With unrelenting cheerfulness, bright orange lights shine on a simple set: a row of straight-backed chairs, a tall flower display, and a painting of an elderly woman, prominently displayed. Are we about to witness a funeral? Indeed we are. Slowly, painfully, the ambulant residents of Autumn Road Retirement Village, Caulfield, edge their way on to the stage. The chairs are now occupied. From the door into the corridor appears a wheel, then a hand fumbling for the entrance, heralding the arrival of the fifth resident, who whizzes triumphantly onstage in her electric buggy. Liraz (Sue Jones) has arrived.

So begins Minnie & Liraz, Lally Katz’s latest play. There is no doubt we are watching a comedy. The garish lighting and slow-motion procession of characters cue the laughter that ripples around the audience. Sue Jones’s pernickety parking settles the matter. If the residents are lacking in enthusiasm, both for the deceased and for life itself, Norma (Georgina Naidu) conducts the ‘life celebration’ with lashings of joie de vivre. She conjures up the rich events of a little life, while, sotto voce, Minnie (Nancye Hayes) corrects her. Her bridge partner may be dead, but she is giving her short shrift.