TAS Hoskins Centre's line-up of theatre for May and June

“It’s a nice, wide spread of things from a classic Australian play to a contemporary cabaret-style storytelling piece, and from ballet to stand-up comedy,” says theatre manager Andrew O’Connell.

First up, Armidale group Veracity Theatre Company perform the iconic Australian comedy Così (3 to 12 May), Louis Nowra’s play about Melbourne mental hospital inmates who stage a Mozart opera.

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“Così is one of those treasured Australian stories,” Andrew says, “and particularly a slightly older generation are very familiar with it as a play or a film. It has an iconic place in our cultural theatrical landscape, and it's been a little while since we've seen it staged in town.”

The show is directed by Michael J. Cornford, and features local community members, including several UNE theatre graduates both on-stage and behind the scenes.

The first touring production is Daniel Tobias’s one-man 75-minute variety show, The Orchid and the Crow (16 May), “a comedy about an atheist surviving cancer by finding God in Lance Armstrong”. The show has received rave reviews both nationally and internationally.

“It will be an awesome night, and a very funny night,” Andrew says. “We don't have a lot of shows about such a dark and challenging topic as cancer, told in a way that's really engaging and exciting.”

Balletomanes and classical music lovers will enjoy Melbourne City Ballet’s performance of Carmen (1 June), based on Bizet’s opera about a soldier who falls in love with a sultry gypsy – to both their costs.

“The splendour of Carmen is in the passionate pas de deux’s and stirring group numbers,” according to the publicity, “so whether it’s the seductive factory workers that lure you in or the strutting bullfighters that set your hearts aflutter, this is a vibrant and bold production that from the very first overture will have audiences en garde!"

Armidale audiences rarely get the chance to see ballet, so this is a good opportunity, Andrew says, to see some amazing young professional dancers who have been touring the East Coast.

“Hopefully the audience enthusiasm will allow us to program something like this as often as we can.”

The Melbourne International Comedy Roadshow (12 June) brings some top Australian and International comics to Armidale for the first time. This should be “a genuinely enjoyable, funny, risque and sometimes outright rude night out” – for adults and older teenagers.

The performers include Sarul Channa, a female stand-up comic from Singapore; Suzi Ruffell from the USA; and Josh Earl, host of Spicks and Specks.

The Hoskins Centre, while funded by The Armidale School, is open to all the public – and all proceeds from shows go back into putting on more performances.

Old boy Michael Hoskins opened the Centre ten years ago both to give students access to professional standard theatre and experience in performance, and as a space for community groups to perform and see theatre.

“It's about making sure people who live in regional Australia can still go and see live theatre, cabaret performances, stand-up comedy, and all the stuff that is such a given in the art and cultural landscape of a major metropolitan area, but that sometimes we miss out on,” Andrew says.

“As a drama teacher, as a theatre manager, as a passionate watcher of theatre and performances, I think it's a really important part of life, and we want everybody to have those opportunities.”