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 QTC's Kelly
Cremorne Theatre
QPAC
Melbourne St
Cnr Grey St
Brisbane
Sept 15-Oct 20
A $33-$65
136 246
www.qpac.com.au
Everyone knows Ned Kelly's story but who knew Ned Kelly the man? In turn depicted as Kelly the famous bushranger, Kelly the crim and Kelly the cult anti-hero, now there's the Ned Kelly who's depicted in this stunning new QTC production staged in QPAC's intimate Cremorne Theatre.
Starting with the man sitting in his grungy cell at the Melbourne Gaol the night before his execution, Ned receives a visit from his brother Dan (who he believed to be dead at the siege in Glenrowan), disguised as a priest.
Seeking absolution before he takes off for a new life in Queensland, leaving his brother to die, the exchange between the brothers ignites into the equivalent of a verbal shootout, defined by fast-cracking banter laced with crass quintessentially Australian humour.
On a deeper level, this, their last ever encounter rakes through the past, which despite their blood ties is a very different place for them and with it, questions of life or death, cowardice, heroism or simple cold-blooded murder are raised. And when all is said and done a whole new light is shed upon this piece of history.
Written by Brisbane playwright Matthew Ryan (boy, girl, wall & Sacre Bleur) who spend a formative part of his childhood living in and being haunted by tales and graphic images of Ned in Kelly Country, this is a story that has waited a long time to be told.
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