The Mackay Litterati

The next Friday was the Literary Dinner, which is part of the Whitsunday Voices literature festival that is held simultaneously with the arts festival. Mackay played host to several famous Australian writers who were headlining the festival, one of which, John Marsden, is the author of our next Book Group book! Kath, Helen and I had met John Marsden the previous evening at the Educators Forum, and he is a very interesting and entertaining man, so I am looking forward to reading his interpretation of ‘Hamlet’. I attended the dinner with Helen, Lorel and Aggie. Aggie’s husband Mike was compere for the evening, which included poetry and a hilarious speech from Australian radio presenter Jean Kittson, who got all hot and bothered about the wonder and magic of books. Each table was set with pretty little light-up plastic wine goblets (Goblets of Fire!) that gave the room a green shimmer. It didn’t take us long to work out that we could change the colour of these so we rebelled and turned ours red, and we also took them home at the end of the night so we can drink in the dark at the Deck on Scanlan! After the dinner (which was delicious – I had a Thai-style salad with toasted tofu) we danced the night away with a band called Mango Junction, which performed some great cover versions, including one Aussie modern classic with the chorus “No way, get F**ked, F**k off!” I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the image out of my head of the whole of Mackay's literary types shouting this delightful ditty with gusto!

The following day Susan and I walked along Shakespeare Street to the Kucom theatre for our stint behind the bar for the Kucom Company’s production of Noel Coward’s ‘Fallen Angels’, starring our friend Kath Ward! Volunteering to serve behind the bar got us free entry to the show. I had come along a few weeks previously with John to help paint the set, and we also ended up painting the theatre toilets as well! The play is set in the Roaring Twenties in London and centres around two women who had fallen in love with the same Frenchman during their youth, and, with them both subsequently married, were anxiously awaiting his imminent return. It is a light, whimsical comedy, that descends into farce, and there were some very funny bits, especially as the two lead characters got progressively drunk as the evening went on (“More champagne, dear?”). Kath played a great part as the French maid Saunders, and she even got to play a bit of Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose on the piano (why is it that Edith seems to pop up everywhere I go these days?!), and Kath definitely got some of the best lines in the play. After the play we went back to Kath’s for the after-party with drinks and wonderful home-made nibbles. We had a great time and can’t wait for the next performance, which will be one of their infamous ‘Farndales’, apparently!