THE Swan Hill Theatre Group is busy learning lines and finalising costumes and sets as they count down to the opening night of their play, The Importance of Being Earnest.
Co-directors Ashleigh Smith and Kellie Knight said they were really excited to see their version of the Oscar Wilde play come together.
“It’s a comedy that kind of deals with young love and society’s expectations, education expectations and religious expectations, and basically just throws them all to the wind and decides to go and do something completely different,” Ms Smith told The Guardian.
“It’s about young people taking control of their own love lives which at the time was really frowned upon and controversial, but Oscar Wilde loved his controversy,” Ms Knight said.
Only having around 10 people as part of the Swan Hill Theatre Group this year, Ms Smith said initially she wasn’t sure whether they would have enough to put on a show at all.
“We were worried for a bit that there would be nothing this year and then we just decided to put this together,” she said.
“Instead of doing a full-on musical, it’s a little bit less intense, you don’t have to learn songs or choreography or anything like that.”
Having a smaller cast also has its benefits, like really spotlighting the lead actors, giving them their time to shine.
“It’s nice to have a really tight-knit group of people as well,” Ms Smith said.
“As a lot of us were friends beforehand anyway, but you feel even closer by the end of the show.”
The show opens on October 28 and closes on November 5.
Tickets are now on sale, and can be purchased at trybooking.com. For more information about the show, visit the Swan Hill Theatre Group Facebook page.
