A Model Murder

In 1954, glamour model Shirley Beiger stood trial for the murder of her two-timing boyfriend outside Sydney’s iconic Chequers nightclub. Melanie Tait and Sheridan Harbridge have shaped those events, and indeed some of the actual courtroom dialogue, into a highlight of this year’s Sydney Festival.

This site specific, immersive, interactive audience participation production, A Model Murder, mixes of vaudeville, burlesque, cabaret and broad comedy, packed with theatrical influences including but not limited to Chicago and Cabaret, in this ‘re-enactment’, which takes place in the very courthouse where the 1954 trial took place.

Audience members become the jury and the court spectators, to the extent that they are even provided with props and headwear to immerse them in their characters, and to create some nice visual humour.

My colleague David Spicer definitely enjoyed the production’s most interactive experience, and I’d encourage you to read his account - Disorder in Court - https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/disorder-court

David takes us into the immersive side A Model Murder so totally that I’ll leave it at that.

From the gallery of the courtroom, my experience was a far more conventional audience view of proceedings than the being part of the kooky interaction on the courtroom floor – still great fun, but a far more conventional theatre experience than the direct audience involvement going on downstairs. I really envied them that experience and the fun they were so actively participating in.

While it’s a distinctly two-tiered audience event, this terrific show places ‘Sydney’ very much front and centre in its own Festival. A terrific event.

Neil Litchfield

Photographer: Neil Bennett