Two Ladies and an Emu

It’s not often that you walk into a small community theatre staging the world premiere of a locally written play with such an ambitious narrative.

Two Ladies and an Emu has a Priscillia Queen of the Desert come Thelma and Louise vehicle centred plot. In this instance two women are on a road trip in outback Australia traversing long dusty highways and visiting campsites and towns along the way.

Hats off to the production team headed by Wal Moore, for the replica four-wheel drive Suzuki Jimny, built on trolley wheels, ingeniously allowing the vehicle to turn around and be on an angle when required.

The car did not have to drive off a cliff or have a Drag Queen ride on top, but there were plenty of other challenges faced by the creative team.

Clever use of lighting, sound effects and a large emu puppet added to the high production standards.  

Carla Moore was inspired to write the play when she went to a dinner party where two ladies described their outback road trip that was full of disasters.

The stories in the play are fictitious. Two women Ruth (Kate Mannix) and Judith (Catherine Moore) are two Sydneysiders who are embarking on the road trip.  Judith is a recent widow, whilst Ruth is her cousin who never married.

During the long hours on the road in between flat tyres, visits to dodgy campsites, and jumping at shadows of suspected serial killers, the two women turn to discussion of Ruth’s list of ex-lovers.

The brief arrival of the emu (very nicely executed) is a metaphor for a road hump in their relationship.

Both warmly embraced their roles, and nicely milked the humour and drama of their misadventure.

The one male actor, Ross Alexander, played four men whom they meet along the way and displayed great skill at mastering different accents.

Two Ladies and An Emu is a gem of a little play with heart and humour.

David Spicer