Theatre Companies

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:34): Today I rise to commend the work of a local drama group in the southern suburbs, the Southern Youth Theatre Ensemble, otherwise known as The Little Fish. This theatre company has been operating in the south for over 25 years, giving young people interested in drama the opportunity to develop their creativity, acting skills and theatre production abilities. There are dozens of young people involved in the company from my electorate and other electorates in the southern suburbs.

The ensemble provides two roles. Firstly, it conducts drama workshops with young people to develop their practical skills in performance, theatre and production. Secondly, they produce through The Little Fish complete theatre productions, for which they have now delivered six productions. Each of their productions is based on one of the classic plays from William Shakespeare as part of the Raw Shakespeare Project, giving the young actors the ultimate challenge of the theatre to take on. Previously, they have performed Love's Labours Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew.

The aim of the project is to present Shakespeare in the raw, so in the classic sense and not with modern interpretations or elaborate sets as you may see nowadays, so as to keep in line with how the plays were first presented 400 years ago as part of a touring acting troupe. Their latest production, just recently, has been the classic play, Antony and Cleopatra. The production was held over recent weeks and was performed both in Marion and in McLaren Vale, with the final special performance in the historic barrel hall at the beautiful and stunning Kay Brothers Winery in McLaren Vale. I recommend to everybody a visit to their cellar door.

I was lucky enough to be invited to their final performance, along with the Mayor of the City of Onkaparinga, who was also there, and I can report that it was absolutely brilliant and we were all blown away with how professional it was. I was also invited some months earlier to see one of the first rehearsals in the lead-up to the performance, and I was even asked to stand in for one of the actors could not be there and read their parts in their absence. I can happily report that the young actor who did the part that I performed in the real performance did a much better job than I did.

The stars of the show were Amelia Dembowski and Russell Slater, taking the feature roles of Cleopatra and Antony respectively, and both did fantastic jobs in these difficult roles. Russell, of course, is the director of the whole troupe. He is not young, but obviously a bit older, and he performs an amazing job volunteering to put these productions together.

As Shakespeare lovers would know, the play also includes other major parts, such as the part of Caesar, which was expertly played by Christopher Searle. I congratulate all the other actors from the show: Roan Redelinghuys, Isabella Shaw, Leah Anderson, Bianca Payne, Harmony Kapsley, Ian Seymour-White, James Millward, Simon Lancione, Alice Redelinghuys, Lucy Pace, Michelle Vreughenhil, Nicole Richardson and Linda Edwards. Also deserving credit are those involved in the production of the event behind the scenes: Mahalia Clark, Phoebe Shaw, Lynley Slater, Bianca Payne and Nathan Vandenberg. All did fantastic jobs behind the scenes.

I have been supporting this ensemble in their drive to try to secure some grant funding to help their work and their performances, to expand the workshops and get more young people involved. It is fair to say that they are currently running on the smell of an oily rag financially. Unfortunately, it has been quite difficult so far, as Arts SA and Carclew youth grants for theatre are often quite specific and difficult to apply for when performing Shakespeare plays. I think this is unfortunate, as clearly Shakespeare is one of the most significant challenges a young actor can take on and a great way of achieving and harnessing their excellent performing skills. I therefore will continue to advocate on behalf of The Little Fish to be eligible for some small program grant funding to support their terrific work with the young actors in the southern suburbs in the future.

I am happy to inform members that The Little Fish's next production will be As You Like It, and I encourage South Australians to see their next play and to support fantastic youth drama from the southern suburbs.