THEATRE: In the lead-up to taking the stage to deliver highly-acclaimed production Bombshells, Christen O’Leary faces the challenge as if she is about to climb Mount Everest.
And considering the fact she takes on no less than SIX vastly different characters throughout the play, the trepidation is understandable.
The accomplished actor is a great choice for the one-woman show, having taken on the mammoth role of Judy Garland in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s End of the Rainbow Production recently.
O’Leary has painstakingly perfected each of the six characters, fine-tuning the line-up ranging from a 14-year-old schoolgirl to a 64-year-old widow.
“The show opens at a frenetic pace with an inner monologue from Meryl Davenport, a self-confessed yuppy mother who lets us into a day in her life,” O’Leary told entertainment.
“She’s desperately trying to be the perfect mother and failing at every turn – it’s something a lot of us can relate to, every mother gets the joke.”
Next we meet Tiggy Entwhistle, a woman delivering a speech to her local Cactus Society, but we soon learn she has recently been left by her husband for a younger woman and we watch as her speech comes undone and turns into an angry rant.
The talented actor then transforms into 14-year-old schoolgirl Mary O’Donnell, who is enormously confident in her own ability but is thrown when she finds out her arch-nemesis is performing the same song at the talent show and must come up with a new act on the spot.
Hilarity ensues.
Then we meet Theresa McTerry on her wedding day – an event she has dreamed about her whole life.
But after knocking back a few drinks, she rambles through the day and starts to doubt the decision to get hitched for the first time.
Winsome Webster is a 64-year-old widow and a personal favourite for O’Leary – a woman who feels the loss of her husband and fills her days with “significant pursuits of significant others”.
The final monologue comes from Zoe Struthers, a fading American cabaret star who reached her peak some years before and leaves the audience wondering if she is still on the road because she loves it or because she has to.
“I deal with the broad brushstrokes first – obviously the 64-year-old character is going to be a lot slower than the 14-year-old – and then work on the finer details,” O’Leary said.
“The audience needs a fully-fledged character they can identify with.
“Everywhere I go, people see their daughter, mother, wife, sister in the characters.
And some people see themselves – they say “There I am, someone is celebrating me!”
“We all have moments of fragility but there is such a warmth in the joy and humour of the show.”
Bombshells will arrive at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on Friday, November 7.
Tickets are $35, which includes a drink and nibbles on arrival and a doorprize will be given away.
To secure your tickets, go to bunburyentertainment.com
- By Shanelle Miller
