By Peter Kemp
Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre
The Deep Blue Sea
Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea tells the story of Hester Collyer, the young wife of the High Court Judge William Collyer, who has embarked in a passionate affair with Freddie Page, a handsome young former RAF pilot troubled by his memories of the war.
Their relationship is physical and passionate, but his ardour has cooled, leaving her emotionally stranded and desperate.
Taking place over the course of one day we witness her battle as she struggles to come to terms with her situation and to find a reason to go on living. Will she return to William, or will Freddie relent, and how will the interactions with others in the apartment block affect her circumstances and decision?
Season: 19 May – 4 June.
1812 Theatre
Till Beth Do Us Part
A side-splitting comic romp about marriage.
Career-driven Suzannah Hayden needs a lot mor help on the home front than she was getting from her husband, Gibby.
Enter Beth Bailey, Suzannah’s newly hired assistant, a gregarious highly motivated daughter of the South, in no time, she exceeds her duties as a household assistant and injects herself into Suzannah’s career.
As Suzannah’s dependence on Beth grows, she gives Beth carte blanche to change anything in the household; and the change Beth makes is convincing Suzannah that Gibby must go!
When he realises it’s Suzannah’s career Beth is really after, a newly determined Gibby sets out to save his marriage aided by Suzannah’s best friend, Margo, a wisecracking and self- depreciating divorcee and her ex-husband, Hank, who is in the midst od his own life crisis.
Their effort to stop Beth at any cost sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry just as Suzannah’s boss arrives for that all-important dinner.
Season: 18 May – 11 June.
