Cruise is making waves

CRUISE along to Noosa Arts Theatre for a memorable evening of satirical social comedy with the Queensland premiere of David Williamson’s recent smash Cruise Control, steaming into the local venue on Wednesday 15 April.
Tickets to the shipboard comedy – that has left theatres bulging and critics gasping in its wake – are already selling fast as the playwright marks 45 years at the top of his profession.
Director Sam Coward, who produced Williamson’s highly acclaimed Managing Carmen for the 2014 Noosa Longweekend is again at the helm.
Inspired by a cruise the Noosa-based playwright and wife, author Kristin Williamson took, the play centres on the tensions between three couples forced to dine together aboard the Queen Mary 2 as it ploughs its way from London to New York.
“Kristin and I went on a cruise from London to New York, thinking it would be a very interesting thing to take this historic tour,” Williamson said.
“We found we were trapped with the same people, whom we did not know, on our dining table for the whole seven nights.
“The Cunard Line was quite rigid about it. You either sat on your assigned table or you didn’t eat.
“My dramatist’s imagination started to think what might happen if the three couples really started to annoy each other in a big way.”
Williamson, also the Noosa Arts Theatre patron, recently directed the play for the sell-out season at the Sydney Ensemble Theatre.
The friction, tensions and misunderstandings that occur when people are forced to co-exist drives the comedy and the drama.
“I think that many on the Sunshine Coast come from all over Australia and have travelled extensively so they will not only recognise Darren, the rough-edged Australian surfing boy made good and his private school Sydney wife, but the New York couple and the English couple,” Williamson said.
“One hopes they have never encountered a character quite as appalling as the failed English novelist Richard, but perhaps they have.
“Individuals are individuals but nevertheless the country one grows up in leaves an indelible stamp on our social behaviour and gives rise to frictions and misunderstandings between cultures.
“In Cruise Control there is plenty of that and our overseas travellers have probably experienced such frictions themselves.”
The cast includes Stephen Moore, Frank Wilkie, Kay Ellsum, Melanie Myers, Linda Gefken Andrew Moon and William Harbers.
Performances:
Cut-price Previews: 7.30pm on 15 and 16 April, all tickets $22.
Gala Opening Night: 7.30pm 17 April, all tickets $45 (includes drink and supper).
Evenings: 7.30pm 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30 April, and 1 and 2 May.
Matinees: 2pm 19 and 26 April; 1pm 2 May.
Adult $31, concession $27, members or groups $25, children under 17 $22.
Bookings on 5449 9343 or www.noosaartstheatre.org.au