KEN LONGWORTH: Suzette Who Set to Sea, The Silver Tunnel bring interactivity to Adamstown stages

Stage Left Productions, a Newcastle theatre company that was established in June, 2021, with an adult troupe performing mostly for school children, will present its first major public production, Suzette Who Set To Sea, at Adamstowns Brunker Community Theatre, daily at 10.30am from March 16 to March 19, plus a 2pm matinee on the Saturday.

The play, which runs for 70 minutes, is set in a small seaside village where men build boats.

But a young woman, Suzette, who sees herself as a boat builder, decides she must make one when an unexpected thing involving the sea happens, threatening those who live in the village. She is joined by friends in sailing it around to try to save the villagers.

The play was written by Finegan Kruckemeyer, an award-winning Australian playwright who has had 100 commissioned plays performed on six continents and in six languages.

The Newcastle actors are Elley Cleary as the title character, Rayne Summers, Richard Rae, and Beau Pratten. Book tickets via stickytickets.com.au.

Another Adamstown venue, the Uniting Church, will host a free show, The Silver Tunnel, with performances at 8pm on Friday, April 1, and at 4pm and 8pm on Saturday, April 2. Bookings are required.

Promoted as a thriller, the play is a darkly comic work set in a graveyard, heaven and hell, that confronts suicide by celebrating life. It begins in Sydney's oldest graveyard, where seven tombstones, all suicides from the convict eras First Fleet, are presided over by Old Harry (Ric Herbert), who is digging an eighth grave that has an unidentified person.

But he is suddenly approached by young Jason (Tim Matthews), who claims to be applying for the job of assistant gravekeeper, and talks about a silver tunnel that promised escape, release and rest.

Bookings are via www.thesilvertunnel.org.

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