July 12. Day 193. The Life of Bryan

Bryan Probets is looking remarkably calm. He's costumed and mic-ed up, ready to take to the stage in the first orchestra rehearsal of Ruddigore. It's true that he has performed Gilbert and Sullivan before - but the Modern Major General in a high school production of Pirates of Penzance doesn't really stack up against an Opera Queensland role. It's also not how Queensland audiences are typically used to seeing Bryan.
Since he won the Media Alliance award for the best emerging artist in the early 2000s, Bryan has been a regular on the Brisbane stage with a list as big as a phone book of performances for our major theatre companies including Queensland Theatre, La Boite and shake n stir. But the winner of the 2012 Gold Matilda Award for his contribution to theatre in Brisbane is a relative newcomer to Opera. Two years ago he debuted for Opera Queensland in Candide and last year backed up in the semi staged concert of Kiss Me Kate. 
"It's terrifying. I don't often venture into singing," Bryan admits. But sitting on a couch in the closed Russell Street Bar outside Playhouse at QPAC, Bryan looks relaxed and says he's enjoying the challenge of Opera, admitting that mixing it up guarantees against becoming bored or complacent. His lead role in Opera Queensland's Ruddigore, or the Witch's Curse will leave no room for complacency. His character is the Baronet of  Ruddigore who has dodged the witch's curse by disguising himself as a shy law-abiding gentleman farmer Robin Oakapple. But he is exposed and the curse dictates he must commit a dastardly crime every day. Almost as dastardly as the crime is that the role charges Bryan with delivering almost all of the infamous Gilbert and Sullivan rapid-fire, tongue-tripping patter songs in Ruddigore. Despite the demands, Bryan says the rehearsal period was less onerous than he expected coming from straight theatre. "I find it's a bit more casual. The hours are a bit more truncated. Sometimes you might have a day off because they are rehearsing the chorus whereas in the theatre if you have a a five and a half week contract rehearsing a show you are there pretty much all day, every day sometimes six days a week."
Not that anyone is taking it easy. "In the hours we are allotted, we go pretty much hell for leather."
He says audiences can expect a wild ride, adding that Ruddigore is one of G&S's "sleeping treasures".  "It's very clever. The writing is very witty. It's Goon Show meets Monty Python, meets Spike Milligan. It's very left of centre."
Bryan says Ruddigore has been designed with a cartoon-like feel, is performed in English and is aimed at everybody.
"It's very accessible and not staid or traditional. It's fun. It's cutting edge."
Ruddigore by Opera Queensland opens at The Playhouse at QPAC on Friday and runs until July 29.
You can hear the full interview with Bryan Probets on our podcast.

July 11. Day 192. Dive in with with both hands

Consider this. A hijacked aircraft with 164 passengers on board is heading towards a football stadium packed with 70,000 people.  A fighter pilot decides the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few and breaks the law shooting the plane and killing all the passengers. Is the pilot a hero or a villain? This courtroom drama, which puts the audience in the jury box, is coming direct from London is one of the headline shows of this year's Brisbane Festival. Terror is just one of 11 Australian premieres in the 22 days of awesomeness that is the Brisbane Festival. The 490 free and ticketed events include music, theatre, circus, cabaret, dance comedy and five world premieres. Whether your "thing" is a drag queen singing the works of Shirley Bassey or seeing Tim Sharp's comic book hero Laser Beak man come to life on stage, the festival has it covered. The difficult thing is working out what to see. Perhaps I will start with Riverfire that finishes the festival and work backwards. Festival artistic director David Berthold says " trust your gut, dive in and take chances. A festival is a feast, not a snack.  There is no single show that will appeal to all tastes and give you a finished festival experience. That's not how festivals work. You'll need both hands." I think I might need not just both hands but both feet as well.
Listen to our discussion with David Berthold at the launch

July 10. Day 191. Eat your greens

Lunch time.  I found myself at South Bank and decided to buy fried rice. It came with salad on top. SALAD. On fried rice. There was mayonnaise and all. On the fried rice. Seriously. I ate the rice. I left the salad. The noisy miners hovered and helped themselves to the greens, yet more proof that I never eat like a bird. I walked home. Margaret was sitting at the window watching the street. The birds were hovering. It turns out she wasn't big on her greens either. The meal delivered by Meals on Wheels included broccoli. Margaret suspects Meals on Meals has a deal with a broccoli supplier as just about every meal has broccoli on it. Like President Bush in 1990, Margaret has declared that she will never eat broccoli. She throws it out the window. Funnily enough that's exactly what my younger sister Lisa did with her peas for years. She would smuggle them from the table in her pocket and tip them from the window. My mother only found out when she fessed up years later. As there was never a pile of peas under the window at our place, nor a broccoli heap at Margaret's I presume someone eats their greens. Not us.

