An Oak Tree

Perth Theatre Company is proud to present Tim Crouch's amazing work An Oak Tree.

As much about the process of acting and art as it is about entertaining our audiences, this text provides many challenges to both the main performer, Luke Hewitt, the director, Lawrie Cullen-Tait and the 23 guest performers used throughout the season.
This page is a collection of thoughts, responses, critiques and provocations that arise throughout this plays premiere Western Australian Season.

We have invited everyone associated with the show to contribute - both before and after their performances - to run an ongoing discussion.

More information about An Oak Tree & Perth Theatre Company here.

More information about Tim Crouch here

"An Oak Tree is a fun and thought-provoking exploration of the power of suggestion and a genuinely nerve-racking experience for the audience and each mystery 'second actor'."
Ali Taulbut, The West Australian

"It is a daring play that takes every convention of theatre – role play, the suspension of disbelief, fantastical illusions and projected emotions – and turns the whole theatrical artifice on its head to create new, fresh and unconventional moments."
Sarah McNeill, Post Newspapers

"If you’re looking for something a little bit different, something that challenges the conventions of traditional theatre, then this could be the show for you."
Hayley Mayne, Australian Stage Online

A Rose by any other name

Perth Theatre Company is proudly supporting the national presentation of Agelink Theatre's outstanding production of Rose by Martin Sherman in 2010.

A one-woman tour de force, Rose celebrates an extraordinary life spanning the twentieth century, told with the perspective of wisdom that only age can bring.

We meet Rose, perched alone on a hard wooden bench in Miami as she sits shivah (the traditional period of mourning), trying to make sense of a fascinating life that began in a Russian village at the turn of the century and took her via Warsaw’s ghettos and a doomed ship of fleeing Jews to the boardwalks of Atlantic City, Arizona’s canyons and salsa-flavoured nights in Miami. Rose is a feisty woman of the world, her wonderful, wisened ways adding a wrinkle to a life that has been etched by the Jewish diaspora.

She has seen and experienced it all: two dead husbands, a shiksa (non-Jewish) daughterin- law who became a militant Israeli, Cossacks and Nazis, a gay grandson, to affairs with older and younger men, channeling the libidinous spirit of her dead one eyed husband, the kabbala and life in a hippy commune. Rose won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2000; This Australian premiere production is outstanding and Rosemarie Lenzo's performance charms with a lightness of touch in juxtaposing pain and humour.

This is an amazing show and one that reminds audiences of how powerful great theatre can be. In Perth, over its limited season this play attracted an ever growing audience and far exceeded the interest of the expected audience (Older audiences and the Jewish Community), getting to a wider audience than we originally thought.

Martin Shermans writing, while based in the reality of aneldery jewess reflecting on her life, transcends the obvious and makes Rose a celebration of living and of the 20th Century.

but why would you believe a theatre company that is promoting its own show? - Here is a review and i can send you a full copy if you would like a better read.
“The writing is one thing. The performance, though, is everything. Lenzo, in her first stage appearance for several years, is confident and commanding as the wry Rose in this demanding monologue directed with restrained assurance by Gillian Berry.”

“Though having the benefit of a smaller, more intimate room, Lenzo is every bit as good (over a longer duration on stage) as Helen Morse was in another recent play about loss, The Year of Magical Thinking.”
The West Australian

More information about Agelink Theatre is here
More information about Perth Theatre Company and Rose - here

Alvin Sputnik

Perth Theatre Company is pleased to announce that it has joined forces with award winning WA independent performance group, Weeping Spoon Productions, to present The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer for national and international touring in 2010 & 2011.

Alvin Sputnik was one of the highlights of the 2009 Blue Room season and is currently wowing audiences in New York as part of the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival.

read the reviews here -

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Alvin Sputnik is earth’s last hope.

The seas have risen, billions have died, and those who remain live on farms on top of skyscrapers, on top of mountains.
The scientists have tried everything.
Floating islands sank, space probes found nothing, and the giant sponges, visible from the moon, are now rotting icons of failure.
Now science and humanity are turning to the oceans themselves. It is up to Alvin Sputnik to venture through the mysterious depths to find a place for the human race to live in peace once more.

Direct from premiere seasons in Perth and invitation performances at the 2009 New York International Fringe, Perth Theatre Company is proud to present Weeping Spoon Production’s “The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer”

A multi faceted solo extravaganza performance about the environment and enduring love - Alvin Sputnik is a unique performance event with every aspect of the show being controlled on stage by the deviser/performer - Tim Watts.

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer comes from one of Western Australia’s most creative emerging theatre teams and blends puppetry, mime, digital animation, live action, and spoken word in a universe that blends Jim Henson’s charm with Tim Burton’s aesthetic.

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More info here
and Weeping Spoon information here