I had the good fortune to see Wyong Musical Theatre Company’s recent wonderful production of Spamalot – what a joy.
For people my age the comedy group Monty Python revolutionised our youth and our sense of humour.
And for 50 years my view of life, the universe and everything has been influenced by that amazing group of humorists.
The musical theatre group brought all the Python madness and mania and colour and irreverence to the stage at Wyong Grove and took us through a time tunnel back to the Middle Ages.
Wyong Grove was once a working primary school and the school hall is a size that works well for a small community theatre company.
The Spamalot story is based on King Arthur and his knights of the round table in their search for the Holy Grail, but a lot of other Python characters and skits, of which there are many, got a showing or at least a nod as well.
It all rekindled such wonderful memories.
The musical Spamalot plays with things that stretch your view of the world just like Python always did back in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Every community needs a theatre group with a good fun musical sense, a hall to perform in and an appreciative audience.
The Wyong Musical Theatre Company provides it all.
It was a celebration of the craziness of being human and a testament to the power of community being able to get together and sing and dance and play and brighten up the world.
Knights riding pretend horses, with their servants clicking coconuts behind them, came riding up and down the aisle or from behind us, lumberjacks to the left of us, the Knights who say Ni to the right – what fun.
And we got to throw stuffed toys.
The cast and crew do it for love.
How wonderfully left of centre they are and how lucky for them to have come across a ‘tribe’ of creatives which they can sing and dance and laugh together and light up the community.
Congratulations to Director Daryl Kirkness who surely did a job harder that herding cats.
The set designer did a great job.
I’m always impressed at how they fit all the bits together and then with a push and a pull, a change of lights, it’s another scene in a different room – magic.
I hope the cast and crew have a good rest because I want to see another one again soon.
Email, Sep 25
Terry Carlan, Summerland Point