Said to be Australia’s most-performed play, “Dimboola” is now being staged by The National University Theatre Society (NUTS) in a dinner show at Teatro Vivaldi.
If you don’t know the play, the Delaney and the McAdam families come together for Morrie and Reen’s wedding at which, after a few beers, all the home truths come out. Audiences can confidently expect to find themselves invited up on to the floor for the bridal waltz and much more.
It’s an ideal show for a university theatre group, with 16 characters sitting at what the directors are calling “the bridal table from hell”. But when questioned today as to whether any of the cast had been to a country wedding like that in the play, none would admit to it.
Even the co-directors, Chris Brain, who praised his “fabulous cast that can improvise until they drop”, said he and co-director Gill Lugton hadn’t experienced the real thing. Brain said he had decided to stage the play because he had two brothers who hated the theatre and it felt this might change their minds.
Canberra publicist Coralie Wood had astonished those present at a media call by revealing that she had played the bridesmaid for four and half years in professional version of “Dimboola” back in the 1970s at the Hibiscus in Jamison.
Actually, there really is a town called Dimboola in the wheat belt region of Victoria and a documentary, “Doing Dimboola”, was made by SBS TV looking at local town characters involved with the play.
“Dimboola: the wedding dinner show” is at Teatro Vivaldi from September 21-23, dinner and show 6.30pm. Bookings to 62572718
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