DOUBLE BILL: VICTOR’S WISHES AND THREE ENDINGS. Directed by Kyla Thorburn for Pinelands Players. Pinelands Club House.
SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
Director/Choreographer Kyla Thorburn and Pinelands Players (PP) throw Covid’s dreary mantle to the winds with their Double Bill performed at the Pinelands Club House. This bunch of highly energised individuals showed amdram is back!
The congenial 28 seater-mini-theatre, equipped with elevated stage, flats, dressing room, intelligent lighting bars, overhead fan, pub and, plenty of parking, is ideal for PP’s latest theatrical adventure.
Thorburn, already known for her innovative direction/choreography for large musicals, directed Dudonne Diergaardt’s one man show Victor’s Wishes, Diergaardt’s script drawing upon unusual characters and their stories he’s met during his life.
With Diergaardt’s near perfect diction, ease of movement, controlled confidence and admirable characterisations I wondered why I had not come across this versatile singer/actor/dancer before? He’s an entertainer par excellence.
In Thorburn’s modern-day Laurel and Hardy comedy silent movie acts, her mimed Three Endings saw Lyle Wilson as a sighing Maître d’ of an Italian restaurant, coping with the ongoing unpunctuality of his waiter Manuel (Robert Shenton). The first guest is played by glamorous Shayini Pappin-Davidson whose dining partner, played by Mihir Soni, is late (again). What happens when Diergaardt arrives is what gives Thorburn’s clever, amusing sketch its title.
What: Double Bill at Pinelands Club House
When: 16 and 17 September 2022
Tickets: pinelandsplayers@gmail.com
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