OBSERVER: Stella
Monique diMattina’s Stella is a new Australian musical about Stella Miles Franklin, tracing more than 60 years of her life from the Brindabella Valley in rural Australia, through Sydney, Chicago, London, and back home.
Directed by Julia Robertson, Geraldine Hakewell is terrific as Stella, portraying her as multifaceted and conveying the determination and single-minded focus that drive her to pursue her dream of becoming a writer.
Hakewell is ably supported by Johanna Allen, Shubshri Kandiah, Joe Koskyand Kaya Byrne, who, together, play dozens of roles.
DiMattina’s cohesive book, music and lyrics, which draw on Franklin’s own words, capture the enormous historical sweep of Franklin’s life.
The result is a modern portrait of Franklin that weaves together her views on women’s lives and marriage, her pseudonymous bush novels, her activism, and her connections to other writers into a clear, fluid narrative. No mean feat!
Isla Shaw’s costuming, Shula Keyte’s hair and makeup, and Nick Fry’s inventive set ground the scenes in their time.
Shifting props evoke fields, war-torn Europe, and 1920s London.
A moving doorway serves as a visual metaphor, opening from rural Australia to Sydney and then to the world.
A table becomes a makeshift hospital or a stage where arch-rival Mary Gilmour delivers a lecture.
Lighting designer Sydney Younger illuminates backdrops that cleverly reveal vast country skies and mountains, war-torn Europe, and the Roaring Twenties, all in equal measure.
The show moves beyond mimicking Franklin’s My Brilliant Career to present a complex portrait of “a mawkish adolescent misfit in a scrapyard town”.
In its final scene, Stella holds a roll call of Miles Franklin Award winners, including Patrick White, Tim Winton and Alexis Wright, underscoring Franklin’s enduring legacy.
Review by Kathryn Keeble
Pictured: Cast or Stella. Photo: Ben Fon