We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Pittwater.

Noises Off cast and crew check the headroom in the Scotland Island Community Hall

Noises Off, one of the most beloved of stage comedies, is coming to Scotland Island, with performances 19, 20, 26 and 27 June (see Nettie Lodge’s delightful poster below). Tickets go on sale shortly.

Michael Frayn was inspired to write the play while backstage during one of his farces. The penny dropped that the pandemonium in the wings is often funnier than the chaos on stage. Anyone in the community hall kitchen during an offshore performance can attest to that. 

Noises Off celebrates and lampoons classic English farce, with all of its trousers-round-the-ankles charm. It will appeal to anyone who enjoys bad timing, missed cues and forgotten lines. Relish watching your neighbours mess up? Our cast and crew are drawn entirely from the offshore community.
 
Noises Off is hilarious, but it is so much more than that. It follows a play-within-a-play structure, the go-to for writers inviting reflection on what’s real and what’s performance. Take the play within Hamlet, for instance. Its purpose is not to tell a story so much as to reveal a truth about its audience.

Why is it joyous to watch actors stumble? It’s the recognition of our shared human frailty. Noises Off is about a group of over-confident, under-rehearsed actors attempting a hopelessly complicated production. Rather like offshore life, in fact.
 
We in the Pittwater community sometimes falter in the face of adversity: inadequate infrastructure, rain and wind, ferocious weeds and power cuts. Noises Off examines how people respond when things go awry. The actors, like all of us, fumble and flounder. But they persist.
  
If you think getting your shopping home is difficult, try staging Noises Off. For a start, the play demands a massive, two-storey, revolving set. How on earth can the production team fit that into our tiny community hall? They still aren’t sure. But they too persist, and with the carpentry skills of the Men’s Shed, they might even prevail. 

Unfortunately, persistence won’t overcome everything, and now they need your help. What’s hindering progress is the thicket of overhead beams and rafters in the hall. The production team is pretty confident that none of it is structural, and that it mainly serves to support the projector and screen. All they need is help with the roof framing’s removal, at least temporarily, so that the stage and set can be installed. Better still, let’s try for a permanently taller building.
 
Heightening the community hall is an ambitious project. Then again, so is life offshore. It’ll take more than Northern Beaches to put us off. Who on Scotland Island bothers with DA applications anyway?
 
If you have suggestions on how to raise the roof, please post them to Facebook for public scrutiny. And remember: offshore residents sometimes falter, but we often triumph. Will the same be true of Noises Off? Come along in June to find out.

The full Noises Off set

Like many weeds, Madeira Vine (Anredera cordifolia) has pretty flowers which are blooming right now. If you see these drooping white flowers on a vine near you, feel not just alert, but alarmed! 

It’s a super survivor. It grows from stems, leaves or tubers. It produces thousands of tubers, both on the vines and on the roots. There can be 1,500 tubers per square metre and they remain viable in the soil for five to ten years!

“Madeira Vine is a devastating weed capable of smothering host vegetation in a relatively short period of time. The masses of fleshy leaves become very heavy and can break branches in large trees destroying the upper canopy.” (Sydney Weeds Committee booklet.)
 
It can climb 40 metres! It is especially found in more fertile and disturbed areas like roadsides. There are places on the Island where it has gone along the power lines. 

HOW TO ATTACK
1. DON’T CUT OR PULL IT! That will stimulate it to drop its tubers.
2. Watch this video from Pittwater Ecowarriors.
3. Scrape base of vine and paint with glyphosate.
The video demonstrates the required careful use of glyphosate through scraping the base of the vine to reveal the cambium and painting with neat glyphosate. Nearly all bush regenerators support the careful use of appropriate herbicides because the alternative is to lose our native plant diversity and the animals they support. If you really don’t want to use any herbicide, you need to commit to very intensive, very long-term manual removal.
4. Remove all tubers in the soil. Either sift through the soil to find every tuber or excavate the entire area of soil. Either way the tubers or contaminated soil need to be removed from the island and taken to tip, or compost in water so it stews. Do not put out for Green Vegetation collection as the tubers may contaminate mulch.  
5. Learn from the island’s Madeira Man! 
Ben Dray has devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to removing Madeira Vine from his own block, nearby areas and Harold Reserve. He has developed his own method with demonstrated results. Ben is willing to help others get started.

Would you like to come to a demo with Ben? Maybe work with others to get rid of it in the places near you? 
Call Jenny Cullen on 0406 806 648 and I’ll coordinate with anyone interested. 

Madeira Vine tubers

Scotland Island Rural Fire Brigade presents the great annual Easter egg hunt. Families with children are once again invited to Catherine Park to search for cunningly hidden eggs.

There will be separate hunts for younger and older children, with a special quiz for the oldest group. Come and test your powers of observation!

Following the hunt, join us for hot cross buns and coffee, courtesy of your friendly firefighters. All welcome.

We will be welcoming back Toby Jay as MC, alongside the inimitable Col Bailey, and the evening will sparkle with live music from The Kate Lush Band.

RSVP (so we get the catering right) with an email to woodypyc.treasurer@gmail.com.

For further information, click here.

To book tickets, click here.

Participants are asked for $5 per person per attendance to help defray expenses.

Tickets will be available shortly

Volunteer Editor: Roy Baker

Supported by: Scotland Island Residents Association