Readings / Autumn Days, ArtSound Radio Theatre, at Manuka Arts Centre, March 29. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

The corner garden at Manuka Arts Centre was filled to capacity on Sunday for a first outing: an afternoon of monologues and short play readings, mostly by Canberra writers, presented as part of Upstageing Canberra.

Spearheaded by local ArtSound radio identity Bart Meehan, the readings were performed by a dedicated group of actors who have been working with ArtSound to revive the radio drama form. As we heard from MC Tony Turner, they are now recording George Bernard Shaw’s monumental Man and Superman.

Celebrating the power of Canberra’s seniors, the title of the boutique presentation, Autumn Days, referred not just to the dazzling autumn weather for which Canberra is known, but also to the content of the plays, mostly dealing with the experiences of people in their autumnal years.

Two of the works, Mr Hay’s Memory Machine by CB Loomis, performed by Tony Turner, and The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs, were famous scripts by international writers, adapted by ArtSound, but the rest of the afternoon was a celebration of Australian talent.

The content also reflected the audience demographic. Turner’s own piece, for instance, recalled an incident from his younger years as a drama student in London, involving the actress Domini Blythe, while Meehan’s darkly comic encounter with the Grim Reaper, Death Pops In, gave Dick Goldberg and Nikki Hunter a chance to spar over life’s last moments.

Meehan’s other piece, The Seagull, performed with a touch of mischief by Penny Hunt, gives the lie to the myth that seniors are asexual, while Kirsty Budding’s amusing Aunty (Jane) Austen saw Elaine Noon as Jane, offering modern-day writers a few words of astute advice from the hereafter.

Budding, a well-known exponent of the short play format, was also represented by Gertrude Sweetheart’s, played by Tony Turner, a glimpse of romance and jealousy set in a retirement village.

Gary Luck, actor and guitarist, took the stage for a lament of those returnees who suffered the consequences of the Vietnam War, finishing with John Schumann’s I Was Only 19. Luck would later bring the afternoon to a conclusion with music.

Apart from the two international works, there were two more substantial pieces. Harriet Elvin’s perceptive play The Last Saturday of the Month saw Noon as a wife looking back on her long marriage and coming to a satisfying conclusion.

Rosa and Leo by Sydney playwright Adam Szudrich presented an imagined telephone conversation between two Holocaust survivors who had met in a concentration camp but whose relationship was destined never to be consummated, touchingly performed by Dick Goldberg and Penny Hunt, who brought a nice piece of venom to her role.

Autumn Days confirmed the power of radio drama, which invites willing audiences to listen very carefully to well-crafted words – something which, in an era when non-verbal theatre is much touted, obviously appeals to older audiences.