Review: One act comedy AUNT ZELDA'S PAINTING presented by Milnerton Players

AUNT ZELDA'S PAINTING is a one-act romp with aspects of farce and a whole lot of heart. It's presented by Milnerton Players at the Playhouse, and runs until Saturday 5 August.

The premise of the play is that dear Aunt Zelda has passed away and left everything to her niece, Olive (played by Tania Lemme). Olive's brother Max (Chad Emslie) and his girlfriend (Laura Singh) come along to help with sorting through the house and figuring out what to sell or how much things are worth. It's clear from the start that Olive is far more sentimental towards Aunt Zelda, and Max's motives aren't entirely pure - cue some fun friction and miscommunication. Throw into the mix two slightly dodgy antiques dealers (played by Beryl Eichenberger and Chris Doran), as well as a crazy and quite vicious cat - and you have a recipe for laughs!

I have to say, the cat is a good laugh. She's never seen but through the use of sound effects and quick cast movements, I was almost worried we might end up with a very Grumpy Cat under our seats in the auditorium!

On stage, I was particularly impressed by Laura Singh, playing the girlfriend Diana. For someone who hasn't been on stage before, she was delightful in her ditzy character. She has natural comic timing, bringing forth plenty of laughs.

The one thing that bugged me quite a bit though was the set. It was very neatly put together but it was too neat and empty for the play. There was so much talk in the script about packing everything up, but there was very little actually on the stage for the characters to pack or look through. It needed to be filled to the brim with items that could be of value but were most likely just junk.

AUNT ZELDA'S PAINTING is a bit of light comic fun on a cold winter's night at the Milnerton Playhouse. It's on until 5 August - shows at 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays, with a matinee at 2.30pm on Saturdays. Tickets are available on the Milnerton Playhouse website.

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