Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre
July 28, 2018

Yarramadoon The Musical begins at a bus stop. It’s 2004 and 16-year old Shelly (Eliza Reilly) has been caught having sex with Davo on the family’s trampoline – “a tramp on a trampoline” as her mother puts it. Her mum has sent her packing and so she’s off to Sydney with a haphazardly filled-out application to join Gloria Jeans – only there isn’t a bus for another hour.

Before long, an elderly man called Leonard (Hannah Reilly) appears and tries to encourage her to stay, telling her stories about the history of Yarramadoon, a (fictional) small Aussie town just off the M5 where racism, sexism and parochialism are par for the course.

Hannah Reilly as Leonard and Eliza Reilly as Shelly. Photograph © Indiana Kwong

Produced by Aya Productions, in association with Belvoir’s indie 25A program, Yarramadoon The Musical stars sisters Eliza and Hannah Reilly, who co-created the ABC comedy doco series Growing Up Gracefully. Here, they are writers, actors and co-directors of the show, as well as co-composers of the songs with Matthew Predny, who accompanies them on keyboards and puts in a couple of cameos,...