Written by Joanne Murray-Smith as a tour-de-force performance piece to showcase the talents of musical theatre star, Caroline O’Connor, Bombshells originally consisted of six short vignettes, focussed on the travails of six different women. O’Connor toured the piece nationally and it was filmed and broadcast on ABC television.
Later Sharon Millerchip, who had starred opposite O’Connor for a national tour of Chicago, repeated O’Connor’s feat by performing Bombshells for a season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney.
In 2024, Jordan Best, had the idea of staging a production of Bombshells for her company, Echo Theatre, casting each vignette with a different actress. It worked a treat. So much so that Arts On Tour has picked up the production for an eleven-venue NSW regional tour, of which these performances in Queanbeyan were the first.
In remounting her production for touring, Best wisely took the opportunity to omit the nightclub singer segment designed to provide the opportunity for O’Connor to exercise her remarkable vocals.
This handsomely mounted touring version has been slimmed down to five different stories, told without interval, with each story performed by a different actress. Each has her own attractive setting, and all remain on stage for the duration of the play.
Yanina Clifton delivers a poignant performance in the first monologue as Meryl, a mother on the verge of 40 and a nervous breakdown. Meryl verbalises her thoughts as she sinks under her efforts to meet her own expectations of being the perfect wife and mother, while breast-feeding her infant, trying to cope with her inquisitive daughter, and worries about completing the housework and having dinner prepared before her perfect husband arrives home from work. Her situation is almost too sad to laugh at, but Murray-Smith’s razor-sharp dialogue makes it impossible not to.
Louise Bennet plays Tiggy, a cacti enthusiast from the Queanbeyan East Cactus & Succulent Club. In the midst of her illustrated lecture on cacti, Tiggy is distracted by her marital problems and her comments become as sharp and spiky as her cacti as she struggles to keep her lecture on track.
No such problems for Mary O’Donnell, captivatingly created by Sally Taylor. Mary is supremely confident that she will cement her position as the Liza Minnelli of St. Clare’s College with her self-devised solo O’Shaunnesy The Mystery Cat. Just as she finishes her rehearsal, Mary learns that her arch-rival has chosen the same solo. In desperation, Mary decides to dance her solo to the music of Shaft.
Ella Buckley plays a young bride, Theresa, who is preparing for her wedding. As she dons her wedding dress, Theresa confides her joy in finally getting to wear this gown. But as her thoughts drift towards her life after the wedding, Theresa begins to panic at the realisation that she knows very little about her groom, realising that her only reason for getting engaged was to wear the wedding dress.
The final character is portrayed by Lainie Hart. Her name is Winsome, and she’s a well-dressed, outwardly sophisticated widow, who at 65 decides to embark on a new hobby; reading books to blind clients. When one of her clients’ requests that she read him extracts from a racy novel, Winsome discovers rather more joys to book-reading than she had an imagined.
The five actors remain on stage in their individual settings for the duration of the performance, with each monologue separated by a short oscillating lightshow which hints tantalisingly at how each character has progressed following their revelations.
Stylish and absorbing, Bombshells is a delightfully satisfying production notable for the depth of characterisation achieved by each of the performers, and for the careful attention paid to every aspect, especially presentation and choreography.
Bombshells
The Q – The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 253 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan
Performance: Saturday 29 August 2026
Information: www.theq.net.au
Following the Queanbeyan season, Bombshells will be presented at selected venues across New South Wales. For more information, including performance dates and venues, visit: www.artsontour.com.au for details.
Images: The Cast of Bombshells – photo by Ben Appleton, PHOTOX | Bombshells Yanina Clifton as Meryl – photo by Ben Appleton PHOTOX | Louise Bennet as Tiggy – photo by Ben Appleton, PHOTOX | Sally Taylor as Mary O’Donnell – photo by Ben Appleton, PHOTOX | Ella Buckley as Theresa – photo by Ben Appleton, PHOTOX | Lainie Hart as Winsome – photo by Ben Appleton, PHOTOX