The Drama
It’s late pre-Federation Australia and Sybylla Melvyn is already facing an existential crisis. At the age of sixteen!
Her family, like so many others, are facing serious financial strain as a savage drought takes hold.
As a young woman, on the cusp of adulthood, Sybylla’s choices are limited. She can follow one of the traditional career paths for the women of her time – and work as a teacher or a governess – or she can secure her financial future by marrying well.
Photo Credit – STC
But Sybylla is not a traditional woman.
She knows that she’s blessed by inspiration. By an innate desire for self-expression. She wants to be a writer.
Will society allow Sybylla to follow her dreams? Will society embrace her passion? And when prosperous landowner, Harry Beecham, falls in love with her, which option will she choose? A safe marriage to a good man? Or the brilliant career for which she yearns?
It’s a colonial Australian version of a Jane Austen set up. But will there be a Jane Austen solution?
Photo Credit – STC
A Standout Performance
From the moment she strolled on to the stage – during an overture featuring colonial-sounding fiddles and keys – there was no question that Kala Gare was the star of this show.
Talk about a woman with a brilliant career!
Re-imagined as a pub-rock chick, in corsets and bloomers, Gare’s Sybylla is frenetic and manic and terrific. She sings, she dances, she plays piano and the electric guitar. She burns up the stage with every turn of her booted heel and every twist of her sharp tongue.
She’s just plain fun.
What My Eyebrows Told Me
I arrived at Rosyln Packer Theatre with no expectations. But there was an unusual electricity in the Saturday matinee air. I sensed that something special was about to unfold.
My Brilliant Career was a hoot. And it sent my eyebrows into a High Arch.
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