Australian Stage Online - DIMBOOLA: The Matrimonial Makings Of A Monster

Time to be serious this week I’m afraid:

A spanner was well and truly thrown into the works this week, or rather a box of spanners, as Robert began rehearsal with a sobering set of announcements. Of course, being the softie that he is, Rob softened the bad news with a bit of good. We had, despite all the odds, managed to secure sponsorship for the masses of food items needed for the production. We now had over 800 units each of a variety of traditional Aussie foodstuffs to feed the ravenous audience members throughout the season. Quite lucky for us all, as god knows what could happen with a boozed up dinner-less audience! Imagine if Ian Hewitson was in the audience. We could be losing tasty cast members by the hour!

But of course with good news comes the box of rusty spanners, and in this case spanner number one was the replacement of cast member Paul Cousins. After issues with lateness, availability and performance standards, the production team were forced to consider whether it was a good idea in the long run to keep him in the cast. Unfortunately and ultimately due to a lack of commitment our ‘best man’ Dangles had to be replaced. Thankfully our producer extraordinaire Douglas - I only wear make-up on the weekends - Montgomery managed to track down a highly enthusiastic and down right dirty replacement.

Thinking that the bad news was over, we were knocked for 6 by the next spanner, the resignation of our lead and groom Trevor Vaughn. This came as a total shock to all of the cast who were saddened and disappointed by the sudden loss. Trevor had shown no real signs of distress during rehearsals and had been proceeding well until Rob received a late night call from Trevor pulling out of the wedding. Ironically, the reasons given for leaving the production, those of not fitting in with those around him, awkwardness and an inability to connect comfortably in the character and action, are precisely the attributes inherent to the bumbling, awkward, alienated groom Morrie. Ultimately though, for whatever reason Trevor decided that he could no longer be a part of the production.

Unfortunately for the rest of the cast, while Trevor may have eased his own concerns, Dimboola is if nothing else an ENSEMBLE. And this ensemble had just been dealt a massive blow two weeks out from opening night. Without just one member, the rhythm of an ensemble cast is thrown out of whack and progress is slow and frustrating. While some people may not realise it, leaving an ensemble production not only affects your immediate fellow actors, but every single person in the cast and crew, who are inadvertently left to clean up the mess left behind.

Luckily for us, Dimboola is made up of a phenomenal cast and crew who after hearing all the bad news, while a bit peeved and disappointed, refused to drop the ball and powered through the remainder of rehearsal with the gusto of Gerard Depardieu on Bastille Day. It was great to see everyone not simply disenchanted by the loss of Trevor, but invigorated to continue on despite the odds faced. It has made me very proud and thankful to be a part of a great team of people who have committed to making this show one to remember!

Of course this goes not only for the cast and crew but for our courageous Director Rob and our absolutely unstoppable Producer Doug. Unfortunately Doug has been stuck with finding an array of easily accessible, available and amenable actors to replace those lost to the night. And Rob has had to take time out of his already packed schedule to give them the thumbs up (or the whip crack, given the circumstance). Both have been lumped with a great deal of extra work due to the casting issues that have reared their ugly heads throughout production. Both have done a great job and should be commended for not having gone totally postal yet (I do stress yet, however, as who knows what could happen next!).

As I said above though, despite the opening dampeners, everyone pulled together to produce a great rehearsal, with our trusty stage manager Kieren sitting in to read for various missing actors, and myself filling the sweaty seat of our missing groom, Morrie.

Another pleasant surprise arose mid way through rehearsal, when out of the blue our Producer extraordinaire received a phone call from none other than Graeme Blundell! Graeme was the brilliant director of the original production of Dimboola that was staged at La Mama in 1969. It was both exciting and incredibly insightful for the entire cast to hear his comments, opinions and suggestions for us in relation to how he created the original classic that we are using as the basis for our reproduction. This unexpected call, really helped to pick up the casts enthusiasm and excitement for the production after the initial bad news!

So all is well that ends well, and this rehearsal ended up just fine. The lasting impression for me, however, was our new recruit playing the role of little rascal Astrid performing that old classic “Animal Crackers in my soup” Sound of music style, with M.T. providing the vocals from behind. It seemed like a fascinating piece of performance art, as Astrid awkwardly fidgeted around the stage as M.T. belted out the song in an eerie childlike voice. Afterwards I couldn’t get it out of my head, and then it clicked. The original Animal Crackers song was sung by Shirley Temple in Curly Top. Marie-Therese has a particularly . . . curly top. The striking similarities in vocal style and dress sense are also astonishing. This leads me to make the most shocking allegation of my short blogging career:

I believe, Marie-Therese Byrne is in fact none other than Shirley Temple!

There, I’ve said it. Now you be the judge!