If the opening night instant standing ovation is an indication, book immediately for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s musical of My Brilliant Career.
According to the inscription in my falling-apart copy of Miles Franklin’s 1901 My Brilliant Career, I was 12 when I first read it, not long after seeing the 1979 film adaption. Like countless others, Sybylla Melvyn’s story became one that I didn’t know I craved until I knew it.
Sybylla lives in rural NSW at the end of the 1800s. It’s a drought and her family are poor and struggling. She’s still a child but is old enough to be married – which is the only respectable and practical choice available to her. But she wants something that is her own.
She wants to be more. She doesn’t understand what or how, but she knows that she is going to say no to expectations and hold onto the belief that she will find that place where she can care about the tramps who have nothing, and where she can write or sing or act and not have to worry about having frizzy hair.
Sure, Stella Franklin still had to publish it under a male name – Miles is one of her middle names – to be considered publishable, but she wrote and travelled and taught and found her spaces to be remarkable. Named for her, the Miles Franklin and the Stella prizes are two of the most prestigious literary awards in Australia.
With years of development, including a short run in 2019 at Monash University (which I saw), the musical adaption by Dean Bryant (book and lyrics), Matthew Frank (music) and now Sheridan Harbridge (book) opens in Melbourne.
It’s remarkable and everything it should be. It’s had the time to be developed and change and find a team of artists who have created something unforgettable.
It’s not like the book or the famous film; a faithful adaption is rarely a good adaption. It’s made for the stage and made for today by reflecting the issues faced by Sybylla and her family like they are happening now.
Here, women are judged by their place in society, looks and obedience. Men argue that no one can share their land. Families are filled with guilt and frustration over family obligations. The world is so dry that the crops and animals are dead. And everything costs far too much – unless you are rich and then nearly anything can be bought.
And untameable hair is still not considered hot!
Marg Horwell’s set and costume designs are consistently extraordinary. Years ago, I wrote about her designs for small indie companies in Melbourne and how she puts a world onto the stage that feels like she found a way to show the writer’s soul, and how she creates costumes that always feel like the actor’s interpretation of the character.
She’s won all the design awards in Australia and this year won her first Olivier Award in London (which might be followed with a Tony award after The Picture of Dorian Gray opens on Broadway).
The stage is covered in crops that have died in the sun and rock-hard soil. Here is Possum Gully where the Melvyn’s live. This over-used and ruined land never goes away – because it doesn’t go away – but the world transforms into the comfortable wealth of her extended family’s Caddagat homestead with a shower of yellow flowers and floating chandeliers.
And then there’s the filth of the M’Swat’s farm in Barney’s Gap, which explodes into now with an op-shop/K-Mart sparkle dress up box of costumes that tell us everything we need to know about a family that seem like they have nothing but are completely happy.
Frank’s music ranges from mike-swallowing rock to show-stopping, tear-welling ballads and it feels natural and expected that song is the only way these characters can express what they feel.
The music is developed for the stage with Victoria Falconer’s musical direction. She leads the ensemble-cum-band on stage. All the performers are also part of the band, which centres around an upright piano that Sybylla finds in every house she lives in.
Director Anne-Louise Sarks never lets the momentum drop. She ensures that we see the characters and people in Sybylla’s life how she sees them, while still letting them be themselves as they see the Sybylla they want her to be.
The ensemble are consistently glorious, including Christina O’Neil’s mothers/aunt, HaNy Lee’s sister/potential wife, Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward’s posh English Jackaroo, and Raj Labade’s potential husbands.
But this is Sybylla’s story. Kala Gare is Sybylla.
She’s loud and full of extreme emotions. She wishes she wasn’t as smart as she was and that she could settle in comfort without wanting more, but she would never give up her intelligence and dreams. She’s nothing like I have ever imagined Sybylla to be and she is exactly what and who Sybylla should be.
In costumes that look like how she imagines that she looks – she believes what she’s told about her looks – she talks directly to audience. She brings us into the heart of Miles Franklin, who wrote Sybylla when she was a teenager and who knew that she deserved far more than she had and was ready to say no.
Gare is the brilliance that everyone who loves this book sees in themselves when they read it.
My Brilliant Career will sell out and will go on to bigger and longer seasons. Get your bragging rights to say you saw the original production. If you haven’t read the book, you will leave knowing why this character and this book continues to help define Australian voices and stories.
My Brilliant Career
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, Southbank Boulevard, Southbank
Performance: Tuesday 12 November 2024
Season continues to 18 December 2024
Information and Bookings: www.mtc.com.au
Images: Kala Gare (centre) and Cast in My Brilliant Career – photo by Pia Johnson | The Cast of My Brilliant Career – photo by Pia Johnson | Kala Gare as Sybylla in My Brilliant Career – photo by Pia Johnson
Review: Anne-Marie Peard