NAUGHTY and anarchic, energetic and exhilarating ... Matilda The Musical is all these things and more.
But what word best describes the four girls who play the title role on alternate nights?
Talented? Definitely. Clever? Hugely. Miraculous? Well ...
Dusty Bursill, 11, Tiana Mirra, 11, Alannah Parfett, 11 and Ingrid Torelli, 10, give two shows each a week and are on stage much of the time. That makes them stars, no question.
Especially now they’re all sharing a prestigious Helpmann Award nomination for Best Female Actor in a Musical.
But unlike Matilda Wormwood, their supernaturally endowed alter ego, they’re very down to earth, very grounded.
I was given a special backstage pass that admitted me into what is known as “the Matilda family’’.
This “family” is housed in the Princess Theatre, a safe, supportive environment where fun prevails, even while the hard work goes on, day after day.
Aside from its adult cast, Matilda The Musical has 29 child actors sharing roles. So there is always someone coming or going, rehearsing or performing.
Acrobatics, dance sessions, dialect coaching ... the learning and relearning never stops, with managers, tutors and chaperones in attendance all the time.
“The children are incredible, taking on so much and doing it with such good humour,’’ says actor Marika Aubrey, aka Matilda’s mum.
It’s true. If the girls are feeling the pressure of being in a hit show, they don’t let on.
Observing their theatre activities over the course of a day, I’m struck by their even temperaments. All four seem so settled, so determined, so pleased to be Matilda.
10.30am MATILDA KIDS’ DEPARTMENT
IT’S Thursday — a show day — and two Matildas are in the building.
Ingrid and Tiana know where to go. Up the stairs and into the “Matilda Kids’ Dept”, a child-friendly zone where coloured drawings are pinned to every wall and squeals of laughter ring down the corridors.
Head tutor Cara Johnston is waiting for them in a room full of books and blackboards.
“Study doesn’t stop just because you’re in a show,’’ Johnston says. “All the children bring in the materials they would normally need and they know exactly what they have to get through. They’re very disciplined.’’
Johnston reports back to their respective teachers, ensuring they are in synch with the curriculum, and no week goes by without young cast members returning to their own schools.
Do friends treat you differently because you’re performing on stage?
“No, I’m just part of the gang,’’ Tiana says.
Ingrid agrees: “I have friends here and I have friends there.’’
English, maths, science, languages ... all of it is covered in the Matilda classroom. But asked what subject she likes best, Ingrid nominates art.
“I love drawing, painting and making things with clay,’’ Ingrid says.
Tiana, though, prefers sport, “especially short distance running’’.
12.30pm WARM-UPS
DUSTY is playing Matilda tonight. Alannah is “on standby”, ready to step into Dusty’s shoes should she be needed.
In the meantime, there are vocal exercises to do in a rehearsal room. Alannah’s favourite is the
so-called Bubble Club, where you hum music while blowing bubbles through a straw.
Afterwards, Alannah heads downstairs and joins the Pitch Club — another get-together where children’s musical director Peter Rutherford sings a note or phrase and asks the young cast to repeat it.
“Sometimes the director might want to change a bit of the show we did as well,” she says. “So we do that and see the difference.’’
Alannah lets rip in the exercise class, where an amplified disco beat has everyone jogging, bending and careening across the empty stage. There are press-ups and push-ups and a proper shakedown but no one looks tired afterwards.
Watching them from the auditorium, children’s manager Dioni Butt says: “So much energy. They’d dance for hours if we let them. They’re incredible.’’
4PM BETWEEN SHOWS
IN the theatre world, there’s lots of waiting around.
So the “Matilda family” has established a lending library where everyone can swap books, then talk about them. The books are stacked on shelves in one of the rehearsal rooms.
Adult titles up top, young adult reading below, including stories by Roald Dahl, whose original book Matilda is about the power of language.
The four Matildas are also members of a “yarn club’’, which has nothing to do with telling stories and everything to do with knitting scarfs.
Tiana shows me a big black and white one she has knitted.
But when it comes to taking time out and relaxing, nothing beats taking her dog Cooper for a walk.
“Cooper is 2½ years old and always full of energy,” Tiana says. “My favourite thing is running around with him, chasing each other.”
6.05PM STAGE DOOR
THE curtain goes up in 90 minutes. Time to light up the Matilda marquee, display foyer merchandise and usher cast members through the stage door.
“Hi everyone,’’ Dusty says. Tonight’s Matilda, rugged up against the cold, arrives with her chaperone and, like all the adult actors, her name has to be in the arrivals book.
“I’m excited coming to stage door,’’ she says, “because it means I’m about to do a show. Shows are fun.’’
Signed in, Dusty heads straight into her dressing room. And, yes, like all the other Matildas, there’s a star on her door.
7.25PM DRESSING ROOM
TURNING Dusty into Matilda Wormwood — a strange, bookish girl with a big imagination — takes time and draws on the skills of multiple departments. Wigs, costumes, make-up and sound. And as the transformation progresses, first in the dressing room and then backstage, there’s a chaperone watching their every move.
“Away from the parents, the chaperones are the children’s guardians,” company manager Paul Marrollo says. “They make sure our Matildas are in the right place at the right time with the right people.”
The audience is coming in now. Dusty can hear them through the tannoy. But seated now in front of a mirror, near the wings, this Matilda is focused.
Does she ever feel nervous?
“Yes, I do feel nervous,’’ she says, as her wild hair gets a last quick tease. “But you can’t really make it go away. You just have to keep going.’’
8.45 PM INTERVAL
MOST nights at the interval the “standby” Matilda shares a cup of tea with Marika Aubrey.
On her nights as a standby, Dusty says: “Marika and I have a song that we sing a bit of to each other. Once I told her that I had a wobbly tooth that came out onstage not long after that.’’
Aubrey loves the halftime cuppa ritual. “People are always asking me, ‘We saw the best Matilda didn’t we?’ and I say, ‘They’re all equally extraordinary.’ ”
9.50 PM CURTAIN CALL
IT’S a miraculous moment.
After singing and acting and dancing her socks off, a little girl stands alone in the spotlight — arms akimbo — and cocks her head to the sky as if to say, “I’m here and doing things my way.”
The music stops. The lights go out. And the theatre erupts with applause.
Another Matilda has conquered Melbourne.
NEXT DAY — 9AM HOME
QUIET. That’s what all the Matildas crave when the applause fades and they are back home. Ingrid’s favourite retreat is a cubby house where she plays “kitchen” and pretends to make pasta.
“Sometimes I clean up and make it look like a home,’’ Ingrid says.
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