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December 1, 2025

Newsletter for the Offshore Residents of Pittwater, Australia - Volume 26, Issue 1232

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of Pittwater, as well as our Indigenous readers

Play News

A scene from an American production of Noises Off

These are exciting times for offshore residents keen on live theatre. With your support, there could be no fewer than three separate plays on Scotland Island, all within the next eighteen months.

As You Like It, perforrned in Catherine Park, Feb 2024 (photo courtesy Oneill Photographics)

On 1 February 2026, Such Stuff Productions will be returning to the island with Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Set in current-day Mosman, the production explores themes of greed, love, law, prejudice and mercy. As with other recent island Shakespearean performances (King Lear, As You Like It, Othello), Merchant of Venice will be staged in Catherine Park. Tickets are already on sale: click here. For information on other performances, click here.

Meanwhile, two other plays are in the offing:

Noises Off, by London playwright Michael Frayn, has been described as ‘the funniest farce ever written’ and ‘the classic farce’. American essayist Frank Rich said that the play ‘is, was, and probably always will be’ the funniest in his lifetime.

Written in 1982, Noises Off has won awards on Broadway and, one suspects, inspired The Play That Goes Wrong, currently enjoying a thirteen-year run on the London stage. It falls squarely into Scotland Island’s rich history of live comedy, most recently exemplified by The Two Catherines (2023), Secret Island (2024) and Wedding Island (2025).

The cast and crew of The Two Catherines, June 2023

The original was written for the London West End stage, and performing it in a small community hall will be a challenge. But it has now been exclusively adapted for our more modest space, and the production is ready for an enthusiastic cast and crew to bring it to life.

Meanwhile, A Devine Mystery by Jasper Marlow (author of The Two Catherines), examines the disruptive influence a single outsider can bring to a community. Written especially for the Scotland Island stage, this mystery play was inspired in part by Pittwater’s connection with the notorious Tilly Devine, whose husband once owned a house on the island.

The hope is to see both of these home-grown productions staged within the next 18 months. But they each need actors and other volunteers.

If you are interested in joining the cast or crew of either play, please let me know and I’ll add you up to a WhatsApp group. Assuming sufficient interest, we’ll organise a meeting, script readings and even a showing of the movie version of Noises Off.

Roy Baker

Email: editor@scotlandisland.org.au