Hotel Sorrento

Set in the early 1990s in Australia, Hilary lives in seaside Sorrento with her father and 16 year old son. Pippa is visisting from New York and Meg returns from England with her English husband. The sisters, reunited after years in different worlds, again feel the constraints of family life.
Holdig a mirror up to the sopciety in which it was written, it has universal themes and feels even more relevant than when it premiered in 1990. Especially now. a world living in fear, keenly aware of the difference and a nation constantly questioning the nature of being Australian.
Season: February 15 - Narch 2. 2019.

Seussical the Musical

Horton the elephant, the Cat in the Hat and all of your favourite Dr Seuss characters springing to life onstage in Seussical JR, a fantastical musical extravaganza from Tony-winners, Lynn Ahrens and stephen Flaherty.
Transporting audiences from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat narrates the stry of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called the Whos.
Horton must protect the Whos from a world of naysayers and dangers, and he must also guard abandoned egg that's been left in his care by the irresponsible Mayzie La Bird.
Season: March 29 - April 14. 2019

Look Back in Anger

Jimmy Porter plays trumpet badly. He browbeats his flatmate, terrorises his wife, and is not above sleeping with her best friend -who loathes Jimmy almost as much as he loathes himslef.
Yet this working class Hamlet, the original "Angry Young Man," is one of the most mesmerising characters ever to burst on the screen; a malevolently vital, vital, volcanically articulate internal exile in the dreary, dreaming Siberia of postwar England. A realistic portrayal toxic maculinity and the impacts that irate tirades have on the ones we "love".
Season: July 5 - 20. 2019

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cucloo's Nest has left an indelible mark on literature, theatre and film. It is boisterous, ribald and ultimately devastating story of a mental hospital and its inhabitants. In aworld where sanity means conformity and followiong the rules is the only way to survive. One Flew over th Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful exploration oft the beauty and the daner of beong original .
Season: September 20 - October 5. 2019

A Knight to Remember

A madcap medievil tale of magic and mirth set in a time when men were men and women were women and a knight couldn't get his armour off! Life revolved around " Hey, Nonny Nonny", complicated by romance, intrigue and plain dirty deeds. Is Gertrude the Ghirkin really a dill? Can Merlin get anything right? Can the audience fail to love this show?
Season: November 14 - November 30. 2019.
This play is especially designed for dinnner seating and will be a great way to end the year with a few friends and lots of laughs.

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Love/Sick

Sometimes love is messy in this romantic comedy where a unique cast of characters battle for love with heart-warming optimisim.
A selection of of nine highly twisted and completely hilarious short plays. Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, this 80- minute romp explores the pain and joy that comes of being in love. /full of imperfect lovers and dreamers, from a couple that's obvessively impulsive to a bride with literally with cold feet, to a man who had a very... exciting lunch to the couple who have forgotten to have a baby.
Season: April 11 - 14. 2019

A Season of One Act Plays

The Hartwell Players will showcase a selection of one act plays directed by and starring upcoming and returning Hartwellians.
These one acts will then hit the road for the annuaol festival circuit across Melbourne and its regional areas.
Season: June 4 - 14. 2-19

Coriolanus

When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once nore on her hero and defender Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens' hunger swell to an appetite for revolution, and on returning from the battlefield, Coriolanus must confront the marching conflict of tradition, ceremony, and the voice of an angry people.
Seaon: September 26 - Pctober 6. 2019.

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2018 Season

2019 Season

Brilliant Lies

An adult comedy about a woman who accuses her former employer of harassment and unfair dismissal after failing to comply with his sexual demands. Williamson turns his penertating eye and sharply focused wit t issues of political correctness and sexual harassmentz.
Brilliant Lies is a stimulating contribution to the continuing debate oon our chnging social values. It looks at the clash between different perceptions of truth and the wternal battle between sexes. Set in the 1990s when the phrase sexual harassment was still relatively new to the workplace setting.
Season: February 1 - 16. 2019 at 8pm. Matinee Sunday February 3. 2019 at 2.15pm. Twilight Sunday February 19. 2019 at 4pm.

