This month, amongst the wealth of Pride Festival events to choose from, is the world premiere of musical comedy Two Old Queens. Conceptually conceived at a ‘creative lunch’ over a bottle of wine, the show was written by John Senczuk, who also directs, and features Edgar Metcalfe as the Queen Mother and John Michael Swinbank as Noel Coward with Tim Cunniffe on the grand piano.
Long time Coward obsessive and performer John Michael Swinbank shared with OUTinPerth what’s in store.
‘Two Old Queens is a musical play about the fabulous friendship between her majesty the queen mother and Sir Noel Coward. It’s an irreverent look at the friendship between them.
‘Many, many, many years ago the first joke I told on stage actually incorporated a lovely story about the Queen Mother and Noel Coward at a gala event. They were walking in togther Coward was terribly pleased, he was such a royal snob you see, the cameras went off. Coward turned to her and said ‘I wonder how they’re going to caption this photograph’, and she said ‘Probably “look at those two old queens‒
‘It’s the delightful evocation of a friendship between two people. The universal idea, stepping away from Coward and the Queen Mother, is what it’s like to have an old friendship, you know all the secrets about each other and you know all the bullshit as well. These two characters perform that function of discussing what it means to be really old friends and to be able to help each other out in the hard times as well as the good, and Coward and the Queen Mother were indeed allies.
‘She lived through the most tumultuous period of world history. We actually probe behind the familiar aspects of the abdication and then of course there’s the Second World War and the change into the post war modern world all of these things are touched on, discussed, and it’s really quite fascinating because these people are touchstones for this history.
‘He [Coward] had a relationship with one of the royal princes. Coward had a nineteen year affair, and this is actually absolutely true, and this is probably one of the reasons that he didn’t get his knighthood until much later. But the Queen Mother does care for her old friend and tries to ease him gently into not worrying about it. There’s that terrible old adage that you don’t root royalty and get away with it – and this is of course a central part of the play.
‘His great success of course was his career and the wonderful work that he’s left us, these beautiful plays and these gorgeous songs which of course both Edgar and I sing in the play. It’s a wonderful evocation of a particular friendship but it actually is emblematic of all our friendships especially in the gay and lesbian community, you know we have such strong personal friendships – possibly because we have to form alliances sometimes because of who we are and what other people think of us.
‘We felt that we wanted to do something for Pride, to do a show that was specifically for Pride. It is actually a story that at its broadest level is about friendships, but it’s not always easy – so there are a few wonderful spats and cat fights in the show. It’s principally of course very, very funny. I think what Edgar Metcalfe is doing, recreating this role of the Queen mother, is possibly one of the performances of this century – easily. It’s extraordinary what he’s doing. It’s a great role and he does it to perfection.’
John Michael Swinbank spoke to Zoe Carter.
Shows are running at The Blue Room from the 16th of October to the 3rd November. Performance times vary, see www.pacs.org.au for more information.
