Why this classic Australian work still matters
Last November, Kala Gare called out to theater goers after groping actors passing through the audience in a previous production. Now sitting on the grassy stage of Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre, “sprawling on men” and proudly displaying workman’s boots to match her ruffled country dress, Gare says she understands the “courage” of speaking out.
This is a trait that the 28-year-old artist attributes to Sybylla Melvyn, the character she plays in the stage version of the musical. My Perfect CareerIt is based on the 1901 novel by Miles Franklin, who refuses to marry despite facing drought and poverty in the Australian outback in the 1890s.
“[Sybylla’s] “Her life is planned around either working as a governess, a cook, or getting married and having children, and she has a deep passion for creativity,” explains Gare. “Her whole struggle, the whole show, is: ‘Why isn’t there another option? Why am I allowed and why are my siblings having a different life experience?’”
Gare says the reason the show has reached modern audiences is because its themes of gender inequality still resonate today. “As women in the sector and working women, [we are] It’s pushing places where we don’t have the same freedoms, and that’s something that’s changing.
“But we are living, in a beautiful way, on the backs of the women who are screaming about it.”
My Perfect Career It opens in Sydney on Wednesday. Directed by Anne-Louise Sarks, with a book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant, and music by Mathew Frank, the musical takes place under a glittering chandelier, on a stage covered with brown grass and bright yellow flowers.
The performers are called “quadruple threats” because they also play instruments, are dressed in colorful country attire, and the soundtrack is also inspired by the sounds of Harbridge’s childhood growing up “in the bush”.
“I grew up on a farm. I know that the creaking violin-like sound of a creaking door or the wind whistling through barbed wire or the magpie calls you hear when you wake up are all of those things at once,” Harbridge says.
“The musical palette of this show is like a big old mixtape… we go from hard rock to full MT [musical theatre] “From ballads to beautiful intimate moments with Sybylla alone at the piano, from soul music to loud pop, there are so many different genres we go through on the journey of the show.”
Despite the uncomfortable truth Gare shares with her character – the inequality they face as women – there is joy in the show.
“There’s a nice challenge in sitting in what’s still going on,” he says. “This show turns that into something very joyful, and that’s actually the color that encourages and empowers, and it’s something I’m very proud of doing here.”
