Melbourne Theatre Company’s return season of My Brilliant Career is not just a revival, it’s a reaffirmation that this musical has well and truly earned its place as a modern Australian classic.
Created by Sheridan Harbridge, Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank, and directed with assured clarity by Anne-Louise Sarks, this breakout hit once again proves that Miles Franklin’s story of defiance and self-determination feels less like a period piece and more like a dispatch from right now.
Sybylla Melvyn’s refusal to shrink herself for comfort, convention, or romance lands with exhilarating force, and the production leans all the way into her convictions.
At the centre of it all is Kala Gare, delivering what can only be described as one of the most electrifying performances on an Australian stage in recent memory. Her Sybylla is all edge and electricity — loud, impulsive, hilarious, furious, tender, and gloriously contradictory.
Gare doesn’t sand down Sybylla’s difficultness; she weaponises it. Her voice soars with raw, thrilling power, then cracks open into vulnerability without warning. You don’t just watch her – you’re pulled into her gravitational field.
She’s supported by a returning cast operating with the kind of tight, instinctive chemistry you can’t fake. Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward brings warmth and grounded charm to Frank, while Lincoln Elliott is a delight in dual roles, shifting seamlessly between Horace and Jimmy.
Raj Labade injects colour and character into Harry and Peter, while Drew Livingstone gives Sybylla’s father a textured, lived-in presence. Ana Mitsikas and Christina O’Neill create a vivid world of women negotiating survival in very different ways.
The addition of the ever-compelling Melanie Bird as Gertie and Blanche is a gift, sliding into the ensemble with magnetic ease. Anchoring it all, Jarrad Payne on drums helps drive the show’s propulsive energy.
Under Victoria Falconer’s musical direction, the score absolutely rips. This is not a polite heritage musical; it’s a genre-blurring, heart-on-sleeve soundscape fusing contemporary pop, country twang, bush balladry, and the sweaty joy of pub rock.
The fact that the performers double as the band, not only shows their versatility, gives the production a thrilling immediacy — the music isn’t just accompaniment, it’s the lifeblood. The recurring image of the upright piano in each household setting becomes a perfect metaphor for Sybylla’s restless spirit and creative hunger.
Visually, the production is just as arresting. Marg Horwell’s design is nothing short of breathtaking. The stage opens on sun-scorched, lifeless crops at Possum Gully, where the Melvyns make their home, a landscape that feels worn out and inescapable, marked by damage and drought.
As the narrative unfolds, Sybylla’s world shifts into the ease and refinement of her relatives’ Caddagat estate, marked by cascades of yellow blossoms, suspended chandeliers, and moments of playful excess with candy-coloured streamers and oversized white lace-trimmed umbrellas.
In sharp contrast stands the squalor of the M’Swat property at Barney’s Gap, where the ensemble appears in a mishmash of costume-box dress-ups. Matt Scott’s lighting unifies these worlds, bathing them in tones that suggest an idealised rural vista.
What makes this return season feel so vital is its refusal to treat Sybylla as merely “ahead of her time.” Instead, the production insists she belongs to this time, a young woman demanding a life bigger than the one mapped out for her, even when that demand costs her.
A terrific way to start the theatrical year, My Brilliant Career is funny, ferocious, musically exhilarating, and emotionally bruising in all the right ways.
My Brilliant Career
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, Southbank Boulevard, Southbank
Performance: Tuesday 27 January 2026
Season continues to 28 February 2026
Bookings: www.mtc.com.au
Following the Melbourne season, My Brilliant Career will play the Canberra Theatre Centre from 7 – 15 March; Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney, from 21 March – 26 April; and the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong, from 8 – 17 May 2026. For more information, visit: www.mtc.com.au for details.
Images: Kala Gare as Sybylla Melvyn – photo by Pia Johnson | Kala Gare as Sybylla Melvyn – photo by Pia Johnson | Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward as Frank and Kala Gare as Sybylla Melvyn – photo by Pia Johnson | The Cast of My Brilliant Career – photo by Pia Johnson | The Cast of My Brilliant Career – photo by Pia Johnson
Review: Rohan Shearn