By MARI GRANTUN
BARBARA Albury did a splendid job marrying all the historical events together in Armidale – Our Town.
There was never a dull moment, the activity on stage and the attention to detail was fantastic.
I loved the choice of having a narrator. Jan Wyles in her natural way kept us all intrigued – she interacted with the actors and wore many hats.
The costume department excelled, there was truly a mad hatter’s party happening and Margaret Sims; I take my hat off.
Armidale Town Hall has always been a tricky performance venue and I was delighted at how well the space was used and how we as the audience really felt part of the play.
The musical arrangements were excellent and the lyrics witty, keeping the audience busy – projecting the lyrics on the big screen was quite genial.
Lyrics are often hard to hear and audiences miss a lot of the storytelling but in this case with the lyrics to see and the great projecting voices, we were in for a treat.
Bob Thompson, Chris Cunningham and Benjamin Thorn cleverly helping to squeeze 150 years of Armidale’s history into two hours of entertainment.
Iconic citizens Steve Widders and Peter Bailey added their considerable presence to the production, a well-mannered dog charmed the audience and the unified ensemble cast – too numerous to mention – played multiple parts and injected the gentle humour that made Our Town very much the people’s play.
I was lucky to catch the very last performance on Sunday, a matinee.
Arriving just as it was about to start, I squeezed in to a fully booked town hall. We do love our theatre in Armidale where every year we produce quality theatre in abundance.
I was very happy indeed to part from my money this time knowing that most of the proceeds will go towards the Armidale Dumaresq Civic Precinct – our much-needed new library and performing arts centre.
Let’s make this happen, then we can write the new chapter for our Bicentenary play and really put bums on seats.
