Brisbane

By local playwright, Matthew Ryan, Brisbane is having its world premiere season courtesy of the Queensland Theatre Company at the QPAC Playhouse and Brisbane residents should certainly be interested in this play with the eponymous one-word title.

Set in 1942, the play – described as a beautiful, heart-aching love letter to our city and its transformation during World War II – looks at the effects the war has on a local 14 year-old boy named Danny Fisher, whose pilot brother has been killed in the bombing of Darwin. In his grief and amid family implosion, Danny finds a proxy older brother in the form of Andy, a visiting American stationed in Brisbane. But Danny wants to get revenge on those responsible for his brother’s death.

The play promises a coming-of-age tale mixing heartbreak and comedy during a time that saw Brisbane itself coming of age, being a support base for American troops from 1942-1925. With the bombings of Darwin and Townsville, we can only imagine how dire the circumstances would have seemed to the city’s residents, and it’s this crisis that is brought to life amid the tensions between the American and Australian troops.

Says writer Matthew Ryan (whose successful play, Kelly, will be touring the country at the same time Brisbane premieres), “The Australian soldiers were made to feel like second best in their own country and the Americans felt unappreciated for defending our country. That tension built to a very ugly event in the middle of the city they were all supposed to be defending.”

Brisbane is directed by Iain Sinclair and features a cast that includes Matthew Backer, Conrad Coleby, Harriet Dyer, Lucy Goleby, Dash Kruck, Daniel Murphy, Veronica Neave, Hugh Parker and Hayden Spencer.

By Vicki Englund

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