Songs For Nobodies

Cabaret superstar Bernadette Robinson is returning from a sold-out season on London’s West End, bringing her hit play Songs For Nobodies back home to Australia for a limited season. First performed 10 years ago, Songs For Nobodies was specifically written for Robinson by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith and is directed by Simon Phillips. In the one-woman piece, Bernadette switches characters and roams the stage both singing and performing monologues as five mid 20th-century divas, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas, and five ordinary women.

“Switching characters in the play is great, I love doing it, because it’s exciting. I really love performing the characters, I’ve got lots to play with,” said Robinson.

Songs For Nobodies is a deeply personal play and has been a long time in the making.

“I think lots of people could almost perform this piece but when I asked her [Murray-Smith] to put the operatic parts in I did that because I just thought ‘no one else is going to be able to do this’. This one is really something that we worked on literally for years before it came about.”

Audiences can expect a moving and enthralling performance from Robinson, and she hopes that they will want to return for a second time to see it all again, “I hope that audiences will want to come back again, which often does happen, because it’s quite intricate and people just think ‘wow’ and they pick up lots more the second time again. Audiences will be moved, it’s exquisite writing, it’s funny and moving and interesting and lyrical and poetic and the songs are great. And I think I do a really good job!”

Until Feb 9. Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney. $69-$129+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.sydneyoperahouse.com

By Madison Behringer