A play written by a Sunshine Coast housepainter and stampeding across the regions stages this month is steamrolling audiences with its true-to-life portrayals of the daily routine and banter on the jobsite.

 

Job’s right” by Brett Klease, which opened at Nambour’s Lind lane theatre on Wednesday, also delighted regular theatre-goers.  The entire cast in this joint Suncoast Repertory Theatre / Theatre “S” production, including the playwright himself and director Simon Denver are seasoned, expert performers.  

 

The onslaught began with every job site’s philosopher / bludger and walking accident Wal, played with extreme energy by Brad Thomson, greeting the dawn with the unofficial reprise of the Angels classic “Am I ever going to see your face again (No way. Get f*&%#@, f*&% off!). From there the pace and broad Australian humour escalate.

 

The plot unfolds as the tradesmen arrive on site, establish their place in the hierarchy through wit, bluff and brute force and tackle their assigned tasks as only professional tradesmen do – sort of. It’s secret men’s business with a twist. The crew have to contend with their personal demons, a cantankerous boss who knows he’s being ripped off, a ball breaking Scotswoman (the Client) and her lusty daughter.

 

The dialogue is quick, funny, often brutally harsh and always compelling. Those offended by constant coarse language and drug references must not attend. This very funny play is touring the Sunshine Coast  over January.

Frank Wilkie (Sunshine Coast Daily January 2007)

“JOB’S RIGHT”

 

 

 

 

There had been a buzz about this show since before it opened.  After leaving a packed Noosa J Theatre I knew why. With “Job’s Right” I felt the classic, modern, iconic Australian comedy had arrived.  From the word go the script and the production had attitude, and face slapped the audience into a roller coaster ride of emotions. And it’s bloody funny!

 

Set in a house that is being renovated, the play follows the trials and tribulations of  “tradies” on the job site. “Job’s Right” is primarily about blokes really being blokes, and therefore it is not fettered by political correctness. With the shackles off, many a sacred cow is led to the abattoir of smoko! What soon transpires is that there is a tribe mentality, and a pack-like pecking order on every job site and this is caught very, very succinctly. (The fact that the ‘house’ gets actually renovated by the cast during the performance is an added bonus.)  Even the non-conventional ending was enthusiastically received with the cast leaving the stage and adjourning to the Foyer bar for a knock-off drink and encouraging the audience to come and join them. A far more personal touch than the usual curtain-call.

 

Spearheading the play was Brad Thomson (the loveable layabout, Wally). Thomson is the engine house of this play, and his chemistry with Brett Klease (Rick, the foreman with a hat full of problems and a short fuse) is undeniable. They don’t skip a beat. The rest of the “tradies” (Shane Cassidy, Wayne Powrie & Howard Tampling) are perfectly cast and work together as one focused unit. It’s the sort of ensemble that knows that Black and Decker don’t write musicals! Joy Marshall and Rachel Fentiman (as the matriarchal client and her prowling daughter) add a great dynamic and left field moments in the second act. Under the tight direction of Simon Denver, this cast creates genuine mayhem on stage and the audience was with them every bit of the way. I loved the way the play could snap an audience out of a roar of laughter into a cold, real moment. But blokes being blokes, they move on and the laughter returns.

 

But to me the plays greatest triumph of the night was that of “who” actually saw it. The vast majority of them were first timers to theatre … and mainly “tradies”. This is an incredible achievement for the writer, Brett Klease. He’s obviously touched a nerve with them with his brutal and genuinely funny script. The fact that he was a house painter for twenty years is the glue of this play. Not since “Wog’s out of Work” has there been such a large untapped demograph. What we have here is an iconic and genuinely funny, relevant show that can bring out a brand new audience. This is theatre at its best.

 

Don't miss the return of Job’s Right!

 

Touring Queensland again with a tighter, slicker production by Suncoast Repertory Theatre Inc.

 

Writer Brett Klease and director Simon Denver have taken another look at the script to see what improvements can be made, if any, so even if you saw it before, it'll be worth seeing again. The idea of putting a day-in-the-life of a painter and decorator on stage took the Sunshine Coast by surprise, and the audiences were crippled in laughter. Even the non-conventional ending was enthusiastically received by frequent theatre-goers and novices alike, with the opportunity to thank the author and cast in a much more personal way than the usual curtain-call.

 

Many tradesmen and/or their wives took the bold step into a theatre for the first time to see what this play about them was all about. The response was... the play was very true-to-life, every detail was accurate, every character very real, every situation had happened on a construction site. And it was Hilarious.  So they came back again and brought their friends and colleagues.  So here is your opportunity to see what the buzz is all about.

 

Job’s Right has a house under renovation with a house-proud owner from hell. You'll see the work get done, sort of, along with the arm-chair expert opinions, smokos, one-upmanship, jokes (practical and otherwise), set-ups, put-downs, and all the things that happen on a million job sites across the world every day (as attested by a contractor from New York City who saw the show in Maleny). It’s real life, not pretend or contrived.

 

It’s also a very adult show with very frequent coarse language, drug references, sex references, and adult themes; but what would you expect from the blokes-being-blokes world of Job’s Right, right?

 

We guarantee you leave much the wiser, and very, very sore from laughing.

 

Written by Brett Klease

Featuring .....    

                 Brett Klease

              Brad Thomson

            Shane Cassidy

         Wayne Powrie

                   Joy Marshall

         Howard Tampling

         &  Warren Meacham

Directed by Simon Denver