Biloxi Blues

Playing at The Pavilion for an almost month-long season is Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues, presented by Castle Hill Players. Set in 1943, the play follows the journey of six young men training in Mississippi before being shipped off to World War II. Directed by Castle Hill Player’s infamous Meredith Jacobs, Biloxi Blues is as much laugh-out-loud funny as it is heartwarming. With writer Neil Simon’s recent passing and the play being semi-autobiographical, Meredith is determined to do the play justice in telling his story. 

Biloxi Blues focuses in on wide-eyed character Eugene Jerome, who holds three wartime goals: to become a writer, stay alive, and lose his virginity. Whether or not he achieves his goals only time will tell, however, actor Julian Floriano who plays the lead role says the play leans more toward the experience of the six young characters completing their training.

“The play centres around the six boys together and the complications that happen with that and the growth that they have in the 10 weeks time”, said Julian. 

The piece highlights the importance of storytelling throughout, with the focus being on the audience and their engagement with the plot and characters. Julian shared the joy that Biloxi Blues creates saying, “the experience that the audience is gonna have is that it’s gonna be a lot of fun, there’s a lot of comedy in it.”

Amongst the fun, however, Julian shared that “there’s definitely a lot of heartfelt moments and I think that’s the experience we want people to have. These are people on-stage, and they’re people that are interacting with each other…it’s human nature.”

Until Aug 17, The Pavilion Theatre, Doran Drive, Castle Hill. $20-$27+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.paviliontheatre.org.au 

By Madison Behringer