Tim Winton’s beloved Cloudstreet is a show of epic proportions. Normally a five hour show, director Ainslie Yardley poured numerous hours of her life into editing it down to two and a half hours. Not an easy task!
With her detailed vision of the show, stage manager John Bailey, set constructer Stewart Macpherson and costume master Jill Hogwood, the Glenbrook Player’s version of Cloudstreet is a visual feast for the audience.
Sporting a cast of twenty, ranging in age from their teens to their 60s, it’s been a delight to witness cast come together, supporting one another through the challenges of Covid, personal health conditions and replacing cast when schedules become impossible to reconcile. They are a close group who laugh and cry together, encourage each other to give their best and step up for rehearsals to replace cast members unable to be there.
What is a play without the hard work of the crew? It took some time to find enough people but the Cloudstreet backstage team is a force to be reckoned with. From changing sliding doors to co-ordinating props, moving furniture, dressers who assist with impossibly quick costume changes, the timing of the sound effects and music, projections for visions too complex to show on stage, and cast wranglers to get everyone on the stage at the right time. The crew is a well oiled machine that give two hundred percent to make sure the play goes on. Acknowledgment should also go to the publicity team working night and day to make sure people know this play is happening and happening soon.
You can not do a play of the scale of Cloudstreet without teamwork. It is admirable to see this team come together, through the floods, the viruses, and various changes to put on a beautiful piece of theatre.
To see the magic of this show visit Glenbrook Players – Cloudstreet at Glenbrook Cinema