Revisit a classic

12:00a.m. 30th September 2008

Fans of Brideshead Revisited can watch a special screening of the movie at Birch Carrol and Coyle in Maroochydore.

Kazi Johnston is a very special kid. He’s always up for a race down the driveway against his older brother Jack, with Jack in a little toy electric car and Kazi in his borrowed wheelchair.

At 18 months, Kazi might well be the youngest kid in Australia who can zoom around in his own motorised wheelchair.

But it’s a skill that has been forced upon him after being diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy almost six months ago.

The genetic condition prevents Kazi from walking or sitting up for long periods unaided, because of wasting in his arm and leg muscles.

Kazi’s family has organised a special charity screening of Brideshead Revisited on Wednesday night to help raise funds for SMA sufferers in Queensland and northern NSW.

Brideshead Revisited is a poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence, set in England prior to the Second World War, a period when the landed gentry began to lose some of their many privileges.

The story begins in 1925 at Oxford, where Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is befriended by the louche and flamboyant Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw), son of Lord and Lady Marchmain (Michael Gambon and Emma Thompson).

Charles is quickly seduced by his friend’s opulent and glamorous world and thrilled by an invitation to Brideshead, the Marchmain’s magnificent ancestral home.

Beguiled by his surroundings, Charles becomes infatuated with Sebastian’s beautiful sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell).

As his emotional attachment to the young Marchmains grows, Charles finds himself increasingly at odds with the family’s strongest bond: a deep and abiding Catholic faith.

Brideshead Revisited began as an award-winning book by Evelyn Waugh and then became a much-loved television series of the 1980s.

The cinematic release of the film has met with much anticipation from fans of the book and series, and lovers of English culture alike.

Funds raised from the evening will go to the national SMA support association, which assists 25 young sufferers in Queensland and northern NSW.

WHAT: Brideshead Revisited – charity screening

WHERE: Birch Carrol and Coyle, Maroochydore

WHEN: Wednesday, 6.15pm

TICKETS: $15 per person – coffee and cake at Pig & Whistle included, after the movie

INFO: Phone Ronda on 5448 8003 or 0411 115 786.