The Sorting Room

by Fred Petersen

I went to the world premiere of this play. Details below of the play from ASN website.

Fred Petersen is a Life Member of Garrick Theatre. He is a multi-award winning Director who in recent years has added Playwright to his long list of achievements. Fred has a huge following amongst our patrons and he knows what they like. We recommend that you book for this show as soon as possible.

When Mr. Sterner, manager of a charity clothing collection company, decides to employ a voluptuous lady with a predilection for fishnets and revealing clothing, in the sorting room, the well ordered working relationships and the happy dispositions of the other ladies fly out the window.

Throw in an innocent young truck driver, a drunken vagrant, a frustrated social organizer and a not too worldly Pastor, maintaining some semblance of order becomes a mammoth task for Mr. Sterner.

I found this play quite entertaining but not as intellectually satisfying as I would have liked. The humor was predictable and you sort of could have guessed what was going to happen next. The dialogue was also very ordinary where I would have preferred more wit. The emotions and tensions and humor could have been more intertwined and voluminous for it to be of more substance.

The acting was acceptable, thought I am not very sure what accent they were going with. It felt like it was interchanging between English and Australian accents. Some characters were better than others, but overall the plot carried through, but was a bit bordering on the feeling that they were reading from script. At least they did not stumble too much through their lines, only on one or two occasions did this happen.

I found it just alright. My sister enjoyed this play, whereas I perhaps enjoyed The Woman In Black better. So I guess not every one's cup of tea but it is still worth watching if you just want something not too heavy, not too immersive.