Who’s Who in 2022, Music & Arts: Act 1 Theatre

Act 1 Theatre has been entertaining audiences for almost 60 years.

Based at Strathpine in the heritage-listed Pine Shire Hall, the theatre company staged seven productions in 2022, also scooping several gongs in this year’s TheatreFest Awards, which were in July.

It produces shows ranging from comedy and farce to dramas and thrillers, as well as an annual theatre restaurant special.

The 2022 season began with a bang with the production of A Tomb With A View.

It’s set in a sinister old library presided over by a portrait of a grim-faced, mad-eyed old man.

A dusty lawyer reads a will involving a vast fortune to a equally sinister family – by the third act there are more corpses than live members left on the stage.

A surprising conclusion after a series of plot twists reveals all by the play’s conclusion.

April and May brought Blithe Spirit to the stage, followed by a season of one-act plays in May and June.

Act 1 Theatre hosted TheatreFest in July, which brought one-act plays from theatre companies near and far to Strathpine.

The locals walked away from the events with four awards.

Act 1’s How I killed my Mother took second place in the Open category for Best Play, while Trisha Bromley accepted Best Performance Minor Role Female for her performance in the same play.

Pat O’Callaghan was also recognised for How I killed by Mother, for Best Unpublished Script, with Michelle Whitmore receiving an Adjudicator Award Medallion for the play.

Act 1’s Theatre Restaurant took the stage in August, followed by Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero directed by Ann Wilson in October.

December saw performances of Australian play Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, in which friends of the bride face a moral dilemma about whether to tell her about the groom’s affair.

Looking ahead to 2023, Act 1 will stage A Farmer Will Swap Combine Harvester For A Wife from February 17-March 4, with The Pirates – A Musical scheduled for May.

About Act 1 Theatre

The theatre company has been based at Strathpine in the heritage-listed Pine Shire Hall for more than 30 years and has been around for more than 50 years, starting in Aspley in 1965.