July 9. Day 190. The show must go on

Smile. You've got this. The show must go on. No matter what happens, no matter what plans fail to materialise, no matter what equipment fails, you can't let the audience down. You push on. This is show business. So it was today. It was a charity performance by Fame Theatre Company at a family fun day aid of Mater Little Miracles. The performers were out of bed on a Sunday morning. They were warmed up and ready to go. The audio equipment, not so much. It started briefly, then stopped. Then it played at a very random speed. Did it throw the performers? No it did not. These pint-sized performers, some of whom were in a group for kids aged from Prep to Year 2, took it in their stride. They rocked it

July 8. Day 189. All my Christmases

Elmo sang: "Everyday can't be Christmas. That wouldn't be such a treat. You can get tired of chocolate candy. When that's all you eat..."
Susan says: "Okay, perhaps not every day. But twice a year should be fine. Bring on Christmas in July (also, would I doubt I'd ever get tired of chocolate).
Shirley Conran said: "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.
Susan says: It's my life. I'll stuff a mushroom if I want to ... and a pumpkin. Turkey is fine for the carnivores but the vegans deserve something special too.
Margaret says: "Help me Sue. Please help me."

Susan says: "I'm coming Margaret. I'm coming."It was a night of highs and lows. We invited the family over to dinner neglecting to mention it was going to be a Christmas in July. Surprise. I'm a girl who loves a bit of theatre. Real life drama, not so much. The main meal was over when my mobile phone rang. Margaret was pleading. I grabbed the spare keys and went to her rescue taking Charles as muscle. Even after I was in the house and I'd turned the lights on, she was still on the floor, grasping the phone repeating "help me Sue. Please help me." She's slipped in the bathroom and crawled into the lounge to make the call (no, she was not wearing that panic pendant... sigh). Before we did anything we had to calm her, a job made more difficult by the absence of hearing aids. So I sat and held her hand and when her breathing was controlled we lifted her to her walker and walked her back to her chair. And again I waited. Soon she was bossing me around. Clearly she was back on form. After she's use the toilet and was back in bed I returned to my party. That seemed like reason enough for a dessert wine .. or two. It was Christmas after all.

July 7. Day 188. Lovely weather ... for fish

Fins would have been helpful. It's NAIDOC week and in Brisbane celebration central is Musgrave Park. The tents were there. The stages were there. The rides, the food, the sports stars, the entertainment, all there. Unfortunately so was the rain, the puddles and the mud. It may have been a little disappointing but not enough to discourage the truly hardy souls. Not long after the gates opened, Aboriginal Health Worker Betty McGrady and the team from the Forensic Child and Youth Mental Health Service arrived. Aunty Betty is a Gunggari woman and passionate advocate for her community. She did, however, confess that the expertise of elders such as herself was not always valued. Government departments had reached an understanding that consulting with Indigenous peoples was important. They did not, however,  necessarily think they needed to pay for it in the same way as you would other consultants. She's working hard to get that changed with a register of Indigenous experts being developed. But, she confesses, until that happens if called on to represent her community, she'll be there.

July 6. Day 187. Avoid the beak

I did not make this up. There's a Spanish proverb "Avoid a friend who covers you with his wings but destroys you with his beak". This makes me think of my neighbour Margaret. I know she doesn't mean it. I know she considers she has taken me under her wing but sometimes the things that come out of her mouth bite. It's that beak I should be avoiding. Today it was mandarins. I do Margaret's shopping and her list said mandarins so I bought mandarins. They were "disgusting" and "really dry with no juice". What did she think should happen to this hideous fruit? She gave it to me and told me to eat it. Yes, because I love dried out fruit. But it gets worse. She told me Woolies has big, juicy mandarins on sale. Clearly my bad for shopping at Coles ... except for one small detail. The reason I shop at Coles is because Margaret demands it. The birds in our street apparently only eat Coles mince. Groan. Of course, I could refuse. But that's not my style. I whinge a bit a lot but can you really hold a grudge with someone you know doesn't mean it? And we wouldn't want to deny the birds their choice of mince now would we?