Performances
“I’ve known Kate’s work for 25 years, and throughout her career she has produced and created live performances that are popular, humorous, tender and highly accessible, innovative and original.” Julian Louis Artistic Director NORPA
“The production showcases a tour-de-force performance by Kate Smith, best known as a comedian, but here revealed as an actress of depth and sensitivity with her portrayal of a self-aware woman who decides on an unusual strategy to cope with her grief” Australian Arts Review
“Fairley and Smith combine sly wit and impeccable timing’ first-rate entertainment” Sydney Morning Herald
Word on the street is Brocky-loving battlers – Barb, Chez and Tez Byrnes of Barb’s Burgers are going bankrupt! When dodgy Mayor Belle Farquhar’s announces that locals can enter the great V8 race and win big bucks, the Byrnes are in! But when wannabe King of the Mountain, Chez does a deal with devil who will win the podium, and at what cost? Fast Cars by Kate Smith, Composed by Tim Hansen an hilarious musical about family feuds and dirty deals!
Rusty Nails
Rusty Nails is bold, hilarious and a shameless flirt. Rusty loves nothing more than singing with her band, shimmying her way through life armed with razor sharp one-liners, jumpsuits and a vast array of wigs for all occasions. You will fall in love with her instantly.
Belle Farqhuar
Motivational speaker and real estate magnate from the Gold Coast. Belle Farqhuar has a penchant for gold velour tracksuits and power ballads, Belle’s straight-shooting life advice is inspirational and terrifying. After an evening with Belle you will never be the same.
by Mary Anne Butler
A dog. A campervan. And 4,500 kilometres of open road. Mot wakes up one morning to find that her heart is missing from her chest. She can breathe; she has a pulse—but she feels… nothing. So, she decides to go and look for it. With her dog enlisted as co-pilot, Mot heads down the Highway of Lost Hearts: into the deepest core of the Australian outback—navigating red dirt landscapes, fire and flood, brittle dryness, vast salt lakes, age-old mountains and murky waters filled with lost souls. Half gritty road journey, half magic realism and all heart. When your heart goes missing, what lengths will you go to in order to find it again?
After a celebrated season at BMEC in 2021, Lingua Franca’s production of Highway of Lost Hearts is hitting the road on a NSW wide tour.
by Catherine McNamara
ViV! – is a children’s theatre show about an adventurous, tough and sassy girl who lives with disabilities and her little sister ‘Lil’. ViV! merges digital landscapes, puppetry and choreography with an original score played live. Our heroine Viv takes the audience on a sensory journey, transporting us into her imagination, to meet the quirky friends who surf her unique brainwaves and celebrate her for all her ViVness.
The creative development of ViV! was supported by Box of Birds, Local Giants, a national program brought to you buy a partnership between Performing Arts Connections (PAC) Australia, Performing Lines and Regional Arts Australia, and the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Smith & Fairley
Smith and Fairley’s uniquely Australian comedic theatre provoked and delighted audiences for over 14 years, drawing on musical, cabaret, and physical characterisation. Theur madcap, plays combined, dance, song and witty word play concealing darker themes commentating on the universal themes of love, desire, success, failure and the Aussie Dream to have it all. Unafraid to slaughter sacred cows, Smith and Fairley’s brave and skilful plays served versions of Australian culture that made us laugh, cry, cringe and crave for more. Their works have toured, been commissioned, opened festivals, travelled abroad and appeared in theatres, community halls, RSL clubs, large scale festivals and more.
‘Voted one of the Best Independent Productions’ Sun Herald.
“Performers Fairley and Smith – think of them as funnier versions of Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan” – Sun Herald.
Smith and Fairley
- 2017 ArtsOnTour Community Grant tour with SouthEastArts
- 2016 “Kidnapped’ invited to open Hunter Valley Theatre Festival & ‘Kidnapped” & 505 Theatre, Newtown
- 2016 ‘Beatches’ commissioned for Women In Theatre Festival- WITS The Eternity Playhouse
- 2012 – 2014 ‘Kidnapped’ awarded development funding by Local Stages at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
- 2014 ‘Kidnapped’ premiered in the subscriber season at BMEC- sold out and shows added
- 2003 – 2009 ‘Bangers & Mash’, ‘The No Chance In Hell Hotel’- produced by Darlinghurst Theatre. Several return sold out seasons.
