My Brilliant Career, Belvoir

 Yes, we're back for another year (though given the number of things that have been rescheduled from last year, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is 2020 done properly this time). It's nice to be back in the theatre with a big scale classic Australian Novel adaptation by a major new Australian playwright, in a beautiful and strong production - this one was originally going to tour Canberra as well but the tour got cancelled so this is my chance to catch the highly anticipated premiere.

This is my first encounter with any version of "My Brilliant Career", though it turns out this has a somewhat familiar narrative as a girl in a large rural family seeks to find herself in pre-federation country NSW, between growing up roughly in an oversized impoverished family, finding some comfort with wealthier relatives and their set before being thrown back into circumstances worse than before as she becomes governess to the children of one of her father's creditors. There's wooing, there's triumph over the odds, there's a lot of direct-address to the Audience as Sybylla attempts to justify her decisions. It's the kind of tale that could be described as rollicking - if you can spot similarities with a couple of other works (there does seem a slight element of bushbound Jane Austen in the wealth relatives sections, and the governess section weirdly feels a bit like "Sound Of Music" with the children attempting to torture the new arrival, despite the novel pre-dating "Sound of Music" by about 60 years), it never the less plays the variations on familiar themes with verve, wit and energy. 

Played on a fairly basic set (seven chairs, one piano, one set of boards centre stage and a curtain), the costumes do most of the work in setting period and character, with Nikki Shiels as our heroine centre stage for nearly all of the runtime, capturing all the mercurial characteristics of the lead, professedly anti-romantic and rough but with higher aspirations and desires that seem forever beyond her grasp, she's a fascinating figure to spend time with. The other six members of the cast move in and out of various roles - Blazey Best largely as mothers and aunts, variously frustrated, indulgent and rough-as-guts, Guy Simon largely as the potential romantic lead Harry Beechum, Jason Chong as dads and uncles, Tracey Mann largely as Sybylla's formidible Grandmother and Harry's equally formidable mother (but also scoring as a particularly grotty McSwat child), Tom Conroy landing both as sympathetic brothers and a snotty potential suitor, and Emma Harvie as sisters, a maid and a romantic rival - all give their various personas distinction while serving the greater purpose of Sybylla's story 

Kate Champion's direction together with strong lighting byAmeila Lever-Davidson and strong sound design from Steve Francis keep the show moving through the various twists and turns of narrative, coming up with effective solutions for potentially-difficult-to-stage moments like Harry and Sybylla's falling out of a boat and moving from grotty to high-culture, active big outdoors action to intimate reflective scenes with aplomb. It's a beautiful production that deserves to get wider exposure whenever possible.