Shamrock Shindig Shenanigans

The Home Hill Choral Society is back for more fun in 2025, with their first show this year entitled, Shamrock Shindig. We sat down with Erin Brennan, the show’s writer and director, to find out what the audience can expect in what is always a hoot!

“We will be featuring Irish songs, typical ones, you know such as: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling; If You're Irish, Come To The Parlour, and many more. And of course we’ll have jokes. There's lots of jokes that I've found over the years. I always find jokes and I turn them into skits,” Erin beams.

For this writer, director, actor, and singer, Erin managed to write Shamrock Shindig in a week, however, because of the recent floods, rehearsals were much trickier to arrange let alone have as she explains.

“This show in particular probably took me a week. It just starts to come to me and once I start reading through, I shuffle it around. Then I do the first draft, and afterwards we change it a bit as we go. I'm the director and writer, but Cheryl Platt from Sweet FM, is my offsider. She does all the musical side of things.”

“With the flood scares and everything we had, we couldn’t rehearse it fully through like we normally do. Some people were stuck on the Ayr side, including Cheryl, and so they couldn't get out to rehearsals here in Home Hill. Because she's on the Ayr side, she couldn't get over to teach the music. So therefore I had to rearrange and change a couple of things.”

Between Erin and Cheryl, they pick the songs, teach the choir members the numbers, and generally have fun. With minimal rehearsal, Shamrock Shindig shapes to be more lively and fun than ever.

“It’ll be just lots of fun and laughs. Sometimes we'll make mistakes, but you can laugh with us and the things that we do,” Erin chuckles.

But mark her words, the audience don’t get off scot-free either.

“We have audience participation as well. Yes, audience participation,” she reiterates grinning.

Shamrock Shindigs kicks off next Friday, March 14 at 7:30pm (doors open 30 minutes before show), and performs on the 16th, 21st, and 23rd. The matinee shows on the Sundays (16 & 21) are almost sold out!

“We never had much trouble selling the daytime shows, it’s the night time shows that we sometimes do. But there's a licensed bar where for your $35 you get a full meal, which is quite substantial. Benefit is you get a fun show, you get supper afterwards, and there's cakes, there's tarts, there's whatever we decide we want to make with an Irish themed flavour to it.”

“We also hope to have some little Irish dances as well, because we try and incorporate people outside our group as well,” Erin adds.

Tickets cost $35 and include a meal or afternoon tea for the matinees. They can be purchased by calling Erin on: 0428 822 091.

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Some of the cast in rehearsals ready to make you laugh. Photo supplied
Shamrock Shindig writer & director, Erin Brennan is all smiles ahead of opening night. Photo credit: Mark T. Rasmussen
The ladies of the show set to entertain the audience. Photo supplied.

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