Musical Theatre Australia’s founders, Katy Forde and Aleathea Monsour, created A Girl’s Guide to World War to uncover the history of two extraordinary female doctors, Dr Agnes Bennett and Dr Lilian Cooper. They were among the first female doctors practising in Australia in the early 20th century. Attempting to use their medical skills to join the Great War (1914-1918), they were rejected by the Army on the basis of their sex. Undeterred, they made their separate ways to a frontline hospital in Serbia in 1916 where their combined successes led them to become decorated war heroines.
Written and directed by Forde, with Monsour as composer and musical director, A Girls’ Guide to World War was first produced in 2018 and has just enjoyed a revitalised south-east Queensland tour with some final performances in Brisbane.
Forde’s play mostly focuses on and dramatises the year spent by both doctors, working side by side during the war. More a play with music than a musical, the narrative is told equally through the text as through the songs, with Vix Nightsinger as a chatty narrator. The serious content of the play’s theme is lightened by the depiction of some interesting characters, all of whom are based on real people and inject much humour, joy and pathos into this work.
But the result is also mixed. However interesting the story, at nearly three hours, the work seems overly long and some judicious pruning would be welcome. An overabundance of information, with a number of scenes failing to advance the main narrative, proves a distraction. Some scenes, one with local women and babies and a choreographed scene of poorly dressed locals, go nowhere.
While understanding that the play was specifically written for an all-female cast, some male presence would have been welcome, especially for the roles of both the Serbian Colonel Sondermayer and the Crown Prince. No doubt other male characters could have been usefully engaged, possibly adding extra depth.
Assisted by a mix of identifiable folk and pop styled tunes from Monsour, there are a plethora of individual songs reflecting moods and feelings, while those for the full cast are well delivered with some excellent harmonies. The accompanying music and underscoring are very well played. Nightsinger is the accomplished lead guitarist of the band that comprises Sue Moxon on keyboard/cello with Suzanne Hibbs on drums.
The production is set mostly at the frontline hospital. Bill Haycock’s simple stage design with rostra, multiple army-styled crates and dark wooden side panelling representing the Serbian mountains, works well. Calico fabric on moveable screens variously represents hospital tents, rooms and a ship with sails. It works effectively while the neutral stage palette allows lighting designer, David Walters, to create day and nights scenes in the hospital, at the frontline and across mountains with some well-chosen atmospheric colours. Haycock and Forde’s ingenious use of the crates is particularly effective in creating a motor car.
Aleathea Monsour is splendid in the role of Agnes Bennett. From the outset, she sets the tone for this rather prudish, shy and retiring personality, a woman of science and reason who has given up her life to help others. Her opening song is particularly well sung. Diametrically opposed in personality, Susie French’s portrayal of the lesbian, swearing, cigarette-smoking Dr Lilian Cooper, is equally her match vocally and dramatically. Their first meeting is beautifully enacted, as is their duet, ‘Every Day is a Fight’. Gradually they learn to respect and even like each other.
As Cooper’s companion, Miss Josephine Bedford, Zoe Georgakis gives a spirited performance with a beautiful rendition, together with French, of their love duet ‘Ask Me Once Again’. She is less successful in the caricatured role of Colonel Sondermayer. Margery Forde’s snooty, aristocratic Mrs Harley is suitably obnoxious as the grand dame of the Serbian Hospital Service. She also makes a good stab at playing the Serbian Crown Prince.
Minette Cooper’s exuberant Nurse Higgins is a foil to Dr Bennett, before she runs away to join the Serbian army. She also doubles as a young, wounded deserter, her sweet voice joining Monsour in some lovely harmonies in the ballad ‘Purple Tree’. The two ambulance girls, Rachel Fentiman as Lady Elise Corbette and Matilda Malone as Miss Katherine Dillon, provide much comic humour in their over-the-top roles as two young, badly-behaved English aristocrats.
Read: Exhibition review: Wedgwood: Artists and Industry, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
The epilogue where we learn what happens to everyone after the war is well presented, offering a joyful ending to the work.
A Girl’s Guide to World War, presented by Musical Theatre Australia
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
Writer/Director: Katy Forde
Composer and Musical Director: Aleathea Monsour
Choreographer: Fiona Jopp
Lighting Design: David Walters
Design (Set and Costumes): Bill Haycock
Incorporating some of the original production designs by Michael Forde and Linus Monsour (Set) and Anne Grant (Costumes)
Cast: Aleathea Monsour, Susie French, Vix Nightsinger, Zoe Georgakis, Margery Forde, Minette Cooper, Rachel Fentiman, Matilda Malone
Band: Vix Nightsinger, Sue Moxon and Suzanne Hibbs
A Girl’s Guide to World War will be performed until 13 April 2025.
