Castle Hill Players “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is a ripper of a production to start their 2020 season. Based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Noah Smith’s adaptation under the direction of Paul Sztelma is a highly creative and imaginative rendering of the story, enthralling from the opening scene to the final enigmatic moment.
Continue reading CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENTS ‘THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE’
Castle Hill Players final production for their 2019 season is NELL GWYNN and like all their other shows this year, is a delight for the audience. It is a joyous, slightly bawdy historical romp through Drury Lane Theatre London and Whitehall Palace from 1664-1685 during the reign of King Charles II. Written by Jessica Swale we are presented with the story of former prostitute and orange seller Nell Gwynn as she takes to the stage and gains the attention of the monarch to become one of his many mistresses. Continue reading CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENT ‘NELL GWYNN’
Young actress Genevieve Papadopoulos proved herself to be a real trooper
Genevieve played the lead role of Anne Frank in Castle Players production of’The Diary of Anne Frank’ at the Pavilion Theatre at Castle Hill ground. between the 20th September and the 12th October.
With two weeks of the production to go Genevieve had an accident during an unrelated dance audition, badly injuring her left foot. She saw a specialist who advised that she requires surgery.
Genevieve didn’t want to let her Castle Hill Players colleagues down by pulling out of the production. She got together with director Faith Jessel and the rest of the cast and together they managed to reblock the scenes so that she could rest her left foot by being seated in most of the scenes, The new arrangement worked well.
Genevieve goes under the knife on Tuesday and will be out of action for at least five weeks with an extensive rehab program. Everyone wishes her a full recovery.
Featured image : Genevieve Papadopoulos and Dave Kirkham in Castle Hill Players production of ‘The Diary Of Anne Frank’.
Let the fun begin and continue to the very end of this highly amusing farce written by American playwright Ken Ludwig. Set in York, Pennsylvania in 1962, the play centres on two down-on-their-luck British Shakespearean actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable who, just when all seems lost have a ”good” idea. Of course complication after complication piles up as the audience wonders how they characters can possibly extricate themselves successfully. Continue reading LEADING LADIES @ Pavilion Theatre, Doran Drive, Castle Hill
Welcome into the lives and rivalries of the screen heroines Joan Crawford and Bette Davis – and for good measure add Marilyn Monroe to the mix. The top-notch cast brought this delicious bitchy comedy-drama, not to the screen but to a most appreciate audience on opening night of Castle Hill Players latest production, Dark Voyager by John Misto. Continue reading DARK VOYAGER @ The Pavilion Theatre, Doran Drive, Castle Hill
Opening the 2019 season for Castle Hill Players is the clever and very funny BLOODY MURDER with more twists and turns in its plot than one would think possible. Written by Ed Sala this apparently typical British murder mystery begins like many others – a group of the usual suspects gather for a soirée at the isolated country estate of the rich Lady Somerset. Sandy Velini shines in the role of this character as she leads the way for her guests in this intriguing mystery that is definitely not what it seems. Continue reading BLOODY MURDER. TWISTING MURDEROUS ENTERTAINMENT.
This gorgeous production of Noel Coward’s 1930 comedy of manners PRIVATE LIVES is a fitting end to Castle Hill Players highly successful 2018 season. With an excellent cast who continuously try to outdo each other in wit, charm, hate, satire, bitterness and almost every other emotion the audience is engaged and laughing from start to finish.
The play concerns a divorced couple Elyot, played by Jeremy Johnson, and Amanda, played by Nicole Harwood, who were once unhappily married and are at first horrified to find themselves honeymooning with their new spouses in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. The chemistry between these two actors is electric as they bring out every nuisance of the wonderful script being powerfully attracted, yet also repulsed by each other. At one moment they are uttering sweet nothings and at the next hurling vicious putdowns. Continue reading PRIVATE LIVES: A GORGEOUS PRODUCTION FROM CASTLE HILL PLAYERS
Always providing their audiences with high class shows Castle Hill Players has raised its own bar even higher with this excellent production of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy HARVEY by Mary Chase.
