DECKCHAIR Theatre is back. Well, in a manner of speaking.
Some plays from the ex-troupe’s last 30 years have been brought back to life for the National Play Festival at the State Theatre in Perth.
The curtain was drawn on Deckchair in October after the board announced the company had run out of cash.
Former Deckchair boss Chris Bendall says he was reluctant at first to revisit some of the shows when asked by Playwright Australia artistic director Tim Roseman to do a retrospective of the last three decades.
“I thought how would I do this in context of the last 30 years?” he told the Herald. “But once I got into it I thought why not celebrate the plays over that time. I’m really sad and disappointed the company couldn’t survive but this retrospective will celebrate its legacy.”
Mr Bendall spoke to former board members, actors and writers to help him choose from the 100-odd shows the company had performed since opening in 1983.
He whittled it down to handful of plays which includes Phil Thomson and John Walker’s Paddy (1988), Emma by Graham Pitts (1992), Memmie le Blanc by Hilary Bell (2007), Grace adapted by Humphrey Bower (2010) and The Fremantle Candidate (2012).
Mr Bendall says some actors will revisit their roles in 10-minute excerpts of each show this Sunday (February 24) from 2pm.
“There are a lot of diverse shows in there,” he says.
“We did look at plays about Fremantle people or plays that had a Fremantle theme but I also looked at plays that had a life beyond Deckchair. There are some real gems in there.”
Mr Bendall says reading some of the old plays had helped him come to terms a little better with the closure.
“Yes, it was cathartic,” he says. “The company has given a lot to the community and a lot to the national conversation.”
by BRENDAN FOSTER
