Maureen: Harbinger of Death

When Jonny Hawkins enters the stage and explains that older women are his heroes and this show is a homage to them, he takes a risk, setting himself up to possibly fail by causing offence or simply not doing them justice. But thanks to thoughtful characterisation and a huge amount of sensitivity and care, this one-woman show proves touching - and compelling throughout.

We are in the bohemian living room of an apartment in Sydney’s rather bohemian Kings Cross. Hawkins takes off his shoes, walks into the heavily stylised, wallpapered room and puts on a dress, which is in the same fleur-de-lis print as the wallpaper. Adopting the persona of Maureen, she thus melds into the room. This is quite appropriate because, as she explains, a person’s room can be like a part of them - and it reveals a lot.

Maureen is an enthralling character, a rather funny and engaging “working-class glamour queen”, as she calls herself, based on a real-life King’s Cross figure. This older woman with a passion for fashion and design has become somewhat of an icon for the local community, particularly for gay men. We can see why - she keeps us entertained with stories of her life for 70 minutes. The way Hawkins embodies her, with simple mannerisms and witty one-liners, makes her endearing to all members of the audience. Including, it must be said, many older women who from all appearances, he thoroughly wins over.

In a little black book, Maureen has a list of her friends and when she expects them to die. She is very accurate, she tells us, and is thus called a “harbinger of death”. All those friends have indeed now died and she tells us some of those stories - Dennis, a gay man she may have loved, a New York friend Bunny who died in the arms of Hugh Jackman, and her neighbour Tenille, who she ensures looks as wonderful in her death as she deserved.

Maureen admits these stories - including her own - are not entirely truthful. She has an imagination that helps improves the narrative. No more so than that of the woman in a portrait on her wall: the greek goddess Persephone, who was the trapped wife of Hades in the underworld. Her story bothers Maureen because it’s not controlled by her. Maureen reinvents it into one that the protagonist drives - her relationship with Hades is on her own terms. That is, after all, how Maureen does things.

It’s fair to assume that this brilliant work was a true collaboration - it’s not just the work of Hawkins but Nell Ranney’s ideas and direction that help craft this story so wonderfully. Maureen’s story is told not just through a queer man’s eyes but a woman’s too.

Maureen: Harbinger of Death is part of the Sydney Festival and it’s just the type of work that should be seen in such a setting. Festivals are for risk-taking, for different works we would not see elsewhere. This play is incredibly touching, insightful and captivating to watch.

Peter Gotting

Photographer: Yaya Stempler

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