Spectrum Theatre opens new one-act play trio over Australia Day long weekend to provide new experience

Spectrum Theatre’s new show One Actually opened on Friday January 24 to a full house and rave audience reviews, with three comedic one-act plays giving attendees a new experience of live theatre.

The show is a collection of three one-act plays — Prince Charming’s Complaint, Her Tongue and Ruby of Elsinore, as well as a monologue, Ham Sandwich.

Jen Croston said the three shorter performances were a new kind of theatre experience at the Spectrum.

“Each play is quite short, so the audience is getting bursts of story lines and hopefully lots of comedy,” she said.

“I think it ticks the box for people who don’t want to sit through a full play but still want to experience live theatre.”

Prince Charming’s Complaint, directed by Croston, is the first performance in the trio and flips four Disney fairytales on their head, giving audiences a new and humorous perspective of the stories they know and love.

Croston said the rehearsal process was great fun for the cast, even when things didn’t always go to plan.

“This play is also very pantomime-like, so you get a lot of slapstick kind of visual comedy which also makes you laugh a lot as you’re putting it together,” she said.

“The cast was just amazing, we have some performers who have been with Spectrum before and some who are new, which is really nice.”

Her Tongue, directed by Laura Leach, is a period piece that follows the adventures of a young woman who gets consistently gets herself into trouble by speaking her mind.

Leach said her lead actor was a real standout.

“There were so many lines she had to memorise and just from the three shows we’ve done already that’s one of the big pieces of feedback I get is that people are just astounded by her because she has done amazingly,” she said.

Ruby of Elsinore, directed by Tiger Bird, is a comedic twist on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with the well-known characters recounting their dramatic and complicated life stories to a woefully unprepared beauty practitioner at a spa.

“One of the reasons I love doing theatre is seeing a performance go from the start to the final product,” they said.

“You always have a bit of panic during the process of, is this going to happen or is that going to work?

“At the very end it all just comes together, and it’s always wonderful to see.”

Bird also mentioned the significance of this year as Spectrum Theatre’s 45th year open.

“We actually had a founding member of the theatre come to one of our opening weekend shows, and she was amazed because she hadn’t lived down here for years but she was happy and quite overwhelmed that we’re still going after all this time,” Bird said.

“I think we’re all quite proud to still be here and loving what we do.”

The show will run until February 9, with Friday and Saturday night shows starting at 7pm, and Sunday matinees starting at 2pm.

Tickets can be purchased through the Spectrum Theatre website.