Harvey is the story of a perfect gentleman, Elwood P. Dowd, played with great grace and style by Chris Lundie, who steals the show with his performance, and his best friend Harvey, — a pooka, a helpful, mythical Celtic creature – in the form of an invisible six-foot plus rabbit called Harvey. Continue reading HARVEY: DON’T MISS IT. INVISIBLE FRIENDS WELCOME
FOUR FLAT WHITES IN ITALY is the first in Castle Hill Players’ 2018 series of productions. Written by the New Zealand playwright, Roger Hall, it is a comedy with some memorable one liners but it also looks at a deeper side of relationships. Being about two New Zealand couples if of course contains rugby and a few cutting remarks about Australia adding to the humour of the script. Continue reading FOUR FLAT WHITES IN ITALY: IN CASTLE HILL
THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING is the English translation of a Dutch children’s novel by Guus Kuijer. It was adapted for the stage by the Australian playwright Richard Tulloch and first performed in 2010.
This production by Castle Hill Players is an engaging insight into the world of young Thomas as we look at the adults’ moral codes through the imagination of a nine year old boy.
Set in Amsterdam in 1951 Brayden Sim brings to the main character, Thomas Klopper, a charming innocence as he comes to understand a little better the relationships of the people around him. Continue reading CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENT ‘THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING’ @ PAVILION THEATRE
ON GOLDEN POND is the classic award winning 1979 play by Ernest Thompson which was later adapted into the memorable 1981 motion picture starring Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. This play is part of a very special season for Castle Hill Players as they celebrate their 50th anniversary season.
While On Golden Pond has much witty sarcasm and humorous one-liners, it also looks at the themes of love, connections, and letting go of the past to allow the flowering of broken relationships.
The story centres on an older couple Norman and Ethyl Thayer and explores the effects of the turbulent relationship their daughter Chelsea shared with her father growing up and the difficulties faced by a couple in the latter years of a long marriage. Continue reading CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENT ‘ON GOLDEN POND’ @ THE PAVILION THEATRE
For a fun night of madness & mayhem Castle Hill Players A BAD YEAR FOR TOMATOES is just the thing. Written by John Stanley in 1973 the director Meredith Jacobs has filled the stage with a collection of crazy characters that keep the audience entertained and laughing to the very end.
The central character is Myra Marlowe, a television actress fed up with the demands and pressures of her career, who leases a cottage in the tiny hamlet of Beaver Haven in order to escape Hollywood and write her autobiography. The role requires an actor who can carry the entire show on her shoulders and Annette van Roden does just that. She is wonderfully cast and very believable in her role. Continue reading CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENT A BAD YEAR FOR TOMATOES
STEEL MAGNOLIAS is a comedy drama about the bonds of friendship among six women in northwest Louisiana in the 1980s.
The piece was written by Robert Harding and first performed in New York in 1987. Harding wrote the play based on some of the experiences surrounding his sister’s death.
The play’s title suggests the ‘female characters are as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel’. The magnolia specifically references a magnolia tree that they argue about at the play’s beginning. Continue reading Pavilion Players Presents Steel Magnolias @ Pavilion Theatre Castle Hill
FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE is a two-character play by Terrence Mc Nally first performed off-Broadway in 1987 and then on Broadway in 2002/3. This tender and romantic comedy produced by Castle Hill Players engages the audience from start to finish.
McNally’s play focuses on two lonely, middle-aged people; Frankie a waitress, and Johnny a short-order cook, who work in the same restaurant. Very strong performances by the two actors, who have a wonderful on stage chemistry and rapport, are clearly directed by Peter Rhodes to ensure the lively evolution of their relationship. Continue reading Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune @ The Pavilion Theatre
4000 MILES by Amy Hertzog was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist 2013 and received the Obie Award for Best New American Play 2012.
Herzog’s play tells a moving story focusing on the relationship between Leo and his feisty grandmother Vera. The cross-country bike trip of twenty something Leo, played with great feeling and depth by Cameron Hutt, ends when he arrives unannounced at 3am outside the door of his grandmother Vera’s West Village apartment. Why now?!
Continue reading 4000 Miles @ The Pavilion Theatre Castle Hill
Nick Enright’s 1989 play DAYLIGHT SAVING is a great night’s entertainment at the Pavilion Theatre.
The play is set in the late 1980s on the first day of summer, when the clocks change and Sydney-siders gain an extra hour to live their dreams or perhaps be caught out. Enright delves into unhappy marriages and questions what it is that makes us lonely even in the midst of others. However this is not a drama but a comedy, almost a farce, with a clever plot weaving its way among the characters and features plenty of very funny one-liners and astute observations.
