In late1978 I arrived back in Australia after four years away
travelling. I'd spent most of my time in the USA, where I started
writing songs and had joined (as percussionist) an all girl latin jazz
band called
Baba Yaga. I remember sitting in Tamani's Cafe telling
Kerry Dwyer all about my US song writing adventures and she suggested I apply for the position of writer in residence at the
Pram Factory.
I'd been an actor at the Pram before I left in '74 and had slotted
right back in joining the Nightshift crew, one of the many groups under
the Pram umbrella. I made the short list for the residency and it came
down to me and a guy who was writing a full on Trotsky-esque political drama.
Luckily for me the feminists had taken over the excecutive committee and
I got the gig.
I ended up writing a musical (lyrics
and music) called Failing In Love Again for five singers and three
musicians. It was performed in November/ December, 1979 ( the last show of the old
guard of the Pram). The nameless characters were: a heterosexual man, a
heterosexual woman, a gay man, a lesbian and a bisexual woman. All were
'casualties of love' and sang songs like: Sad Masochist, My Mother Wore
The Pants, On the Beat, Better Than Het, Gotta Get Outa The Ghetto, Song
of A Single Cynic, Split Guilt, and
Monogamy Shbedogamy.
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| The original cast of Failing In Lova Again. Photo: Ruth Maddison |
I
had no idea right up until opening night if people would like it or
not. I was also performing in it, playing the bisexual woman. The poster
and set was by Carol Porter, it was directed by Robin Laurie and Nano
Nagle, the musical director (also pianist) was Elizabeth Drake with
Marnie Shehan on guitar and Cathy Loosely on drums. The other
singer/actors were Evelyn Krape, Di Duncombe, Terry Darmody and Robbie
McGregor. Costumes were by Laurel Frank. On opening night the house was
packed and as we took our final bows, the thunderous applause told us we
had a hit on our hands.
Word spread to Sydney
especially among the gay community, who even chartered buses to get to
Melbourne to see it. It was full house every night of the four
week run. But such success was short lived. No body filmed
it, there was an audio recording which was lost and only the wonderful
black and white photos by photographer
Ruth Maddison remain.
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| Poster by Bob Daly |
There
was talk of touring, but it was too expensive and the old guard of the Pram was on its
last legs. However Elizabeth Drake and I had the bright idea to take the
cabaret version of the musical to the Adelaide Fringe Festival. We tried it out at the Flying Trapeze Cafe in Brunswick St. The
pared back show suited our duo dynamic perfectly and another couple of
songs were added: The Vibrator Song and Orally Fixated. In Adelaide we peformed at Carclew and wowed the crowds with impromptu performances at the Festival Club.
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| Jan & Elisabeth at Flying Trapeze Cafe. Photo: Ruth Maddison |
It was one of the hits of the festival so we
decided to take it on the road: Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Nimbin,
Bellingen, Newcastle, Sydney. In Sydney we joined a fabulous network
called Cabaret Conspiracy, headed up by Johnny Allen, who launched our
show at Palms Cabaret in Oxford St. Word spread and soon we were invited
to perform by Sue Hill to perform a season at Downstairs Nimrod Theatre (now Belvoir) in Surry
Hills. There we
met production manager Leanne Donnelly who became an integral part of
our team. We weer packed out every night and apparently our show was the most financially successful of its
era.
Read a review of the Nimrod show here,
We wrote another show soon after called Worse Than
Perverse which we launched at Nimrod Downstairs and took to the
Adelaide Fringe in 1982. At Troupe theatre we performed both shows back
to back to sold out houses.
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| Jim Sharman with poster of Worse than Perverse |
After the festival Elizabeth and I went in different directions; I developed my one woman shows —
Woman On The Run,
Aroma Billings, Exotic Artiste Ordinaire and
Standing Up Bent.
I was invited to take part in the woman's comedy revival at the Trade Union
Club in Sydney (set up by Larry Buttrose and Judy Barnsley),
performing alongside Wendy Harmer, Gretel Killeen, Mandy Solomon. After having kids I became a playwright and screen writer and didn't come back to performing until 2004 as a spoken and sung word poet at The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.
Elizabeth went on to compose for
theatre and film, becoming the only woman to win an AFI award for her musical score for the film
Japanese Story directed by Sue Brooks. She has worked widely composing for theatre and film including a number of theatre productions with playwright/director
Jenny Kemp. In 2012 she performed at Womadelaide with Caroline Almonte. a two piano version of
Canto Ostinato, by Simeon Ten Holt, a stunning piece of highly evocative minimalist music
that can be performed in different formats, with different combinations of
instruments and venues.
PURCHASE YOUR COLLECTORS ITEM FAILING IN LOVE AGAIN CD HERE
