Tales From The Park

SIX snack-sized bites of theatre with an appetising variety of drama and comedy are being served up in Tales From The Park this June.

All written and directed by Noel O’Neill, he has created a niche genre of setting short plays on a park bench.

Over the past few years, O’Neill has kept this simple setting while providing an eclectic mix of tales – and he has six new stories ready for 2024, presented by Maverick Theatre Productions at the Old Mill Theatre.

Hello From The Other Side features a spirit who urges a woman to move on with her life following his death.

“The idea came from thinking about being able to get in touch with spirits after people had passed so unresolved issues could be cleared up,” O’Neill said.

In A Change For The Better, a man – played by O’Neill – undergoes a spiritual discovery within himself a week before his wedding but his fianceé doesn’t understand.

“Sometimes, we don’t want to see people changing because we have accepted them as they are,” he said.

The inspiration for The Devil You Know came from the FIFO industry and looks at a married man having an affair while his friends try to talk him out of it. O’Neill again plays one of the characters.

“FIFO relationships can take their toll on a marriage,” he said. “It’s not what it seems and, despite the good money, there is sometimes a higher price to pay.”

The Apple Cart features two sisters meeting again after a long time, trying to work out what happened to make them drift apart.

“I read a short story and the details were revealed to the reader but not the characters in the story,” O’Neill said. “In my own story, I revealed them for dramatic reasons.”

In Room To Let, a young girl rents a room and meets her landlord in the park where she tries to convince him to give up a relationship to save his marriage.

“It’s all about a tangled web of deception and the idea a younger person can see it so clearly,” O’Neill said.

A Time And A Place is a real-life family affair featuring Bev Lawrence, her daughter Isabella Lawrence and daughter-in-law Anita Telkamp.

Isabella and Anita play Christine and Caroline, two daughters trying to persuade their mother (played by Bev) to move into a home.

“I wanted to explore how relationships are challenged between mother and daughters,” O’Neill said.