"I was captured not only by the storyline as it unfolded, but by the actors portraying the story ... empathy that is palpable, and the finale is especially profound.
"A word of warning – take plenty of tissues! There won't be a dry eye in the house!"
"As Told By The Boys Who Fed Me Apples may not have the big budget or the epic scale of War Horse but it is certainly a testament to the incredible storytelling capabilities of independent theatre-makers in this country."
“The physicality and expression of Miklos Gerely as Sandy never faulted as his piercing sad eyes and hoof-like boots made you forget there was a man behind the silent thoughts communicated."
“The set, lighting and use of the space are excellent. The direction of Dion Mills as Bridges and Jordan is tight. Sandy is played by Miklos Gerely, a mime specialist who trained in his native Hungary and subsequently played internationally."
Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges holding the bridle of his favourite charger, Sandy. Photo: Australian War Memorial
"It was a solemn, powerful play. As the performance went on the actor looked more like a horse. I'm a war widow, my ex-husband served in Vietnam and was in the regular army so I felt the sound effects. You couldn't hear a pin drop. What a beautiful story. All of the thousands slaughtered. Sandy came back! Thank You."
André Jewson, who is replacing Dion Mills
"I am so glad we went last night. The memory of the play has stayed with me all day. I thought the staging was clever and arresting and the acting marvellous. I had never really thought about animals caught up in the horrors of WW1, though I was kind of aware that horses had been involved. My heart feels pierced with the awareness of man and horse being each other's link to tenderness in all that inhumanity. At least, that is how your play affected me. Thank you."
R. (Rosemary) Johns has a First Class Honours degree in Drama from Manchester University and had a one year drama scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans. Most recently invited to the 10th Women Playwrights International Conference Cape Town 2015 to present a two hander devised piece Don't Go There (with Mary Helen Sassman). One of five playwrights shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Playwriting Award with the Birthday Book Of Death. Published plays (Currency Press) include Stray, Black Box 149 and Carrying Shoes into the Unknown. Her plays have been produced at La Mama, Big West Festival, 45 Downstairs, New Theatre Sydney, 12th Night Theatre Brisbane, Playbox and presented in Stockholm, Mumbai and Athens.
Greg Carroll has worked on theatrical productions for the APG, La Mama, Playbox, MTC, STC, Theatreworks, Gilgul, Melbourne Writer's Theatre, Polyglot, Melbourne Opera, Red Stitch and The Australian Shakespeare Company as well as many commercial productions. Greg has most recently directed Glory Dazed for Red Stitch and Wuthering Heights for ASC at Rippon Lea as well as The Red and the Black, Marcel and Albertine, Anna Karenina and The Penelopiad for the Stork Theatre Company. A re-run of both Howie the Rookie at Red Stitch and Squizzy, A Bullet-holed Musical, at Trades Hall. Greg has specialised in Monodramas and is most recently responsible for The Lover by Marguerite Duras starring Kate Kendall. Greg also directed The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood for Stork Theatre and Lost in Ringwood by Barry Dickins for La Mama. He is currently working on mounting a production of Keef that Greg commissioned in 2011, written by Nathan Curnow.
André graduated from the VCA School of Drama in 2005 and has appeared on stage, film and television. Most recently he was seen in theatres across the country in Disney's The Lion King. Other highlights include: Hugo (AFC/Thaumatrope Productions), The History Boys (MTC), Heaven (La Mama), East (La Mama/The Seymour Centre), Inheritance (Full Dress Productions), Wendy, Too Hot To Handle (Jigsaw Theatre Company), Arabian Night (Griffin Stablemates), Summerfolk (Bob Presents), Alaska (Under the Wharf) and Hungry Beast (ABC TV). He was a facilitator for the Kakiseni Arts Exchange in Malaysia and has worked on developments and readings for STC, Stuck Pigs Squealing and other independent ensembles. André also lived in Paris, France for two years where he trained with master theatre teacher Philippe Gaulier.
André replaces Dion Mills, who played in the Big West Festival production.
Miklos Gerely started to learn mime in Hungary, in 1984. After two years of training, he became a member of Hungary's most famous mime company (Karsai Mime Ltd). That was the beginning of Miklos' professional career. They toured Hungary and Europe, Miklos even spent two weeks in Korea, giving more than a dozen shows and has worked in several theatres, played lead, support and guest roles in a number of TV serials, and movies. In 2003 in New Zealand, he had several solo shows, played and choreographed for the Court Theatre in Christchurch and appeared in some national TV shows. In 2010 he went to Los Angeles to the World Championship Of Performing Arts. With different mime sketches, in different genre he won a bronze, a silver and a gold medal, and the World Champion title in comical acting category. He also won the jury's Industry award. In 2011 he has been teaching at TAFTA (The Australian TV And Film Academy).
Peter graduated from Flinders University with a BA (Hons). He has designed for drama, dance and opera companies across Australia including The State Theatre Company of South Australia, the Australian Dance Theatre, The Melbourne Theatre Company and The Torch Projects. Peter was resident designer with Red Stitch Actors Theatre 2005 - 2013 and gained the Best Production Green Room Award for the company with his production design for Harvest in 2006. In 2008 he received a Green Room Award nomination for his design of Red Sky Morning. In 2014 he received the Green Room Award for best design for Foxfinder. He has designed many plays by R.Johns, including Stray. He is currently working with Rodney Hall on his early operas project.
Michael Havir works as a composer, musician, arranger, performer, musical director and sound designer across many art-forms including performance, dance, film and TV, theatre spectacles, community arts, interactive technology and world music. He has worked with artists as varied as The Village People and Yothu Yindi to companies like Born in a Taxi, Queensland Theatre Company, Playback, SBS and ABC-TV. He has performed at numerous Festivals around Australia and many overseas. He is currently artistic associate with Born in a Taxi focussing on performing live improvised soundtracks. He also plays keyboards with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra and electro acoustic music ensemble Dr. Hernandez.
Shane has been Audio Visual Technician for St Kevin's College for the past 9 years. Prior to that he was Production Manager with Strange Fruit for 6 years and Technical Manager at Gasworks Theatre for 4 years. Shane is an accomplished lighting designer having worked extensively with companies like Ranters Theatre, The Torch Project, NYID and many others. Shane has a BA Dramatic Arts (Production) VCA from 1994. Shane sits on the Green Room Awards Association Theatre Companies panel. Shane is currently an artistic director at Metanoia Theatre and the technical manager of the Mechanics Institute theatre in Brunswick.
Kylie Russell has been working as a Stage Manager for nine years. She has Stage Managed numerous plays within this time and in 2009 won an Adjudicator's Award for her work with Improbable Fiction. Kylie has production managed and stage managed many La Mama shows including Friday Night in Town, Australia Dot Com, Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes of Fame, which were orginal plays and premiered at La Mama, and Mein Keimpf and The Two Executioners in 2013. The first time Kylie worked with Rosemary Jonhs was in 2013 where we premiered another orginal play called Stray and then had a sell out season at La Mama Courthouse (2014 VCE Drama Playlist). Also, in 2014 Kylie worked on a workshop called Insomnia Project which was re-mounted at La Mama in 2015.
