Qld Ballet premieres 'My Brilliant Career'

 

The Queensland Ballet has scored a stunning coup for its next season – a new ballet by the sought-after choreographer, Cathy Marston.

The one act ballet is based on the Australian classic, My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin. This semi-autobiographical novel, published in 1901, has been reprinted five times, and was made into a film in 1979 starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill.

Marston is English but married to an Australian. She discovered the book when she was browsing a bookshop in Bowral in NSW. She immediately felt it had the potential for a ballet.

“The character of Sybilla really drew me in,” she says. “She wants romance in her life but she's not a typical ballet heroine. She's got a feisty spirit and rebelliousness that I could could see in my head would be a great character to interpret through dance.”

Marston seems to be attracted to strong female characters as subjects. She has choreographed ballets based on the cellist Jacqueline du Pre, Queen Victoria and Jayne Eyre, among others. She is a leading light as a choreographer of narrative classical ballets.

For My Brilliant Career she has collaborated with composer Matthew Hindson and designer David Fleischer, both Australian.

Following her Qld Ballet commission, Marston takes up her new post as artistic director of Ballet Zurich, in Switzerland, where she will set to work on her next big ballet, to be based on Ian McEwan's epic novel, Atonement.

This world premiere is part of a triple bill program which includes Rooster, by another leading UK choreographer, Christopher Bruce, and A Brief Nostalgia, by rising Australian choreographer, Jack Lister.

The 'Trilogy' season opens on Friday (June 16) and runs until June 25. For more info, go here.