Reviewer: Gail Sjogren
Are you planning a holiday this year? If so, I do hope you don't find yourself in a Portuguese time-share villa managed by an inebriated and myopic retired colonel who has double booked it! This is the scenario underlying Ballarat National Theatre's current production of "Holiday Snap", and the shenanigans which follow will have you laughing throughout.
The play's authors, Michael Pertwee and John Chapman (who also wrote "Dry Rot"), must have had a great deal of fun thinking up ever more hilarious complications for their unfortunate holiday makers and a cast including many of Ballarat's favourite actors obviously has a great deal of fun performing it too.
They are led by Peter Nethercote as the bumbling and increasingly inebriated Colonel Chittenden, trying (unsuccessfully) to sort out the muddle. The first couple, played by Brendan Bawden and Elizabeth Hardiman, soon find their idyllic holiday spot invaded by an increasingly desperate and hysterical Hedley Thomson and Janette Baxter. As both couples are planning to enjoy an illicit week away, absent servants, language misunderstandings, the arrival of a suspicious mother-in-law played by Jill Dunne, a totally bemused friend played by Matt Noble and finally a long-suffering wife played by Ann Edgar build up the frenetic pace as this farce reaches its truly absurd and very, very funny conclusion.
The professional direction of Julian Oldfield is apparent. The set is excellent with of course the necessary doors to various bedrooms to increase the confusion. There really isn't a weakness and I can only admire the skill of the actors as they keep up the pace. Their attempts to communicate with the supposedly Portuguese and then Hungarian servants should serve as a lesson in how not to fracture the language!
I recommend this production unreservedly as an ideal way to unwind as the Silly Season approaches. "Holiday Snap" opens at the Courthouse Theatre (easy parking, entry from Armstrong Street South) on Saturday 4th at 8pm, then 8th, 9th and 10th Dec at 8pm, with matinees on Sunday 5th and Saturday 11th at 2pm. You can book in advance at Majestix or get your tickets at the door.
