Laughs all the way with this Australia Day play

WHAT price a genuinely good belly laugh?

In these days of rising interest rates, high food prices, high energy costs and global unrest… priceless!

However, on opening night for the latest production by Phillip Island’s Offshore Theatre, the woke-challenging play, ‘Australians All’, by Jonathan Biggins, it would have set you back a mere $30 or $25 concession, or groups of 10.

It was a really good laugh from start to finish, with many of the best lines delivered in fine style by experienced local actor, Ashley Reed.

He said plenty of stuff you wouldn’t have been able to say back in 2012, when the award-winning actor, writer, and playwright Biggins wrote the play, let alone a decade or so later when the familiar themes of climate change, multiculturalism, an Indigenous voice, disability issues and more have marched on.

But it provided pause for a reality check all the same.

Early in the play, ‘Wally’ (played by Reed), a 55-plus, local builder and small scale developer, had the quick retort for ‘Helen’ (played by Remi D’Agostin), the 35-year-old, local Greens’ councillor, a relative new arrival to the shire from the state capital.

“Sorry I’m late,” said Helen after she’d kept everyone waiting at a local Australia Day Organising Committee meeting.

“It’s a pity you didn’t have an engine in that car or you mightn’t have been,” said Wally.

“It’s got two, actually, it’s a hybrid,” said Helen.

Everyone established their characters quickly, Simon Furniss as the Mayor of Coriole Shire and pre-selection candidate for the Liberal Party, Chris White as his deputy, Julie Thomas as Maree, president of the local Country Women’s Association branch and Rui Mei Jian as the Australian-born Vietnamese primary school teacher.

They were all members of the Australia Day Organising Committee and they brought their prejudices and their problems with them.

Predictably, their Australia Day event was an absolute debacle, as described by the mayor at the end of the play, with plenty of the dialogue and situations all too reminiscent of local government politics locally.

If you want some irreverent fun, and a damn good laugh, don’t miss Offshore Theatre’s play at the new Blackbox Theatre in the performing arts building at Newhaven College.

With its excellent audio and production facilities, together with a star turn in its own right, the electronically operated, retractable seating for 140 people, it was the ideal venue for this delightful production.

It’s a pity the shire’s boffins didn’t see these seats and a facility like this in action before spending $30 million on the Cowes Community Cultural Centre – we could have saved 25 million or more for other much-needed facilities.

The play continues on Friday, March 24, Saturday, March 25, Sunday (matinee 2pm), March 26, Thursday, March 30, Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1 (twilight 5pm). Tickets online at Trybooking: Click this Trybooking link