On the 26th of July at the Agora Theatre eight months of planning and effort came into fruition on the opening night of the CHYK play ‘A day in the life’. This tale of a mother and daughters’ attempting to build careers, find love and dance the night away whilst being under the influence of a gypsy potion was written, directed and starred members of the Melbourne CHYKs who surpassed themselves in selling out two shows and generating valuable funds for the Mission’s work here and around the world.
As the curtain opened to reveal a crowd of almost 450 people and the actors and dancers completed their final preparations our hearts were a flutter, Would people enjoy it? Would they laugh at the jokes? Would they get the message? But it was too late to change anything now, it was show time!

The show began and we watched in anticipation… then it came… the first laughter came trickling out and flowed all night long. They laughed at the slapstick, they laughed at the puns they even laughed in places we hadn’t written jokes! The story moved on, twisting and turning, save a short break for snacks, and reached its crescendo in the final act that mixed live theatre, film and dance to awesome effect. The audience was wowed, the actors were euphoric, the sevaks were exhausted and the night was over.

A short week later we returned again for the second and final show, another full house, a fresh bunch of people to wow. ‘This was it’ the cast was told, the final show after months of preparation, once last opportunity to reach and better the heights of the first show… and so it began all over again. They laughed this time to, although in different places, at the things that were planned and even those that weren’t. The actors, their confidence high after the first show, wowed them yet again, handling improvisation and even the odd prop malfunction with panache and once again the curtain came down to cheers from the audience and also the cast. The adventure was over and tomorrow they would wake late in the day and go back to work and university all the while wondering, ‘what are we going to do with our time, now that it’s over?’