Based on the life of Gina Moffatt, Funeral Flowers is a moving, funny, heartbreaking and heartmending tale of a young black woman determined to make a better life for herself.
Angelique (Lucy Ansell) has a lot of optimism when we first meet her. Sure, she’s only 17 years-old, in the foster care system while her mother is incarcerated, and her older boyfriend is in trouble with a local gang leader, but she loves flowers. Her floristry course has not only given her peace, it’s also provided a sense of purpose and a way out of her situation with dreams of becoming a florist and owning her own flower shop one day.
Bianca Pardo’s set has the appearance of brutal concrete, a floating structure with large steps on either side of an incline that resembles a playground slide. It’s an effective compression of the sort of architecture you might find provided by a local council to a less affluent neighbourhood, complete with hostile elements.
But despite her surroundings, there is colour in Angelique’s life when we first meet her, with different flowers growing around the periphery. In fact we see this colour before we see Angelique, courtesy of Kyra Ryan’s lighting design, splashing in turn around the outside before establishing a relaxed rhythm and lights up proper.
Indeed, the excellence in Candy Bowers’ direction is in how she’s woven her design elements and Lucy Ansell’s performance as Angelique together in such an evocative and compelling way.
Promotional material for the show speaks of its lyricism and that melodic quality is present in all aspects of the design. The size and shape of the set prohibits expansive gestures, but the way Angelique tells her story doesn’t require them. We get characters crafted with precision, in both voice and body.
Each change of character comes with a sort of undulation as Lucy inhabits them, highlighting the greatest strength of her performance being her control of pace. Nothing lurches, nothing feels rushed. Neither do we get trapped in anything repetitive – until she means to of course.
The cruelty Angelique slings at her foster carer later in the play is terrible in its own right, but what makes it particularly vicious and heartbreaking is the unforgiving staccato way she stabs her words at her.
While Christian Biko’s exceptional sound design to this point has been mostly warm beats and comforting rhythms, now they’re gone. Now it’s silence and then worse – the buzzing of flies, a sonic revulsion that captures the audience as Angelique wrestles with the destruction of her sense of self worth.
Rebuilding herself is an emotional and courageous act, and Lucy does fabulous work showing each excruciating step Angelique takes getting herself back there, creating a sense of triumph on opening night that was palpable (if the relieved cheers from those seated around me were anything to go by).
Funeral Flowers is storytelling at its finest. Director, Candy Bowers puts it best: “Black femme genius.”
Funeral Flowers
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East
Performance: Wednesday 29 July 2026
Season continues to 23 August 2026
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Funeral Flowers will also be presented at The Bowery Theatre on 9 September 2026.
Images: Lucy Ansell in Funeral Flowers – photos by Jess D’cruze
Review: June Collins