In the introduction to Miles Franklin’s 1901 debut, My Brilliant Career, the character of Sybylla Melvyn wants to set expectations. This is not a romance, she tells us. It’s not a novel, either. Just a yarn. “I have too often faced the music of life to the tune of hardship,” she says, “to waste time in … fantasies and dreams.” This story is going to be real.
A new stage adaptation of this classic Australian work by Melbourne Theatre Company embraces this reference to the “music of life” to create a rambunctious musical for our times.
Read my full review at The Saturday Paper
Photo: Pia Johnson
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