By George Tserdanis.
‘Your Mother’s Quarantine,’ written by Maria N Kitra, adaptated by Lucy Miller and directed by Vagelis Houliaras, premiered on Saturday night to a full house, rave reviews and a rib-tickling, resounding success. A MUST see.
The play is the sequel to last year’s comedy success, ‘Your Mother’s Pension,’ and it didn’t disappoint. The performances from each character were full of colour and energy and the delivery of each line on-point.
Theatrically, comedy is technically one of the most challenging genres because it hinges on timing and delivery and Dionysus Theatre Company have perfected comedy.
READ MORE: Dionysus Theatre Company provides plenty of laughs with comedy ‘My Mother’s Pension’.
Although a sequel, nothing is lost on an audience which didn’t see last year’s play. In the first instalment, the play ends with a “all’s well that ends well,” with George and Maria Skapoularas finally nestled alone in peace in their home.
As the curtain lifts on the sequel however, what unfolds with each character shows how each character’s “happy ending” from the first play, quickly unravels with a seamless reference to the previous play for the benefit of those who didn’t see the first.
There’s uncertainty about with talk of a new virus called “Covid” circulating the world. Each character has their own reason for covertly returning back to the Skapoularas household, unbeknownst to the other household members, when, without warning, a strict and immediate “quarantine” is imposed on everyone, with all the haphazard characters trapped together under one zany roof.
It’s a play that will give you many belly laughs but also something each of us will relate to after recently having ourselves experienced all the ramifications of COVID and quarantine. It’s nice to put all that behind us as we relate and laugh to the parodies of ‘Your Mother’s Quarantine’ and the audience did just that, many stating they’ll come again.
At the opening of each season, Dionysus Theatre hand out their Best Actor Award for the previous year’s production. This year, the award went to Christine Gazepis Stavropoulos for her colourful and very comical role of “Loula” – a role she continues once again in this play and has become a firm favourite with that unique “voice and laugh” of her character.
The play also comes with excellent surtitles (played across the top of the set, as opposed to subtitles, played across the bottom).
Cast members are Vageli Houliaras, Maria Houliaras, Dimitris Daviskas, Maria Georgopoulos, Christine Gazepis Stavropoulos, Polyzois Patelis, Michael Sinemoglou, Dimitra Salahoris-Yanez, Florentia Antzoulatou, Kostas Roditis, Peter Psomas, Manos Katris, Anna Bilalis and Lucy Miller as the voice of TV announcer, Tremoulini.
Session times are Saturdays 7.30pm and Sundays 5.30pm. Tickets can be bought directly on bit.ly/-quarantine or call 0418 212 611.