- 2006 – 2008 ‘The No Chance in Hell Hotel’ developed by Merrigong Theatre Company and programmed in BITE @ Seymour Centre
- 2004 ‘Bangers and Mash’ opened Philadelphia International Live Arts Festival.
- 2006 ‘Bangers and Mash’ invited to Edinburgh Fringe Festival by Fat Cat Productions, U.K and opened BITE@Seymour Centre
- 2005 – 2007 Invited to Hong Kong Fringe Theatre by Perilous Mouths Theatre Company, HK.
- 2007 ‘Bangers and Mash’ invited to Sydney Comedy Festival
- 2007 – 2009 Critical Stages NSW regional tours and ‘Bangers & Mash’ and ‘The No Chance In Hell Hotel’ translated into polish
Oh My God! I’ve Been Kidnapped And I Hate What I’m Wearing
By Drew Fairley
It’s 1965 and Sugar, our charming heroine, has a wardrobe Elizabeth Taylor would kill for. But her high-class threads are being unpicked by her two- timing user of a boyfriend, Buster. Betrayal, theft, humiliation, chest hairs in the soap and a hobbling cabaret career push her to the edge.
So she packs a pistol into her adorable clutch, guns that two-timing rat down, fires up her Holden HD and makes for the outback with police sirens at her stiletto heels. Somewhere deep in the bush, far from the madding crowd, she meets a creature and a dress that will change her life… forever.
Aussie pulp fiction meets Hitchcock high-camp, noir horror and 1960’s glamour.
Bangers & Mash
By Smith & Fairley
Director: Chris Baker
Design: Leonie Evan
Lighting Design: Luiz Pamphola
An hilarious comedy with a splash of melodrama, a heap of sitcom, lashings of slapstick, a dash of horror, and buckets of comedy. With breathtaking choreography, a song or two and deftly delivered one-liners, Bangers and Mash will leave you wanting to fall in love all over again.
Meet Bart, a cad and a womaniser who moves in with Mash; she’s single, likes Barbara Streisand and has a broken heart. Watch as they grapple with that certain romantic chemistry, forbidden between housemates. What do you do? Do you make a move… or do you move out?
The No Chance In Hell Hotel
By Smith & Fairley
Director: Jo Turner
Design: Leonie Evans
Sound Design: Ross Johnston
Set on the mean streets of Sydney, The No Chance in Hell lampoons the ‘who dun’nit’ crime genre. There’s a Rookie on the case and jaded Boss, a missing gal and some questionable puns, Add in some hilarious song and dance routines and there you have Smith and Fairley’s latest highly original creation.
Diane Spencer is a lovely but lonely woman struggling to keep her place- Di’s Bar open in The Cross, when along comes Jack- an ex alcoholic, ex-advertising jingle writer who takes the job as the new barman at Di’s bar.
Chemistry happens, opposites attract and just when these two look like getting together, Diane is kidnapped by a mysterious Sydney underworld figure. The cops are soon hard on the case. But who would do such a thing?
The Unspeakable Itch
by Smith & Fairley
Director: Annabel Scholes
Music & Lyrics: Phil Scott
Design: Kate Shanahan
Lighting: Ross Graham
Sound Design: Michael Huxley
Matt and Bec have been married for seven years … He wants a raise. She wants her cushions fluffed. He keeps fingering his car keys. She spends hours staring into the back yard longing for a new deck.
So what if Matt occasionally sleeps in the car and Bec has trouble remembering his name? It’s just a phase. Once they get their bank loan, a timber deck and a heated infinity pool all their little grievances will disappear. But if they don’t get that loan they’ll do what any other normal Australian couple would do – have a nervous breakdown and sing about it.
“… a punchy script, thick with one liners and deliciously dark undercurrents”
Performing Arts Hub
“Hilarious terrific, crowd-pleasing entertainment” Sydney Morning Herald
Beatches
Devised by Smith and Fairley, Liesel Badorrek, Annette Twemlow
Design: Annette Twemlow
Sound Design: Ross Johnston
Buffon clown, song, and whip smart satire, set BEATCHES apart as darkly funny exploration of the representation of women in film…on stage…
This surreal piece lampoons female archetypes-crones, witches and ingénues, crucifying and celebrating the so-called ‘chick flick’ genre.
Evoking famous ‘warring’ duos like Midler and Hershey from the saccharine “Beaches”, and Crawford and Davis from the macabre “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’, BEATCHES shamelessly subverts notions of power, beauty, ageing and ambition in this risqué romp, designed to get your toes tapping, your sides splitting and your mind bending