Another play dominated entirely by female actors. It’s disgusting. All those millennia of oppression – for nothing!
Set in a country biscuit factory during WW2, the fifteen strong all-female cast provides a fun and thought-provoking night out.
Dinkum Assorted is part of that genre that treats war as though it were a natural disaster. And if you’re far enough down the pecking order, I guess it is. These women have to make the best of a difficult situation. And they do, with both fight and laughter.
There are some terrific performances: Colleen Cook as the down-to-earth forewoman; Debra Bryan as the maligned and misunderstood outsider; Bodelle de Ronde as the struggling young mother; Sonya Kerr as the sophisticate facing tough choices; and Amanda Laing and Hannah Raven as the effervescent youngsters dreaming of another world.
Photo by Bob Seary
It’s sort of a musical with all the songs at one end. The closing numbers have huge energy and Laing and Raven’s tap dance is brilliant. The costuming of these numbers, by Kiara Mullooly, is delightfully and gloriously over the top.
Some people might find the book a little dissatisfying; there’s so much in it that some parts can feel a little sparse, but Aronson and director Sahn Millington get the tone right. This is a story of Big History catching up with little people. Sure it’s a tribute to determination, but the play’s also a paean to innocence.
Kerr’s Joan says ‘Don’t make me something I’m not’. De Ronde’s Millie replies ‘It’s what people always do.’
Perhaps in the past we were innocent. It’s a myth we tell. It’s what we always do. I wonder why.
Veronica Kaye
Dinkum Assorted Book, lyrics & music by Linda Aronson
at New Theatre til 19 Dec
tix and info here
Theatre Red 
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