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Platon Theodoris’ The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour will screen at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival next week.

Directed by Theodoris, and co-written by Theodoris and Nitin Vengurlekar, The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour follows verbose radio host Neville Umbrellaman (Nitin Vengurlekar).

When Neville lands in hospital, a group of unexpected performers crash his show, The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour. Rabindranath Chakraborty, known as Neville Umbrellaman to his loyal listeners, hosts the late night variety show from an eclectic studio built in his parent’s garage. Along with guests Neville shares existential musings and spins all the best public domain hits.

After waking up with a headache Rabindranath suddenly finds himself in hospital. During the anxious wait for clarity and results, Neville’s live show must stay on air, so an eccentric guest list help complete the variety line up. This includes folk singer Kenneth Wong, Rabindranath’s crush Sabrina D’Angelo, Terry the neighbour, local French baker Yvette and jazz band Freddy Nietchze’s Good-time Bee-Bop Quintet. There will be no rehearsals.

The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is adapted from Nitin Vengurlekar’s incredible theatre show The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour. This wonderfully absurdist comedy drew inspiration from both Jacques Tati and Spike Milligan and was a rare gem in Australia’s cultural landscape. The stage play premiered at Sydney’s Bankstown Arts Centre and then played The Griffin Theatre.

The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour stars Nitin Vengurlekar, Sabrina Chan D’Angelo, Alison Bennett, Teik-Kim Pok, Joyce Edmonds and Peter Gizariotis who you can find out more about below.

You can find out more about The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour here. You can find out more about The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour Revelation Perth International Film Festival screening here.

Nitin Vengurlekar

Nitin Vengurlekar has performed his nonsensical poetry and microfiction at defunct staples of the Sydney alternative comedy circuit such as Griffin Up Late, Club Cab Sav, and Cardio Church Gala, since the 2010s. His stage show The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour was performed in three episodes at Bankstown Arts Centre and Griffin’s Batch Festival across 2017-18.  In 2019 he completed a PhD in Theatre and Film Studies at UNSW that analysed the workings of the choreographic in the dance-theatre of Pina Bausch and the film comedies of Jacques Tati.

Sabrina Chan D’Angelo

Sabrina is a performer and writer living on Gadigal Land. She has a Bachelor of Acting (UWS) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Puppetry (VCA). Recently she has performed at Heaps Gay’s Sydney Kings, Queer Lunar New Year at Red Rattler, Sydney Festival, Griffin Up Late, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, The Moth StorySlam, Woodford Folk Festival and Melbourne International Arts Festival. Her work Monster / Woman, a dark comedy all about Medusa and the sticky history of women and power, was commissioned by Melbourne Writers Festival (2018); and her solo comedy show Why Do I Dream? won Best Comedy at the NZ Fringe (2016).

Alison Bennett

Alison is an actor, performance maker, improvisor and producer. She is particularly interested in the applications of comedy and improvisation in storytelling for both live performance and digital media. She has created and produced full length new works with her company Hurrah Hurrah including TRADE, Roomba Nation, Frenzy for Two and The Seagull. With Hurrah Hurrah she is now touring her one woman comedy show Introducing Aunty Jude. She has appeared in ‘The City’, a new work of physical theatre at the Sydney Opera House, The Magic Hat (Casula Power House), TROUPE (commissioned by Bestival Music Festival UK), Roadkill Confidential (Lies,Lies & Propaganda) and This is Not Mills & Boon (Glorious Thing Theatre Co), Zelos (Painted Gate Pictures) & The PM’s Daughter (ABC Me). She is the Artistic Director of Improv Theatre Sydney.

Teik-Kim Pok

This is Teik-Kim’s second feature with Platon Theodoris, having first played the titular character in his debut award-winning Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites (SUFF 2015, Slamdance 2016). Other screen work include Alison Bell’s The Letdown (ABC/Netflix 2018) and Corrie Chen’s Happy Country (MIFF 2008). As a multidisciplinary artist, performance-maker and educator, Teik-Kim has presented at Sydney Festival, Underbelly, Next Wave, having also collaborated with Sydney companies such as Urban Theatre Projects, Belvoir, Branch Nebula and Kantanka.

Joyce Edmonds

Joyce Edmonds is a classically trained actor with over 10 years of on-screen acting experience. Most recently she could be found playing the role of assistant Commissioner Evans in ‘Jade Butterfly’ by Sydney Film Company (2020). She has appeared in several blockbuster films playing ‘The Nun’ in The Goddess alongside Ronan Keating, The UnIndian with Brett Lee, Gods of Egypt with Gerard Butler.’ Joyce says that her love of acting stemmed from stage performances at the age of 5. The exciting process of adopting a character and the privilege of performing to an audience is a humbling experience. Joyce’s passion for the performing arts is shared through her support and mentoring of young budding actors eager to appear on TV for the first time.

Peter Gizariotis

Peter’s diverse theatre roles are a roll call of Sydney’s exciting independent theatre scene and include The New Theatre’s musical Somewhere Else Today (as Phil), The Pymble Players production of 12 Angry Men (as lead Juror #8), The Pavilion Players production of The Game’s Afoot (as Felix) & again in Leading Ladies (as Leo),  The Hunter’s Hill Theatre Company in Gaslight (as Manningham) and again in Tartuffe (as Orgon) as well live-musical performance of Beethoven’s 33 Variations (as Schindler). Peter has also performed in two Short+Sweet Festival plays; Deceit & The Real One (as Alan Jones) and has also directed work for the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival.  Notable film highlights include the experimental film Fail Deadly (winner of the 2018 Bronze-Remi Award at the Worldfest Houston Festival) and The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour as Doctor Mansour.

The contents in this feature were taken from http://www.lonelyspiritsfilm.com