For over 180-years, much natural drama has played out within the convict-hewn sandstone walls of Darlinghurst Courthouse. It’s heard the 1864 trial of bushranger Frank Gardiner (aka Captain Moonlite), the murder of nurse Anita Cobby (1987) and the case known as the North Shore Granny killer (1991).

But whatever its gruesome past – it’s never been the setting of a play where actors stand on its benches, belting out songs by AC/DC, Australian Crawl and the Angels’ Am I ever gonna see your face again? with the audience singing the expletive-laden response. The wigs of the learned colleagues of the real-life Sydney bar would likely uncurl at the mere thought of A Model Murder, the first theatre piece set in the court where the real story unravelled.

Just as old girls of SCEGGS Darlinghurst would no doubt be horrified by the true life story of alumna and glamour model Shirley Beiger (Sofia Nolan) whose murder trial took place in this Taylor Square icon in 1954, the same year the Petrov case was heard there.

Ryan Morgan and Sophia Nolan in A Model Murder. Photo © Neil Bennett

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