Is it really dementia or is Nana just stringing the family along? When Nana’s winning numbers come up in Lotto the family is thrown into chaos. Heather Riley has the perfect role of Nana with her convenient loss of memory and her entry on stage with another loaf of bread sets the scene for the rest of the play. The elusive Lotto ticket is followed with interest by the audience as it is unknowingly passed through many hands.
Nana’s daughter Janice played by Lisa Wilton is frustrated by her lazy family and the antics of Nana. There were a few in the audience who seemed to recognize this situation from experience. She seeks solace by having an affair with her husband’s friend Mick.
Steve Mulady as Mick plays the part extremely well as a sneaky dislikeable character who has been thrown out of his home by his wife and worms his way into staying in Janice’s house.
Sean Venning as Ronnie plays the role of the lazy husband in a believable portrayal pretending to get in Nana’s good books by going to work each day but in fact is just sitting in his car. His antics when looking for the lost ticket add to the comedy in the play.
Steven played by Lachlan Blackwell is the overweight lazy son who joins in the hunt for the ticket. His exercise scenes when trying to make an impression on Nana are comedic and he cleverly loses weight by the end of the play.
The daughter Lisa played by Abbey Mae can be recognized by anyone who has or knows a teenager. Her portrayal as a goth, emo or any other fad a teenager goes through are acted to perfection with her reactions to being dropped by her boyfriend and the costume changes to appease Nana.
Lisa’s Boyfriend Shane, played by Kyle McCarthy, wins over Nana with his smooth talk and the ‘parrot’ on his head. He causes some panic when he tries to fix a broken dishwasher in the kitchen with disastrous results.
The Director Damon Hill has pulled together a great cast that many of us can recognize and identify with family problems having been locked up during Covid.
The set is beautifully made as are all sets at Tea Tree Players productions. However the setting described in the program as ‘A home very well lived-in and in need of a bit of TLC’ was a bit too tidy.
All the backstage crew added significantly to the production. It is worth noting that there was no particular person responsible for costumes. They were left to the cast and crew. Congratulations to all for the realistic costumes that were presented.
The problem I had at times was understanding some words due to variations in some cast members’ volume and projection.
Although this was a comedy the message given by the dead Nana at the end summed up what the show was all about.
