Theatre: The Dreaming Hill (★ ★ ★ ½)

--> by Hellie Turner
WA Youth Theatre Co and Southern Edge Arts
Directed by Renato Fabretti
Assistant director Simon Woodward
Designed by India Mehta
Performed by Michaela Barker, Luke Binetti, Thomas Blowffwitch, Daisy Coyle, Austen Faulkner, Cambell Greenock, Liam Longley, Lachlan McGregor, Tess McKenna, Mikayla Merks, Tahlia Norrish, Andrew Phillips, Liannah Prior, Sam Reeves, Zali Stipanicev 

WA Museum 14 – 18 April, Albany Heritage Park 23 – 26 April

As the centenary of our seminal national tragedy looms, the surge of commemorative activity ranges from the deeply felt to the cynical, from the sublime to the excruciating.
Hellie Turner’s The Dreaming Hill, which was commissioned by the WA Youth Theatre Company and produced in partnership with Albany-based Southern Edge Arts and the WA Museum, is an impressive, valuable addition to those commemorations.
There’s no need to mention individual performances in the 14-strong cast of arresting young actors from Perth and Albany who have been brought together for this production, merely than to congratulate them, and, of course, observe that their ages, from 14 and 15 to their early 20s, is the same as their brave compatriots a century ago on those beautiful, fateful shores. 

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian

Theatre: Anytown

By Hellie Turner

Directed by Janet Pettigrew

Featuring Kingsley Judd, Whitney Richards, Gaynor O’Hare, Matt Penny, Craig Williams and Cathy Lally

Blue Room Theatre

May 10 – 28, 2011

Anytown sits out on the flat and seethes. The little town of a blow-in or two and 900-odd people named Willis bury their dead and dig up their dirt, air their grievances and their dirty linen, and drink from bottomless cups of tea. There’s one road in and one road out of Anytown, and precious few people take either.

Whitney Richards and Craig Williams

In the house of the town cop Charlie and his wife Bella Willis (Matt Penny and Gaynor O’Hare), their delicious sixteen-year-old Dixie (Whitney Richards) hatches her plots. Dixie is a born sexual manipulator; she’s inherited her mother’s carnal allure, but none of her sweetness or resignation. She’s entirely unscrupulous, and entirely indiscriminate, tormenting the mute town boy Paulie (one of several roles played by by Craig Williams) and their scabrous Scottish lodger Angus (Kingsley Judd).

Angus, though, shares a secret with Bella who, in turn, is keeping something from both him and her husband. It’s that kind of town

When a dark stranger (Williams again) appears, bringing with him something mysterious in a hatbox, he represents the chance of escape for Dixie. She goes to work on him, but, for the first time in her life, it just might be her that’s being done over.