Much loved theatrical performer Sharon Millerchip (Love Never Dies, Chicago, Into the Woods) gives a magnificent performance in this terrific play by Joanna Murray-Smith.
Bombshells is a striking series of monologues examining life from a female perspective, and featuring six characters of various ages and experience, each of whom has a distinctive ‘voice’, accent, and a secret neurosis or two.
The script – a judicious blend of hilarious one-liners and exquisitely lyrical and moving passages – is witty, challenging and at times extremely revealing. Millerchip is always in control; she clearly knows how to handle her audience (at times you could have heard a pin drop, at others we were doing a Mexican wave and singing along).
In the opening sequence we meet Meryl, a stressed and anxious mother running on empty, with no time for herself. Next is the romantically devastated Tiggy, outwardly posh and elegant, giving a speech to a cacti-fanciers club and intimately revealing her painful marriage breakdown. (Tiggy’s speech blurs the borders between inner and outer selves – is what we hear in her head or is it really spoken aloud?) Then, hilariously, comes Mary, a schoolgirl talent quest entrant (all dressed up to do a Cats tribute and bravely improvising to Isaac Haye’s ‘Shaft’).
We also meet the stunning but vulgar Theresa, a foul-mouthed and jittery bride on her wedding day who is having second thoughts. Next comes Winsome, a widow who reads to the blind – a magnificent performance with some very hot and steamy ‘purple passages’, but also a poignant performance of an older woman’s rediscovery of her sexuality. And finally there’s Zoe, a washed-up cabaret star attempting a comeback (what a fabulous, glamorous black dress!) with lashings of Deitrich and hints of Garland and Piaf.
Lindsay Partridge crucially contributed as the pianist for Zoe’s set in a delightful performance.
The set is flexible, a neutral coloured multi-panelled design and a couple of chairs that move from location to location, including a dining room, a green room and a cabaret bar.
The pauses and set changes between monologues were perhaps a little unwieldy, and the sequence featuring the character of Zoe was possibly a fraction overlong, but with such fantastic triple-threat talent as Millerchip on stage, these are very minor quibbles indeed.
Featuring a bravura performance by a theatrical diva performing at the top of her game, the standing ovation at the end of Bombshells was richly deserved.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Bombshells
By Joanna Murray Smith
Starring Sharon Millerchip
Director: Sandra Bates
Assistant Director: Nicole Buffoni
Designer Marissa: Dale-Johnson
Lighting Designer: Tony Youlden
Original music composition: Max Lambert
Additional music composition/Music Arrangements/Pianist: Lindsay Partridge
Choreography: Nicole Buffoni/Sharon Millerchip
Running time: 2 hour 30 mins (approx) including one interval
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli
14 March – 13 April