Crimes of the Heart

This tragicomedy relates the story of the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe and Lenny. who reunite at Old Granddaddy's home in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, after Babe shoots her abusive husbnad. The sisters were raised in a dysfunctional family with a penchant for ugly predicaments. Each has endured her share of hardship and misery.Past resentments bubble to the surface as the sisters are forced to deal with assorted relatives and past relatiionships while coping with Baba's latest incident. Each sister is forced to face tha consewuences of the crimes of the heart she has committed.
Season June 7 - 22. 2019 at 8pm.
Matinee Sunday June 9. 20199 at 2.15pm. Twilight Sunday June 16. 2019 at 4pm.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Two Jewish families are forced to hide from the Nazis in a secret annexe in Amsterdam. IN her tiny room. Anne Frank keeps a diary, detailoing the claustrophbic realities of daily existance experienced by the families. She also records her own coming of age, battling low spirits and loneliness, fighting with her mother, and falling in love for the first time. Despite her oppressive circumastances, her spirit shines through as she voices her belief that people are really good at heart.
Seaon: Augst 9 - 24. 2019 at 8pm.
Matinee Sunday August 11. 2019 at 2.15pm.
Twilight Sunday August 18. 2019 at 4pm.

Stage Kiss

Art imitates life, Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reaqlity as the story onstage follows them offstage. There's mot one but two plays-within-a-play in Sarah ruhl'sStage Kiss, a highly meta-theatrical, fundamentally enjoyable, slightly slight, not-so-romantic comedy pondering the complexity of onstage osculation.
Season: November 15 0 #0. 2019 at 8pm
Matinee Sunday November 17. 2019 at 2.15pm
Twilight Sunday November 24 at 4pm.

Volunteers Needed

Volunteering in Melbourne theatre is a wonderful way to make new friends and learn new skills, or polish up some old ones. If you would like to volunteer ad work with Peridot Theatre to create excellentl community theatre,

WHY DO THEY DO IT?
It is an extremely rewarding experience, it builds lifelong friendships. It enables them to utilise existing skills as well as develop new ones. They have a lot of fun and laughs and enjpy 7being part of a production which they are proud of and which brings enjoyment to the many people who attend the performances.
Whether it's a barbie in our backyard area, movie nights or other get togethers, we realise our volunteers are our lifeblood and a pretty social bunch too.
SET BUILDING:
No production is complete without the set on the stage. Thr building of the set involves design, painting, carpentary, furniture restoration and electrical work. This could range from hanging a picture to building a staircase.

Experienced chippies. electicians, artists, designers are always welcome along with people who are eager to learn ad willing to get their hands a bit grubby.

While the sets are being built the costumes designed and made. Working with the director this involves machine and hand sewing and fitting of outfits on the actors.

BACKSTAGE:

This involves the changes made to the sets on stage during the live performances. This could range from providing an empty cup to an actor at a critical time before thay go on stage to changes between acts while the lights are down.

If you can tip toe in the darkness and enjoy the adrenalin rush of being involved in a live performance, without being an actor on stage, this is for you.

FRONT OF HOUSE:
The face of Peridot Theatre- you could be the lovely lady or gent greeting our patrons at the door, guiding them to their seats and making sure the audience refreshments between the acts and after the performance are ready to go when needed.

At the end of the evening you get a chance to mingle with the actors, director,and other behind scenes volunteers.

TECH CREW//BIO BOX:
The designers choreograph the lighting and sound as part of the preproduction of the play. The technical crew and bio box operate the soud and lighting during each performances. You may be working with special effects?
With a wide range of lighting and sound equipment available, working in time with actors on stage, its a great experience to be the one bringing the stage alive with massive claps of lighting and rumbling thunder or the soft chirpd in a lush foredt dcene.

Whether you experienced or simply full of enthusiasm and ready to learn, thios may be for you.

You can find the fun you're looking fr by going to the Peridot website and clicking on Who We Are or by giving Helen MNcintodh a call on 0403 797 709.

201o Season

Neighbouthood Watch

Brither and sister Martin and Hilda Massie live together, leading a quiet, Christian existance in the confines of the Bliebell Hill Development. Just as they are preparing for a nousewarming gatherig, their peace is shattered by a young trespasser in their garden. The Massie's neighbors congregatge in their living room and together they agree top form a neighborhood watch group to sadeguard to safeguard agaist further incidents. But after Martin, the garden gnome id thrown threw the window, matters quckly excalate. What begins as a well-intentioned scheme for a safer community ends in violence and acrimony.
Season: March 22, 23, 27 -30. Matinee: March 24 & 30. 2019 at 2pm.

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