Photo: Supplied.
Comedy, drama, tension, conflict and comradeship – it’s all there in Linda Aronson’s Dinkum Assorted, the next play to take the stage at Redlands Coast Museum.
Theatre Redlands will present the all-Australian story of a biscuit factory under threat as the annual January production in 2026.
It’s 1942 and Australia is expecting to be invaded. The remote township of Warrabadanga is temporary home for 2,000 American airmen and the biscuit factory, soul and centre of the town, is under threat of closure. The 15 women who work there, who are as assorted as the biscuits, take on the battle (with some singing and dancing) to keep the biscuits baking. Director Jan Nary says she fell in love with the play on the first reading.
“Aronson has constructed a beautiful theatre piece,” she says. “The relationships in the group and the town are like a machine with many small moving parts; if one is affected by something they’re all affected to some degree. And they’re all impacted by the war; as individuals, as citizens and as women whose historical roles are changing.”
Jan says that casting a play with 15 women characters, aged from 17 to 70-plus, had proved less challenging than she’d expected.
“There’s no doubt about it, this place is a seething hotbed of artistic talent!” she laughs. “We have a wonderful crew as well – mainly fellows, so there’s some gender balance. However the two ‘special extras’ in the cast are female – Lola the biscuit oven and Rita the goat.”
Dinkum Assorted will run for two weekends from Friday 23 January. For more information, visit redlandscoastmuseum.org.au.
