A collaboration between three local theatre companies, 35MM: A Musical Exhibition showcases an extraordinarily talented cast of Brisbane performers in Ryan Scott Oliver’s unconventional song cycle.
35MM: A Musical Exhibition is a sung-through musical anthology of sixteen songs, each composed by Oliver and connected to a photograph taken by his husband, Matthew Murphy. 35MM premiered Off-Broadway in 2012 and made its Australian premiere in 2015, also in Brisbane, as part of the inaugural season of Harvest Rain’s Incubator Series. This production is co-presented by local theatre companies Allentertainment, Passion Productions, and PIP Theatre, and directed by Harrison Allen.
Each song was presented as a self-contained theatrical vignette with changes of costume, props, and dramatic action. The songs had minimal thematic cohesion, but musically they fit together impressively well despite ranging across genres, from short and humorous to country, rock, ballads, and more. The performers were accompanied live by a six-piece orchestra conducted by Music Director Seán Fagan, who also played the piano, with assistant musical direction by Nykita O’Keeffe, and one of the songs was sung acapella.
The sixteen songs were performed by different combinations of the seven musical theatre performers, with some solos and a number of duets. They told stories of a killer prom queen, a fed-up babysitter, a woman spiralling into madness, and couples falling in and out of love with all of the anguish, joy, anticipation, and compromise that entails. The lack of connection between the vignettes resulted in a stop-start pace, with tension and momentum ebbing and flowing within the songs but not between them. There were also several songs themed around art and its interpretation, returning to the phrase Hold still. Focus. in reference to the elements of photography that were woven through the show.
The performers entered from multiple points in the room and occasionally moved into the audience, with the musicians arranged in two small ‘pits’ on either side of the stage’s catwalk. Although the live music enhanced the performance, the volume occasionally overpowered the singers, especially early in the show.
Set design by Laurent Milton made use of the limited stage space with a couple of key set pieces and included a wide range of props. Photographs were partially projected onto two transparent banners, framing the stage catwalk during the connected songs, and the walls of the auditorium were also adorned with the photographs featured in the production, connected by red string. Costuming by Renee Lara Milton distinguished each character in the vignettes, as the cast all took on many roles. Lighting design by Tim James was dynamic and colourful, and there were a few surprising moments of pyrotechnics.
Led by vocal powerhouse Aurélie Roque, the cast of 35MM included Rae Rose, Mabelle Maynard, Connor Clarke, Tomer Dimanstein, Bethanie Walsh, and Samantha Sherrin. Although all of the performers gave outstanding vocal performances, the highlight of the show was undoubtedly Roque’s soul-shaking rendition of Leave, Luanne, a ballad about an abused housewife in Louisianna.
35MM: A Musical Exhibition is an exercise in creative interpretation, encouraging us to capture moments and lean in to the details of the world around us. I’d encourage you to go and see these exceptional local performers and draw your own loops of red string between the songs.
35MM: A Musical Exhibition will be performed at PIP Theatre, Milton, from 18 April – 4 May 2024
For ticketing and further information, visit the PIP Theatre website
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