Satirical cabaret to be produced in N.Z.

Press, 24 November 1982, Page 41

Satirical cabaret to be produced in N.Z.

NZPA Sydney The New Zealand actresses, Cathy Downes and Jenny Ludlum, have been invited to bring their acclaimed “Sweetcorn” satirical cabaret show to the Mercury Theatre in Auckland next month.

The show, written by Miss Downes and a Wellington actress, Jane Waddell, in London in 1979, had good reviews when performed at Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre earlier this year. It is a country and western musical comedy with a satirical edge and will be performed in New Zealand for the first time.

The “Sydney Morning Herald” reviewer, Geraldine

O'Brien, said of it when performed in Sydney: “The writers. . . have disciplined their material into a tight 50 minutes that ensures maximum impact from every sickly smile and barb-edged comment.” The performances, by Cathy Downes as the crowningly triumphant Dallas and Jenny Ludlum as the poor, wronged Dottie, are equally polished.” Miss Downes said that both she and Miss Waddell had been waiting to do a country and western show for several years when they met in London and pooled their ideas. “We wrote it in four days and rehearsed it in three. “It was performed at the

Edinburgh Festival in 1979, with several other pieces, by our Heartache and Sorrow Theatre Company, which was awarded the Scotsman’s ‘Festival First’ award for fringe theare,” Miss Dowr.es g said.

It had. been successful since then and they had* been performing it occasionally in cabaret spots in Sydney. However, this would be the first time it had been performed in New Zealand.

“Sweetcorn is lighthearted country and western with a bit of an edge to it I feel the whole country and western morality thing is bigoted and oppressive, and so we are having a go at it in a lighthearted manner,” she said.