Who knows

‘Who Knows’ was written by Tasmanian playwright Paul McIntyre in 2008. Paul finished his degree in performing arts in 1994 and is now working with the ABC writing radio and TV scripts. The play is at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. Performances until Saturday 25^th February.

Curtain up, for this one and three quarter hour play, is at 8.00 pm. Sunday matinee at 2.00 pm.

       Retiring club president, Colin (Trell Rutherford Raynham) is setting up for the next meeting of the Dr Who fan club, when the room lights dim and a green glow appears above the locked cupboard door. Mysteriously the door opens and an unknown force drags Colin through it.
      A short time later, Dr Who’s greatest fan, laundrette worker, Russell (Brendan Ellis) and his friends arrive to find Colin has disappeared.  Within days, the annual general meeting and national convention will take place. They must find Colin.
      The beautiful Sarah (Celeste Underhill) is trying her best to win over Russell’s attention, however his obsession with his Dr Who memorabilia wins almost every time. On the odd occasion that she is winning over his affections, Fraser (Stuart Porter) appears and kills the passion.
      On the eve of the Convention, Russell’s estranged brother, Peter (Mikey Keith) arrives from the UK to see his family and to try and heal a fraternal rift. Meanwhile one of the main topics of concern is the election of the Club President; will it be the senior member, Roger (Graeme Cross) or the generous Hilda (Kerry Goode) who has Australia’s best collection of Dr Who memorabilia?
Can the club members find their lost friend Colin?

‘Who knows’ contains a quote from every Dr Who story, from its inception in 1963, through to the present day. Staunch fans will no doubt recognise these extracts along with other more obscure references such as ‘am I bovvered’ as spoken by Lauren, a character played by Catherine Tate, who also played Donna Noble in ‘Dr Who’. The references tended to make the thin script clunky.

The set (George Boyd, Liam Kirwan) and props (Linda Redman) were complex, but well thought out and constructed. The ‘storeroom’ equipment was quite impressive, including a Dalek (Michael McAllan, Sherryl Spencer).

Sorry but despite having two directors (Rodney Palmer, Natalie Watson), the action was unimaginative, puerile and sluggish. There was little empathy in the cast. The couple of good actors were constantly dragged down by the other wooden, un-interesting performances. When the highlight of the evening is the raffle draw, something is wrong. Sorry, but I thought this was dire.