, as he is about to deliver an important lecture which will guarantee him a knighthood.

Under the cover of the pantomime rehearsals, the lies grow larger, the hospital staff become increasingly bewildered, the patients concerns are never considered and as for Leslie - well, you had to see the play to learn his fate.

Click on any of the photos for a bigger version.

 

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A Knight To Remember

Season - August 2003

Directed by Colin Russell

Venue: Samford Showgrounds

Arthur is love struck with the lovely Guinevere, who because of another bungled Merlin spell, is in love with Lancelot who is in turn in love with Gertrude the Gherkin, who, you guessed it, is in love with Arthur.

But what about the sword you ask? The evil witch Magenta, with the help of her twisted assistant Dingbat, her silly attendants Igor, Eggnog, Eggflip and Egghead and her ‘magic ring’, plans to steal it and rule the kingdom. Will Arthur remove the sword from the stone? Can the fumbling Merlin, aided by his dizzy sister Fubsy, stop Magenta? Will Arthur eventually get Guinevere? Will Gertrude get her Lancelot? More importantly, will the main course arrive on time?

Follow Lambert, your wandering minstrel, and the delightful Lambertinies as they guide you through this hilarious, medieval romp.

 

Photos

Click on any of the photos for a bigger version.

 

 

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