Court laughs off winter woes

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 21

Court laughs off winter woes

After its successful “wedlock” season, which drew an increase of 21 per cent in patronage compared with the corresponding period in 1978, and its “Beckett festival,” the Court Theatre this week will begin a winter season designed, it says, to rid its audiences of the winter woes of earless days, rising oil prices, and falling temperatures. This season features three comedies linked by the games theme — seduction games, word games, and finally, ball games. The Court is calling it “Fun and Games.” A play by Neil Simon,

“The Last of the Red Hot x Lovers,” will open the season on Saturday. “Travesties,” written by Tom Stoppard and one of the cleverest, funniest, and wittiest plays of the

decade, will be next. Games with words and literary forms in this play offer an audience an evening of constant delight.

“The Club” will conclude the season with a run starting September 15. This is a harsh and hilarious comedy by the controversial Australian playwright, David Williamson. The cast of “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” will include one familiar face, returning after an absence of 18 months, and one new one. The familiar face is that of Charles Hambling, who played Hugh, the Welsh immigrant, in the Court's original production of “Glide Time.”

He has been in Sydney, where, as Cassio in the Actors’ Company production of “Othello,” he

enjoyed an extended season last year at the Mayfair Theatre, and then toured New South Wales. Since then he has appeared in productions of Michael Frayne’s “Clouds” and Jennifer Compton’s “They're Playing Our Song" has been a writer of radio advertisements, and worked for a while as a contract painter Abandoning his collection of tropical tree frogs and turtles, Charles Hambling has rejoined the Court Theatre for the winter "Fun and Games” season. Wickham Pack is the newcomer in the cast. She will appear as Bobbi, a kooky starlet who thinks every male is lusting after her, in "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” and later will

take the role of Gwendolyn in "Travesties.” After being trained as a musician and as a primary schoolteacher specialising in creative studies, she became interested in the theatre while attending Auckland University. She went to Wanganui to work with the Four Seasons Theatre, and later returned to Auckland to work with Central Theatre. A successful audition won for her a place in the National Institute of Dramatic Art in New South Wales, and at ter completing her studies there she free-lanced in Melbourne for a year. Since her return to New Zealand 18 months ago she has been based in Wellington, taking parts in radio and television productions.