Saturday, January 21st .....

I nearly stayed up last night to write this post while the ideas were fresh in my mind. However, here it is at 6.30am so my memories are still vivid. Marilyn decided we should drive down to Deloraine to see a performance at the Little Theatre. We had a couple of things to pick up from the storage and Sandy had offered to take us out for a meal so it seemed that everything fitted neatly. We weren’t sure who was putting on the show but assumed it was the Dramatic Society which has a pretty good reputation.

After a very good meal at the pub we walked across the bridge to see the show. The first surprise was that the show was a fundraiser for the Meander Valley Greens. No problem in that but it meant that the usual group of talented stalwarts weren’t necessarily involved. We were there a little early so saw some of the sound checks and so on. One performer stood at the microphone talking seemingly to himself while the sound man tried to give him instructions which he couldn’t hear. I think the sound man wanted the performer to project more but that message certainly didn’t get through.

The idea of an Old Time Music Hall is a reasonable one but maybe a little dated in this day and age. However, we obediently joined in the sing-alongs: Down at the Old Bull and Bush, Da-Da-Da-Da, etc, all sung three times. The Chairman gallantly encouraged the rather small audience to sing louder and there were enough of us old enough to know the songs to make it sound alright.

The Chorus worked hard to entertain but it was clear some of them were embarrassed to be involved. One woman in purple did her own thing at one end while one or two of the men at the back seemed to be in a different play. Marilyn congratulated the woman in purple after the show, saying, You were on your own journey up there. That’s a back-handed compliment if ever I heard one.

My favourite piece was a couple of elderly gentlemen performing The Bold Gendarmes. Neither of them had any sense of rhythm or timing and the poor pianist valiantly tried to keep up with them. Again it seemed as if each man was performing alone; there was no interaction between them at all. One of them looked like he had one glass of wine too many, the other looked like a startled wallaby in the headlights.


There were three exceptional performers: a soprano, a dancer and a cabaret singer whose performance of Waiting at the Church was a show-stopper. Unfortunately, when she tried And All That Jazz, the pianist couldn’t cope. In his defence, we gather he was a last-minute replacement. We also liked Fairy Bluebell who sang Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Fifty.

In traditional Deloraine style, supper was provided at interval: hot dogs sausage rolls and a glass of wine if you needed fortification for the second act. In all, a terrific night with some excellent performances and some excruciating ones. There’s a matinee performance today and another one tonight. Maybe some of the kinks will be ironed out by then.