IMB Theatre, IPAC, Wollongong, Thursday 14 May 2026
As the above line should make clear, this review is of the musical theatre adaptation of the Miles Franklin book, not the book itself, nor the 1979 movie.
I fear I bring too much baggage to this production to have enjoyed it as much as I might have.
You have to understand that Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin is one of my all-time heroes. She broke barriers and achieved ends that were – to me – no less than revolutionary. My Brilliant Career was her first book, published in 1901 when she was not yet 21 years old (although mostly written when she was 19).
It’s a semi-autobiographical account of a young girl in rural late 19th century Australia who has ambitions well above her social, cultural, and economic station.
Sybylla Melvyn is, as she puts it “egotistical”, yet painfully aware that she is not beautiful, wealthy, or well-connected. Her ambition is to be a writer and her opening line is
My dear fellow Australians,
Just a few lines to tell you that this story is all about myself – for no other purpose do I write it.
My Brilliant Career was championed by Henry Lawson and, despite Franklin’s insistence on not letting it be republished for 10 years after her death in 1954, it has gone on to be recognised as an Australian classic.
In my opinion, it’s not actually her best book. For me, that honour is divided between her family drama All That Swagger (1936) and her biography of Joseph Furphy (1944). It’s no coincidence that Furphy is the author of my all-time favourite Australian novel Such is Life, under the pseudonym Tom Collins.
Franklin, Furphy, and Lawson were all champions of a fiercely Australian literature that laid the foundations for our best writers today.
Right, but what about this musical?
Well, it’s loud, audacious, energetic, true in spirit to much of the book and enough of the story, and performed with great zeal by an incredibly talented multi-instrumental and multi-role playing cast.
The production values are top notch, the lighting and the staging are high class – there’s plenty of money on that stage. The sound of the dialogue was oddly indistinguishable at times, despite the high volume (that may have been because the levels were set better for singing than speaking).
Other than Sybylla being rather too pretty, the casting was great, with a suitably foppish Frank and an admirably brooding (and whip cracking) Harry competing for Sybylla’s hand, while the rest of the cast were equally winning.
The songs were (mostly) well-crafted, ranging in style from Broadway to Missy Higgins, and were each presented with a “big finish” that sought and won raucous audience approval.
And yet.
Perhaps if I’d never read the book, or the three biographies of Franklin, or had not been won over by Judy Davis and Sam Neill in the rather more genteel (and ironic) movie, I might have enjoyed it more, or at least as much as the adoring audience did (while it was great to see a much younger audience presence than usual at IPAC, I did fear for some of the older attendees levering themselves out of their seats to give a standing ovation at the end).
Yes, I’m being precious but having characters say “Hey, cool” and “Fuck off” just didn’t sit right with me, nor the searing electric guitar solos.
Who’d have thought I’d be such a fuddy duddy?