|
|
||||||||||
|
June 2008 |
||||||||||
|
Spotlight shines on travelling Aussie battlers Grant allows grey nomad stage play to go walkabout Story: Dennis Amor THEATREGOERS in regional and rural Australia will soon be sharing in the fun, excitement and sometimes sorrow experienced by grey nomads.
The Brisbane-based La Boite Theatre Company has received a $55,733 Federal Government Playing Australia grant to take its production of Walking by Apple Tree Creek to 11 centres in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. During its 38-day, 6000km tour, the stage play - featuring the travels of fictional grey nomads Stan and Del in their mobile home - will be performed in Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Taree, Belrose, Nunawading, Frankston, Williamstown and Warragul.
A company
spokesperson told Caravanning News: "We were fortunate to have
been successful in receiving the grant, given the high level of
competition and demand."
Walking by Apple Tree Creek, starring Carol Burns and Bob Newman, is the tender and funny story of two Aussie battlers who invest in a mobile home and take off into the great blue yonder. Their travels take in the Big Pumpkin in Beaudesert, the Big Prawn in Ballina, the Big Chicken in Moonbi, the Big Snake in Ayr, the Big Beer Bottle and Big Shell in Tewantin and the Big Pineapples in Gympie and Nambour. Oh, and not forgetting the Big Bull in Rockhampton and the Big Avocado at Tropical Fruit World in Tweed Heads. They face not only the daily challenges of being on the road - lost keys, foldaway chairs, mobile phone and portable barbecue - but also the overwhelming effects of battling with dementia.
When they stay on the banks of Apple Tree Creek at the side of the Bruce Highway in Queensland - where they met and fell in love half a century before - Del must come to terms with Stan's deteriorating mental health from degenerative Parkinson's disease. Del has loved and grown old with someone who suddenly doesn't know who she is. And during the moving 80-minute performance, she draws on their 50-year relationship to spark something in Stan's failing memory. But in doing so, Del reveals a truth she thought she had left behind at Apple Tree Creek all those years ago. BACK TO CARAVANNING NEWS MAIN PAGE
No part of this
publication may be reproduced or transmitted without Copyright 2005
Dennis Amor |
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
