Overview

"The world's second play set and performed on board a typical Melbourne tram as it makes its way from the St. Kilda terminus to the City and back. An audience gathers at the terminus where the tram soon arrives carrying a conductress and a sleeping drunk. As the 'connie' struggles to get a fare from the old man various characters come on board her tram. There's a Brighton socialite who's just split up from her husband and never been on public transport before, then a punk with a plastic dog (used for collecting money for the Blind Society) which he's obviously stolen, followed by a couple who had a relationship six years ago and now find themselves bitterly arguing over the paternity of ""their son"". Just before arriving at the city an overzealous ticket inspector adds to the crazy mix of strangers and promptly sacks the connie for dereliction of duty. After interval at a hotel in the city the return journey sees the return of the old derro (who had been thrown off the tram on the way in by the punk) as well as the return of the bickering couple and the socialite who has just confronted her husband in the foyer of the Melbourne Theatre Company. As matters reach a climax the derro attempts to hijack the tram starting an altercation with the ticket inspector who staggers off into the night thinking he's stabbed the old man (but only hit his pie and tomato sauce). Eventually the police arrive, the wrong people are arrested and the punk makes an amorous play for the connie's affections. By the time the audience return to the terminus where it all started they know the lives of these characters will never be the same again."

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Reviews

MAKING MIRTH ON THE MOVE: ...a uniquely Melbourne version of travelling theatre...this show (is) compulsive viewing. Some of the fun comes from the confusion between life and art. If you can drag your attention away from the drama inside the reactions of the passing motorists or genuine travellers trying to board constitute a comedy in themselves. WORTH GOING ALONG FOR THE RIDE: . The show has everything. Colour movement, travel sickness bags and an interval at Young and Jackson's. Chris Boyd St. Kilda Times. TRAM PLAY RUNS RIGHT ON TRACK: Even the threat of a tram strike could not put this show off the track... the zany cast provided plenty of mayhem for the travelling audience... Herald Sun Melbourne 23/1/1991 Melbourne's tramway system is one of the nine wonders of the world...something special also applies to the play Storming St. Kilda By Tram... The play captured the imagination of everyone who had ever ridden on the Met with its realism, wit and original lines. Western Independent 22/1/1991 FUN NIGHT The hilarious story unfolds as you travel along some of Melbourne's most scenic routes on Tram No 902 leaving at 8.17pm (sharp)... so buy your ticket early and some along for the ride of your life! Richmond Times i29/1/1991 The most 'moving' piece of theatre you are ever likely to see is coming to a tram stop near you... Last performed three years ago Theatre Works Storming St. Kilda By Tram by award winning author Paul Davies is having a return season. a thoroughly modern and uniquely Melbourne experience. TheatreWorks innovative show, Storming St. Kilda By Tram returns for a third triumphant season...performed on a moving Melbourne tram as it travels from St. Kilda to the city and back, it presents you with extraordinary stories of ordinary tram travellers. Trapped in a set of hilarious circumstances, their lives, and yours, as a result, will never be the same again. What's on in Melbourne 4/2/1991 Storming St. Kilda By Tram the successor of the 1983 production Storming Mont Albert By Tram was one of the major hits of the 1988 Comedy Festival as it captured the imagination of everyone who has ever ridden on the Met ! The production sold out prior to opening night, and TheatreWorks has been inundated with requests ever since, and in 1989 Storming St. Kilda By Tram was awarded the AWGIE for Best Community Theatre Piece of 1988 SHOW ON THE ROAD ...some of the most priceless moments as the action spills out of the tram between stops, are the looks on the faces of ordinary passers-by. Herald Sun BEST THEATRE The highly acclaimed hit opened a return season with a revised script. It promises once more to be one of the most vigorous pieces of theatre in town. The Sunday Age 10/2/1991 Much pleasure comes from when the drama spills over to the outside of the tram - when one character screams abuse of 'I love you' out of the door at another character at another who has alighted - because the expressions on the faces of the people on the street is absolutely priceless, indubitably the most fun you can have on the Met. Fiona Scott-Norman 13/2/1991 SOAP OPERA ON WHEELS The latest incarnation of Storming St. Kilda has a new cast (Cliff Ellen excepted), several new gags and a different ending. Paul Davies has polished his script. His talent for one-liners gets better each year.

Author Information

"Paul Davies is an award winning screenwriter, script editor and playwright who has written over a hundred episodes of TV series from Homicide to Something in the Air. He also helped spark the site-specific theatre revolution in Melbourne in the 1980s with TheatreWorks' production of his first play Storming Mont Albert By Tram (1982) on board a 'really moving' Melbourne tram. What became known as ""The Tram Show"" played over a dozen years to packed trams in Melbourne and Adelaide, generating around a million dollars at the box office (on today's figures) and trambulating a total distance that would have taken the production and its nightly audiences halfway around the world. The Tram Show's success lead to an outbreak of 'location theatre' in Melbourne throughout the 1980s including three other site specific plays by Paul: Breaking Up In Balwyn (1983, on a riverboat), Living Rooms (1986, in an historic mansion) and Full House/No Vacancies (1989, in a boarding house). Paul has also co-written five feature films Neil Lynn (with David Baker in 1984), and Traps (1985), All That is Solid (1988) and One Way Street (1990) - all with John Hughes. He also wrote and directed the short feature Exits (with Pat Laughren and Caz Howard in 1980). He has taught screenwriting at a number of universities and published numerous articles, reviews, stories and interviews in magazines such as Metro, Cinema Papers, Cantrill's Filmnotes, Australasian Drama Studies, Community Theatre In Australia, The Macquarie Companion to the Australian Media and Theatre Research International (Cambridge University)."

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