Community Theatre

THE Old Mill Theatre (WA) is staging the world premiere of the latest play from Hollywood writer and director David Stevens (best known forThe Sum of Us, A Town Like Alice and Breaker Morant) from June 22.

Described as a “love story re-invented”, The Beast and The Beauty re-works the classic tale of magic and enchantment and sets it in the Australian outback of the late 1880s.

The so-called beast is an ordinary man, horribly disfigured in a bushfire as a baby.

South East Queensland audiences can catch David Williamson’s highly regarded 1997 play After The Ball when thePhoenix Ensemble presents it over it over four weekends in June, at the Pavilion Theatre, Beenleigh (Logan City), half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Director Maria Grills has assembled a cast combining Phoenix regulars and newcomers for this drama, which offers a frank, critical look at Australian suburban family life in the 1960s and 1990s.

Next to Normal is anything but, as it straps audiences in for a rollercoaster ride through the devastating effects of mental illness on a seemingly normal family. To get to the ending of the triple Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical means making an emotional investment as an audience member. With music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, the musical has been acclaimed for its poignant dramatisation of mental illness.

Fab Nobs Theatre (Bayswater, Vic.) will stage the Victorian Amateur Premiere of Next to Normal from June 15 – 30.

1 mistress + 2 lovers = a three-for-all

Gold Coast Little Theatre will stage the British farce Key for Two by John Chapman and Dave Freeman from June 16.