Katie Robertson
Les Winspear
Snobby arty types have got it all wrong. Sometimes art doesn’t need to be particularly high-brow or speckled with star-studded ingenues. The fact is – especially when life’s giving you the run-around – if it puts a smile on your dial and keeps your cockles warm for even a brief while, art has served one of its prime purposes.
No-one knew this better than the folk of World War I. Not only did troops have their spirits lifted by visiting entertainers, but those left behind at home were also craving gaiety, an escape. And that’s really what Smile, Smile, Smile – written and directed by local playwright and actor Les Winspear – is all about.
It’s set on the East Coast of Tasmania – Triabunna in particular – during wartime and it’s all about a small local township pooling talents and resources to pick up some long faces and deflated spirits.
The play is loaded full of ditties like Pack Up Your Troubles, It’s a Long Road to Tipperary and Along the Road to Gundagai, making for what can only be described as a heartwarming feast of feel-goodies.
And quite frankly, I needed it, as do probably most of us Tassie types as the weather starts to turn us into stay-at-home hobbits. The play is being held at a pop-up theatre at the Scouts Hall in New Town, and I turned up on a cold, blustery rainy night with cockles as cold as a Russian spy’s gaze.
My friend and I walked in to the hall with our coats swaddled around us like sleeping bags, and soon discovered we were accompanied by a host of good-looking types dressed in 1916 garb.
The old hall was a bit chilly, but after a couple of wines and a sing-along with Tipperary, we were feeling warm to the depths of our Hobart hibernators’ hearts.
It’s a funny time in history to explore in Tasmania – the world is being swept away by Vaudevillian sensationalism while dear old Hobart is just starting to shake its “convict town” image.
Performer Bernard Bailey is starting to doubt the ability of the performing arts to continue their merry ride after a number of his vaudeville troupe join a military squadron, headed for the Western Front.
He’s about to give it all up and return to selling haberdashery when a terrific solution to his problem comes in sight.
Marvellously, the second act is 100% vaudeville variety show as we are treated to the same fare this travelling troupe is dishing up to the hardworking locals of Triabunna.
It’s all speakeasy, minus the booze, with enough groan-worthy slapstick gags, ventriloquism, absurdist clowning and miming to brighten up any Tassie pre-Dark MOFO winter.
Some of the singing is really quite startlingly good, and delightfully the uber-talented cast of Claire Dawson, an amazing Bill Nighy-like Iain Lang, Jeff Michel and Katie Robertson is joined by local choirs towards the end of the eve for a gorgeous finale.
Smile, Smile, Smile will continue at the St Johns Soldier’s Memorial Hall until June 4, and move up to Swansea on June 5 and Buckland on June 7.
Amber Wilson
