Death stalks Adelaide Written by Pamela Munt, Unseen Theatre Company 27 February 2000 The Discworld has come to Adelaide. The Unseen Theatre Company, in conjunction with Blackwood Players will be presenting Terry Pratchett's "Mort" (adapted by Stephen Briggs) at the Tower Arts Centre (corner of Daws Road and Goodwood Road Pasadena) from March 24th. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the books of Terry Pratchett who is quickly becoming a cult figure in the world of science fiction, here is a short background. Terry has created with his Discworld series, a world that is disc shaped and travels through the universe on the back of four gigantic elephants, who in turn stand on the back of an enormous turtle. "Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one, but magicians have calculated that million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten." Of course once you have created a world like this, anything can happen, and it often does. Especially in "Mort". Here we have what we believe is the classic "Grim Reaper" who is a little overloaded with work and is looking for an apprentice. Enter Mort, the farm boy looking for a job. "Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job". We follow Mort through his adventures as Death's apprentice, meeting some marvellous characters along the way. These include all of the wizards at the Unseen University, Ysabell (Death's adopted daughter), dukes, witches, assassins, Death's manservant (an almost classic Steptoe character), talking Doorknockers, maids, princes, priest, towncriers, clerks and just about anyone at whom the author can poke fun. Even Death himself, is someone for whom we sometimes feel empathy and at other times we laugh heartily. Poor Mort's job doesn't seem to be going too well. On only his third practice at reaping souls he falls in love with his victim Princess Keli. He feels compelled to rescue the princess from her untimely death, but in doing so alters the whole balance of reality. She is supposed to be dead, so people don't see or hear her. She is forced to hire a Royal Recogniser to remind everyone that she is in fact alive. Unable to confess his mistake to his Master, Mort tries with the help of wizards etc. to fix the problem himself. Of course he makes it worse and Death must step in. To tell more would be to give it all away, but suffice it to say that, in the true spirit of such adventures, there is a happy ending. Now this may, at first glance, seem like a classic fairy tale. You may be saying to yourself, "well what's new?' "What's new is Terry Pratchett's humour. He uses his Discworld as a parody of our own to make us laugh. Everyone of his characters is readily identifiable. For instance, what about that extremely frustrating, patronising clerk at the CES last week, or that lecturer who was simply never to be found when you had to find some really important information for your final essay, the boring never ending sermon you listened to last week in church, the mum who is forever using her spit to clean your face? The list is endless. In fact those examples only describe some of the minor characters but Terry Pratchett lets us wreak our revenge by laughing at them all. If you don't have a good time at this play then I suspect that you are incapable of doing so anywhere! Tickets are $10 adults and $8 concession. You may also take advantage of a theatre dinner deal at the Happy Buddha Restaurant for $18 or $20 which covers a three course meal and your theatre ticket. Book at BASS or by phoning Val Averis on 82704639 between 9am and 7pm. (use this no. for the theatre dinner deal tickets) Further information can be obtained from the Unseen Theatre Company website at http://www.unseen.com.au/.