Enormously satisfying, brimming with beautifully observed words and alluring music – The Age
Acclaimed Australian composer/lyricist Monique diMattina presents a concert work-in-progress version of her latest project – STELLA: The Miles Franklin Story – a pan-genre experience ranging from neo-classical through folk, old style jazz, comic ditties and sweeping ballads.
Sharing songs, stories, gossip and skits from this musical in development, Monique tells the extraordinary life story of Australian author Stella Miles Franklin, with the help of long time collaborators Sam Lemann and Ben Robertson.
Although the Miles Franklin Award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, most Australians are unaware that Miles was a woman, let alone the details of her extraordinary life.
Weaving together songs, gossip and Stella Miles Franklin’s own words, the show brings audiences on an epic journey from Franklin’s Snowy Mountains childhood to fame as the young author of My Brilliant Career, years battling for women’s suffrage and labour rights in the USA and UK, WWI field work, creative struggles and legacy as a trailblazing champion of Australian art, conservation and culture.
STELLA: The Miles Franklin Story will make you laugh, cry and love what Stella called, “Our unique, inebriating, laughing, haunting, wistful, brooding, ancient, ageless, siren land”
Doors 6.30pm, band on stage at 7.30pm.
