Reviews

Malanda Theatre Company's production of NoëlCoward's classic play Blithe Spirit was all about ghosts and the supernatural. Can a spirit be contacted via a séance? In this play it could. The plot revolved around writer Charles Condomine who invites Madame Arcati over to conduct a séance so that he can gather material for a future book. However, Madame Arcati inadvertently contacts the ghost of Charles's first wife Elvira, who then proceeds to torment his current wife, Ruth.

It’s 145 years since Jules Verne wrote about Phileas Fogg and his adventures and he couldn’t possibly have imagined that it would be become 2 major movies, a TV mini-series (he probably couldn’t have imagined movies or television!) as well as several stage productions.

The plot hinges on Fogg making a bet at his club that he can travel around the world in eighty days – but is he in fact a fugitive trying to get away from the indefatigable Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Fix?

It's a bit of an in-joke on the Central Coast that most of their highly regarded theatre companies encounter an occasional identity crisis. Gosford Musical Society was around for forty years before Laycock Street Community Theatre was opened – but the local patrons instantly started referring to GMS shows as “Laycock Street Shows”. Conversely, when The Peninsula Theatre opened in Woy Woy a decade or so later – everyone eschewed that name entirely in favour of the name of area's resident theatre company: “Woy Woy Little Theatre”.

This show is a true delight, moving its audience from laughter to tears.  Robyn Archer’s extraordinary capacity to engage with some of the darkest aspects of human nature, and then rise above them, whilst ushering her audience on a deeply entertaining expedition to source rare gems of perception, is nothing short of an exceptional gift.