For four nights and a matinee they raised the Bungendore Hall's lovely pressed tin roof. We missed last years performances (we were away in Melbourne I seem to remember) but otherwise we would have been there, because there's something special about our local Bungendore Amateur Theatrical Society, (abbreviated as BATS). It's both very country and there's something strongly 'community' in seeing the townsfolk you pass in the street, and who serve you in the shops, dressed up and performing for your entertainment.

The BATS annual performance seems to have settled into a musical entertainment format. There were a couple of years of presentation of locally written, short one act plays but they varied so much in quality and pretension that the evening became a challenge for the audience. This year, with a fair nod to Gilbert and Sullivan, the "Remember When" production hit just the right note of silly fun, some local satire and pretty competent musical performance. When you can get a hall full of widely mixed-age locals singing along unselfconsciously to 'You are my sunshine', then something is just right.

There's a sense of being a minor local celebrity there too that's fun to watch. Melany, one of our neighbours reminded me that the show was on and asked "were we coming?" She said she was 'just' helping backstage, but then proudly added she was singing in the full chorus number at the end of the night. She was pleased when we said we'd be there.

As you'll see from some of the photos, the night was cabaret style with tables and chairs, and everyone brought dinner or at least some snacks. The Rotary club booked a number of tables and many of them arrived with hot casseroles, china, cutlery and desserts. We just took some wine and cheese.

I've put together some larger images with some captions from the final night's performance. The links below open a new window, they're divided into two longer scrolling pages. I trust I have the names right of the people I don't know and only wave to. Please tell me if they're wrong.

BATS 'Remember When" images Pt.1
BATS 'Remember When" images Pt.2
BATS 'Remember When" images Pt.3

Listen to a few bars of the singalong (Windows Media format)

The full program for 'Remember When' is here as a PDF (517k) with the complete cast and production crew list and here's the advertising flyer.(135k) (Thanks to their designer Sam O'Dell. Sam is an ex-BATS office bearer and she wrote and directed one of the best of the short one act plays a few years back. A lovely tale of escalating small town gossip and false conclusions from someone seeing a car parked where it shouldn't have been.)

Thanks for the entertainment BATS, see you next year.