Getting together Australia’s most iconic female TV actress, Lynne McGranger, on a show written by one of our best comedians, Wendy Harmer, Wollongong’s IPAC welcomes an evening of comedy theatre this 31 May with The Grandparent’s Club.

Words Penny Keogh @eaves_content

Lynne McGranger has joined us in our living rooms for 30 years with her character, Irene, in Home & Away always taking over our telly every weeknight without fail at 7 o’clock. It’s like we know her. She’s our friend too. And if you started watching when Irene joined the show, Lynne is like a grandmother to us all.

It seems fitting that at this time Lynne might take up a role to wrangle the changing world of grandparents. Where news headlines warn of Lynne’s ‘break for Home & Away’, Lynne assures us it’s only temporary and all for a good cause.

Laughs galore in store

The Grandparents Club is a musical comedy penned by equally iconic Australian entertainer, Wendy Harmer. Touring the east coast this Autumn, the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre welcomes Lynne and an esteemed group of Aussie actors with the support of renowned Music Director, John Field, to what Lynne promises is “going to be so much fun!”

“Wendy is kind of giving us a little licence to play with things,” said Lynne. “She said to me, ‘If you can make it funnier, then you go for it!’ So I said, ‘Right! Challenge accepted.’”

A hard task, you would expect given what we know of Wendy’s books and comic career. Though if anything of Irene’s determination is in Lynne when it comes to the stage, you’d expect The Grandparent’s Club is going to be a blast.

An insight into how times are changing for grandparents

Like all good comedies, Lynne speaks of where this production’s humour comes from, challenging our expectations and lamenting the troubles grandparents face.

Said to poke fun at the old stereotypes of grannies in aprons making scones and grandpas tinkering away in sheds, Lynne explains The Grandparents Club emphasises the changing and vital role of grandparents in our world today.

“I think there is the ever present tussle of how mum and dad know how to do it best and grandma and grandpa who know how to do it best because they’ve already done it,” said Lynne. “As a grandparent considering the way you brought your kids up and how much that has changed in terms of what’s available now for children, like social media and how everyone is now on a device.”

“The other side of the coin is the dependency on the grandparents,” continued Lynne. “Something like 60 percent of baby boomers are looking after their grandchildren one or two days a week.