Photos: Supplied.
They’ve been friends for life. They’ve lived side-by-side in a suburban semi-detached since they were both newlyweds, shared the joys and sorrows of babies born and husbands lost, supported each other and shared secrets – but now things are changing. Nette’s mind is failing, Shirl’s health is in rapid decline, and while their families strive to “do what’s best,” the two women devise their own solution to the looming problem.
Lorna Bol’s classic I Don’t Want to Die in Melbourne will be staged in her honour as a rehearsed reading by Theatre Redlands at Redlands Performing Arts Centre. It will honour Lorna, who died this year aged 102, and her canon of work for the stage. It will also celebrate the ongoing work of two actors who have devoted their professional lives to theatre, Penny Everingham and Kaye Stevenson. They have both been in previous productions of Lorna’s work and are delighted to be working together again.
“I’ve been in full productions of three of her plays since the 1970s: Treadmill, But I’m Still Here, and I Don’t Want to Die in Melbourne. Her ability as a playwright is to write about real people – usually women – in real situations, in a seemingly simple way. When you actually start working on her pieces, it strikes you that they speak the absolute truth about women being trapped in domestic situations beyond their control,” Kaye says, “and the strength of these women who in later decades could have fulfilled their potential in other ways.
“For an actor, the truth of Lorna’s writing, the opportunity to tell real stories about real people that you can identify with, their predicaments and commitment to family, the limits on women in the 1950s to the 1980s, is an absolute joy.”
Penny Everingham remembers meeting Lorna Bol in 2006.
“I’d suggested forming a collective of older actors; Erroll O’Neill christened it The Forgetting of Wisdom. Lorna was present at one of our early meetings when we were trying to co-write a script – with little success. Lorna disappeared and came back in no time at all with the script of I Don’t Want to Die in Melbourne. It was wonderful, written especially for us.
“I love doing Lorna’s plays; there are some very funny lines and the characters are real, individual people, not caricatures.”
As part of its ongoing partnership with RPAC, Theatre Redlands will present a rehearsed play reading of Lorna Bol’s I Don’t Want to Die in Melbourne on Friday, August 7 at 7:00pm. Entry is free; bookings are recommended.
