Australia Blog

A Night of Nostalgia

Because I write/edit/coordinate our internal staff newsletter, people disclose all sorts of goss to me. So, unbeknown to me [until said 'leak'], an Oirish colleague of mine has been moonlighting as a thespian! So I decided to check it out. She has been donning an apron, to portray ‘not-so-bright, 17-year-old chambermaid, Julie’ in Brisbane Irish Theatre Group’s production, Say Cheese, at the Metro Arts .

According to the synopsis, ‘playwright Bernard Farrell takes a hilarious satiric swipe at contemporary Irish life, letting the audience in on the murky secrets which surround the man and his wife who have been selected ‘Ireland's Happiest Couple’. When the sponsors of the Celtic Cheese competition re-enact their wedding reception at a Dublin hotel, a Pandora's box of strange secrets and old deceits is opened.

Unfortunately the show ends on Saturday, but if you can get along to see it before then, do! 'Tis piss-funny, particularly the daughter, 'Heather' who has a disturbing likeness to my ex-Dublin-princess-cum-psycho-flatmate, and her parents, 'Bridie' and 'Valentine'! And hotel owner, Mr Le Strange, who accidentally gets called Mr Peculiar on occasion, is the personification of The Simpsons' Smithers! I shit you not - he's even got the red bow-tie and his voice/inflection, IDENTICAL! Hilarious. The only downfall is that one of the other main characters, the Celtic Cheese Company's PR guy, is god-awful, his script WAY too detailed and he just gets it all wrong! But the rest are fab, and just hearing those accents [cos they're real bonafide Irish actors], and even the diddly-i music in the intermisison made me all misty-eyed and 'homesick'...

Theatrical Ging

ps. Oh, and Verve cafe in the basement is a great place for a pre-theatre fix, with a cheap and cheerful selection of yummy food, wines, and to-die-for desserts I resisted on this occasion. I had a couple of glasses of wine, main meal and cappuccino [to take upstairs, where you can keep drinking throughout the show] for virtually nix - then again, the waiter did give me a serious discount 'cos there was a mix-up with my meal, and he wasn't even gonna charge me for the wine! He said, 'five dollars will do'??? I left him a nice tip!