Originally written by Joanna Murray-Smith as a one-woman show to showcase the virtuosity of Australian show-biz legend, Caroline O’Connor, Bombshells was performed around the country with great success by O’Connor, whose performance was filmed and broadcast by the ABC.
A later production, also in the one-woman format, enjoyed a successful season in the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney starring Sharon Millerchip who had previously starred opposite O’Conner in a national tour of the musical Chicago.
Jordan Best’s idea to localise the six monologues that make up the piece and divide them between six local actresses has resulted with a handsomely mounted, delightfully entertaining show, which deserves a wide audience.
Each of the monologues focuses on a different aspect of each woman’s life.
Meryl is a housewife on the point of a nervous breakdown almost overwhelmed trying to meet her own expectations of being the perfect wife and mother.
In a poignant performance by Amy Kowalczuk, Meryl verbalises her thoughts while desperately breast-feeding her infant baby, trying to cope with her demanding, inquisitive daughter, and attempting to get the housework completed and dinner prepared before her perfect husband arrives home from work. Her situation is almost too sad to laugh at, but because of Murray-Smith’s razer -sharp dialogue, it is impossible not to.
Tiggy, played by Kate Harris, is in the midst of giving a lecture about her hobby, growing cacti. However Tiggy is having marital problems and her thoughts keep returning to those problems while she desperately tries to keep her lecture on track.
Mary, played by Sally Taylor, is a student who has dreams of becoming a star of musical theatre. She’s entered a dance competition, convinced that winning the competition will make her a star.
Confident she has more talent than Liza Minelli and therefore a shoe-in to win, she demonstrates her competition piece, Macavity’s Solo from Cats, only to discover that her arch-rival has chosen the same solo. In desperation she decides to choreograph a new piece to the music of Shaft.
Theresa, played by Ella Buckley, is preparing for her wedding. As she dons her wedding gown she confides her joy in finally getting the wear this gown. As her thoughts drift towards her life after her wedding, she begins to panic at the realisation that she knows very little about her groom, as her only reason for getting engaged was to wear the wedding dress.
Winsome, played by Alice Ferguson, is 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 reads him extracts from a racy novel, Winsome discovers rather more joys to book-reading than she had anticipated.
The final character in the sextet is a former chanteuse, Zoe, played by Lainie Hart, who is resuming her career singing in nightclubs. Zoe has all the right moves, the glamorous gown and polished microphone technique and the superbly arranged repertoire which hints at darker life experiences behind the glitz, the glamour, and the over-familiar friendliness. However, does Zoe still have that elusive “IT”?
All six monologues are presented in stylish individual, tightly-lit, settings. The performers stay inside these settings for the full duration of the show. The monologues are presented consecutively, connected by short light-shows which hint tantalisingly at how each character has progressed following their revelations.
Bombshells is a lovely production for which careful attention has been paid to every aspect, especially presentation and choreography.
On a personal note I might have enjoyed this show even more with an interval in the middle to allow time to savour the individual stories.
Bombshells
Q Theatre – Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 253 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan
Performance: Thursday 25 July 2024
Season: 18 – 27 July 2024
Information: www.theq.net.au
Image: Lainie Hart as Zoe – photo by Photox – Canberra Photographic Services
Review: Bill Stephens OAM