Stop and smell the roses

The celebration of an extraordinary 20th Century life is presented with considerable humour and heart in the award-winning production Rose at Don Russell Performing Arts Centre on Saturday 20 February at 8pm.

This one-woman tour de force is pure storytelling at its very best, told from the perspective that only age can bring.

It stars seasoned actress Rosemarie Lenzo, who won Best Female Actor for this feisty character role in the recent Perth Theatre Trust/Equity Guild Awards.

World events are filtered to the audience through the eyes of the play’s protagonist, an 80 year old Jewish woman with the gift of the gab and a rapier wit.

Rose has experienced it all: two dead husbands, Cossacks and Nazis, a gay grandson, and salsa fuelled nights on Miami Beach.

We meet Rose, perched alone on a hard wooden bench in Miami Beach as she sits shivah - the Jewish period of mourning - and reflects, trying to make sense of a fascinating life that began in a small Russian village…

Lenzo’s extensive acting background has spanned the stage and screen with recent roles in the local film Two Fists, One Heart and in the popular television series Ship to Shore.