IT’S MY PARTY (AND I’LL DIE IF I WANT TO)

It is three months to the day that overbearing Aussie family guy, Ron Patterson (Henri Szeps) has been told by his doctor that he’s terminally ill and he’s organised a family get-together to clear the air before his impending death.

What should be a magnanimous gesture of loving finality descends into a humorous night of family squabbles, jealousies and competition as urgent confessions and poignant and outrageous truths are revealed.

“Ron is such as great character to play because he’s blindly doing what he thinks is right,” says Henri Szeps, who played duplicitous dentist Robert Beare in the ABC’s comedy series Mother & Son.

Elizabeth Coleman’s play It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To) is still a pertinently dark comedy of modern-day, middle-class manners today, as when it was written 20 years ago.

“It’s so tantalising for an audience to watch someone like Ron Patterson blatantly lying to himself about the way he lives his life. We can all identify with it in some way and it touches all of us subconsciously,” concludes Szeps of the dark Aussie comedy. (CN)

Apr 2 – 6, Riverside Theatre, Church and Market Streets, Parramatta, 8839 3399, $39- 56, riversideparramatta.com.au