Theatre / “Bombshells”, Echo Theatre, The Q, Until 29 August. Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL

An overwhelmed mother, a jilted wife hyper-focused on succulents, a school-aged talent quest diva, a young bride and a widow in her 60s. These are the characters delivering the monologues in this local reboot of director Jordan Best’s production.

Bombshells was written by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith in 2001, when she would have been around 40 and that’s where it feels this play sits. Bombshells was originally performed as a one woman play, featuring six characters. Here it’s presented with five women, each playing one character. A few of the monologues are delivered as a stream of consciousness, while the others are spoken directly to the audience, or an audience within the scenario and they each stand alone.

The set design by Best and Roz Hall gave each character a nicely-detailed mini-set, lined up and individually lit with a spot-light when their moment comes.

Berating herself in a stream of consciousness throughout a day, Ugg-booted mother (Yanina Clifton) cares for her sockless baby while trying to manage daily chores, school demands of two other children and muster enough energy to engage with her husband. Her relentless, relatable, often funny thought process has her convinced all roads will lead to cancer for her children, most likely via her feeding them white bread. Her monologue is quite exhausting just to listen to.

A spotlight failure during Clifton’s performance took roughly ten minutes to rectify while she continued to perform in silhouette, without skipping a beat.

Accompanied by a tragically entertaining slide show in one of the more surreal scenarios was Louise Bennet as the succulent lover, whose fragility is juxtaposed with the hardiness of cacti. Her presentation to the North Queanbeyan fanclub on the stoicism of the cactus bleeds into vitriol then heartbreak over her husband. The description of phases of relationships are poignant and poetically written.

Sally Taylor delivers a good comedic performance as Mary, the slightly deluded, hyper-competitive talent quest student from St Clare’s, pumping herself up before giving her version of a feline inspired musical number, which is derailed at the last minute. With the misguided confidence embodied by so many young influencers and TikTokers that may or may not have the skills, talent or characteristics they spruik, Mary’s talent quest performance is just bad enough to be unsettlingly funny but believable.

A bride ecstatically describes her wedding-day look as a fairy-tale hooker. Complete with a broad accent and a swig from a champagne bottle, Ella Buckley is wonderful and realistic in her presentation, working her way from relief at being rescued by the HMS Security (by husband Ted) into a complete freak-out, as her wedding unfolds around her.

Then prim and proper Winsome (Lainie Hart), a widow in her 60s, describes her weekly activities with other widows. The description was so accurate of what women really do it was hilarious to hear. Her anticipation of a life-phase where “anything can happen but anything doesn’t” looks apt, until, through her volunteer work, she crosses paths with a handsome blind man in his 20s. While his blindness allowed scope for some vivid descriptions, this detail in the script denied the potential for a woman in her 60s to be fully appreciated by the gaze of a young man.

Winsome’s reflections as a woman who has far from resigned herself to old age are softer than the other women’s and her description of unexpected moments of joy hit with a wave of poignant emotion. The other women seem yet to appreciate what they do have.

References throughout Bombshells have been localised and updated but now there are some generational clashes: references to Taylor Swift’s wedding but also the yellow pages by the young bride, or the influence of Zendaya, whilst flipping through CDs is jarring.

Bombshells is delivered with great pacing, (there is no interval), attention to detail with costuming and gentle humour with moments of absolute acuity and recognition. It’s interesting to ponder on the lives we imagined, the lives we have and the life we look back on.

Bombshells will be hitting the road in a regional tour after this short run in Queanbeyan so if you want to catch a glimpse of these women’s worlds, don’t delay!

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