Waipukurau Little Theatre is presenting prolific Kiwi comedy playwright Tim Hambleton\u2019s look into the serious subject of breast cancer. <\/p>\n
While humour and naughtiness are not what we associate with this topic, his story of a monthly support group of breast cancer-affected women has done just that.<\/p>\n
Director Rob Blamires has tightly followed the writer\u2019s premise by presenting the group and age dynamics in such a way that delivers very entertaining theatre. <\/p>\n
Each of the ladies brings vastly different personalities, while we follow their personal and private struggles, not forgetting some laugh-out-loud secrets.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the support group is facilitator Jenny, played by Tess Stableford, her portrayal of concern for everyone is very genuine. <\/p>\n
Kath, played by Helen Griffin, is rambunctious and feisty, but is this a coping mechanism for something deeper? <\/p>\n
Bex, played by Alexis Carnie, very cleverly gave a sensitive performance as a young woman coming to terms with her unachievable dream. <\/p>\n
Louise, played by Kirsten Selfe, is a posh egotist who, by the use of a myriad of facial expressions, gives wonderful depth to others\u2019 comments. <\/p>\n
When you see a male amongst a group of ladies, you just know he is going to be the villain. <\/p>\n
Chris Scanlan wonderfully fulfilled this role as Richard, a shy accountant. <\/p>\n
His awkwardness and the twist at the end became the catalyst that brought him and the other characters to life.<\/p>\n
While the plot might be serious, it is the characters that deliver the humour, and all performed to a high standard. <\/p>\n
Scanlan was at his energetic best, although all kept the energy flowing. <\/p>\n
Stableford and Carnie were treading the Little Theatre boards for the first time, but both easily deserve call-backs, in fact Carnie\u2019s minimal rehearsal time is even more impressive.<\/p>\n
The set depicting a hall interior was basic, but this allowed us to focus on the stage action, with appropriate lighting to enhance the actors\u2019 various moods. <\/p>\n
Sound was to a high standard, all marks were kept, and the actors achieved reasonably clear diction and projection out into the theatre.<\/p>\n
In this production, we are fortunate to have a director who revels in the playwright\u2019s words and brings his passion to his cast. <\/p>\n
There is something very Kiwi in laughing at ourselves, regardless of how sensitive the subject may be – just try mixing in humour with cancer.<\/p>\n
This production deserves to be seen by the widest cross-section of the community, not only due to its subject matter but also due to \u201cit is just so funny\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waipukurau Little Theatre is presenting prolific Kiwi comedy playwright Tim Hambleton\u2019s look into the serious subject of breast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82666,3595,156,14235,6093,111,139,69,762,7069,54948],"class_list":["post-116317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-boobs","tag-by","tag-entertainment","tag-killer","tag-little","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-review","tag-theatre","tag-waipukurau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}