Two Wells Melodrama Group are celebrating 40 years in 2022. This is an incredible milestone from a truly enthusiastic and dedicated community.
As always, the performances are accompanied by a fabulous meal which is always themed to compliment the performance. Accolades must be given to the amazing catering staff who put this together. There are very few places you can go to be entertained by unpaid performers and enjoy a 3 course meal at the same time.
The other amazing thing about Two Wells Melodrama Group is the profits from each year go straight back into the community. Over the past 39 years, they have raised in excess of $700,000.00 which have benefited just about everyone from the local area.
Now on with the show. This year’s production as you may have already guessed revolves around the Two Wells located within the city confines which are to be relocated to the town centre. Being their 40th season, it is also an opportunity to celebrate and reminisce about shows and people from the past. There are several members in 2022 who were there 40 years ago and the best way to highlight this was to have them play themselves and remember the shows of yesteryear complete with props and costumes. Anne Arbon, Kay Boon, Kerry Heym and John McInerney were cast as The Originals and played themselves throughout tying the show together and talking the audience through previous shows if you were not lucky enough to have seen them. Sadly Kerry Heym and another cast member Russell Ford were unable to attend on the day due to Covid Protocols and we were informed at the start that other cast members would be filling their roles albeit with script in hand. This made for some of the funniest pieces of acting I have seen in a long time. Anne Arbon was tasked with performing not only as herself but also to fill the role of Kerry Heym. Problem was they were generally both in the same scene which meant poor Kay Boon, became the pivot point as Anne moved from one side to the other to play the two characters. Absolutely hilarious.
The Council Workers tasked with the job of moving the wells were Theresa Moore, Alessandro Renaglia and Phil Moore. Each of them brought in turn hopeful optimism, dutiful obedience and self-centred conniving to the role. Phil’s final monologue was extremely powerful.
The ensemble all played multiple characters and the usual suspects were there again. Lance Grant can always be relied upon to brighten up a performance and nothing can ever throw him. Nick Algar’s rendition of Dream A Little Dream Of Me was excellent and well suited his vocals. David McInerney, Alex Chapman, Janene Lynn, Paul Schmelzkopf and Eleisha McCaul are all regulars to the group along with John Cavallaro who would give George Thorogood a run for his money with his performance of Bad to the Bone.
Sadly the show only has two more performances left on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th May and I am not sure how ticket sales are going but I do know this is a show that should not be missed if you enjoy Melodrama at its finest.
