Performance Group
The Performance Group performs in a theatre festival on a bi-annual basis. Our next production will be at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2010, and classes/rehearsals begin in February 2010. See the Performance Group page for details.
Our 2008 performance for the Melbourne Fringe Festival was Divine Dining:
Drama with a Difference Performance Group presents...
DIVINE DINING
Julian Mulcahy as Jason & Belinda Lack as Sarah
Sanjay Parbat as the bag man/MC
Divine Dining was presented by Drama with a Difference at in our own performance space, The Actors Factory, The Actors Factory, 161a Heidelberg Road, Northcote, from 4 October to 19 October 2008, as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
A comic look at the nature of fame – Jason Divine runs a series of Fast Food Fine Dining Restaurants. Motivated by greed and the need for notoriety he represents a facet of our need for instant gratification at all costs. Vulnerable characters emerge in this insane world which is narrated by a ‘Bag Man’ who asks if Andy Warhol’s prediction of everyone’s fifteen minutes of fame has come true. He wonders why technology, which has come up with second life, cannot do something about the third world and wonders if he can buy his soul mate on e-bay. The Bag Man confesses that he is, by necessity, a ‘theatrical device’ – because if he were real he’d be too busy surviving (to come to the theatre).
DIVINE DINING is being performed at our new space, THE ACTORS FACTORY, which promises to become another of Melbourne’s alternative theatre spaces.
CAST: Maggie Baines, Rebecca Fletcher, Allyson Hunt, Belinda Lack, Nicole McManamny, Andrew McNess, Julian Mulcahy, Rojeur Namour, Sanjay Parbat
Devised and directed by Michele Williams
Summary of Review from Beat Magazine/Buzzcuts
Maggie Baines as Midge
The subject matter is raw, raunchy and tackles taboo subjects with moments that will leave you squirming in your seat.
The script is bold and fearless and journeys into some dark corners of the human condition… spotted with moments of gold. The ending will leave you offering a moment of beauty in an ugly world.
The performance shows great potential from a mostly young and energetic cast. Sanjay Parbat is controlled and well paced. Belinda Lack gives an honest and unaffected performance as Sarah and Maggie Baines livens up the stage as the spunky Midge.