Queen of Bingo

This was the first play that we have seen at the Wyndham Cultural Centre in Werribee, and therefore it was a great pity that this show was a dog. We hope and expect that the four other shows we will see there this year will be a significant improvement.

Rather that write on the play myself I will quote a review that I heartily agree with . This review appeared in the New York Times.

... bereft of plot, "The Queen of Bingo" leaves its two (main characters) ... the lonely Sis and ... the overweight Babe, to make up in shtick (slamming bingo cards with daubers, climbing on chairs to convey fear of a mouse) for its paucity of character development and genuine humor.

When an offstage voice is not intoning bingo numbers, Sis and Babe gossip about other players competing for prizes for the benefit of the St. Joseph's School Athletic Association; they talk of polyester stretch pants, "Charlie's Angels" and malls, and they come out with lines like, "I'm not a dumb person; I watch Oprah." Sis has a monologue about her love affair with bingo, and Babe has one about her compulsive eating. Despite the efforts of (the actors) and the director ... Sis and Babe are not really interesting.

Eventually Father Mack ... tries to divert the audience with a game of bingo that permits at least one person to leave the ... Theater ... feeling like a winner.

The following video from the American show gives a sense of the aweful stuff we had to sit through: