Shoe-Horn Sonata strikes a chord
 
 

Tenterfield residents lucky enough to catch last week's performance of the Shoe-Horn Sonata have given it the thumbs up.

School of Arts public programs officer Harry Bolton was full of praise for the performance that was only a few seats short of a sell-out.

"It was amazing, absolutely tremendous," Mr Bolton enthused.

"It was a great night and to get that kind of support will keep these shows coming here," he said.

Mr Bolton said it was the third time the Railway Street Theatre Company had visited Tenterfield, with the 'Shoe Horn Sonata's' performance in Tenterfield signaling their 21st show in three weeks.

Well-known actresses Belinda Giblin and Maggie Kirkpatrick struck a definite chord with the crowd in a touching story about triumph, friendship and survival. 

Mr Bolton was even quite chuffed the two actresses left a touch of nostalgia to the stage facilities - adding their signatures to the dressing room wall.

And following supper provided by the New England Café signed their plates for café owner Magella Powell - ‘a beautiful lunch' it was scrawled.

Comments from locals that attended included "very powerful" with many enjoying the humour sprinkled throughout an otherwise very moving story - "otherwise it would have been too intense," said one observer.

Tenterfield High School Year 11 students Melissa Hovey and Cindy Cox were encouraged to attend as part of a school subject said most of their classmates attended.

Melissa enjoyed the "strong and emotional" performance and admitted to feeling "immense sadness" throughout the play.

"It was cleverly produced - especially with the different motifs used to show the changing worlds," Melissa said.

Cindy was amazed that although it was horrific what the two central characters went through "it was good they could still make jokes".

"It was an outstanding production," Cindy added.

The pair both admitted that seeing the live production - their first, would help with their studies.

An interesting tale told of one of the students by their father was the student's purchase of a bag of Fantales at the interval break.

A particular scene in the play depicts the two central characters survival techniques one of which involved sucking on a caramel for a minute each week as their only source of nourishment.

The guilty student on returning to her seat after the interval to watch the scene could not believe her timing with the purchase and remarked to her father, "I just wanted to go on stage and give them the whole bag".
 

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