One Day in September is a new Australian musical written by Maverick Newman and Kohan van Sambeeck, with contributions by Trudy Dunn and Mackenzie Dunn. Over five years in the making, One Day In September made its debut to a sold out audience in Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre, receiving an enthusiastic and well deserved standing ovation from the opening night audience.
The story follows the journey of Sam Thompson, a rising young star who gets his big break being recruited to the Melbourne Bears AFL team. Sam proves to be a valuable addition to the team, which gains the attention of the media. Being thrust into the spotlight proves to have its challenges. This itself would be an interesting story line for any football loving Australian, but One Day In September has much more depth, with multiple story threads interwoven around Sam Thompson’s journey, and no doubt audience members will find themselves relating to different characters.
Director Trudy Dunn has found the perfect balance of humour and tenderness in the story, delving into the lives of the people behind the public personas. The Melbourne Bears may be a fictitious team, but the characters feel very real and tangible.
The musical opens with a full ensemble number ‘We Are The Bears’, and impressively they looked and sounded like an actual AFL team. In fact if you took a photo of the cast and told me this was a new AFL team I would have believed you. ‘We Are The Bears’ sounded like a legitimate AFL theme song. For a five performance season, the Melbourne Bears costumes were impressive (perhaps some unique merchandising opportunities for a future professional season?)
Interwoven with the journey of the footballers is the journey of the WAGs – the wives and girlfriends. You don’t even need to follow the AFL to know that these WAGs can have a strong social media presence of their own. Cleverly, these two story threads are interwoven from the very beginning and I was hooked within the opening minutes of the show.
The songs are performed by a four piece band, and whilst enjoyable at the time I didn’t leave with any particular song stuck in my head … until I read through the song titles in the program and found the “Hey girl” phrase coming to mind. It highlights the importance of cast recordings to promote new theatrical works and keeping those new songs fixed in our minds.
From the marketing of the show, I knew that One Day In September would tackle the concept of a closeted gay AFL footballer, and this story is beautifully told. It’s contrasted with a young woman’s naive quest for influencer glory, a grieving widower’s desire to connect with his son, an ageing football legend who is coming to the end of his contract and the impact football has on the lives of those around them. Indeed, there was much more depth in the story than I anticipated. There were multiple ways the story could have ended, and I really wasn’t sure just which way the writers had chosen until the very end. And it was the perfect ending.
Being the first night of a new show, there were a few technical cues missed – these are easily fixed. Overall, this was an impressive opening season. The fact this was presented with an outstanding, quality cast made the difference, as we could experience the true potential of the show at a professional level.
The set design (Bianca Pardo) was simple, but worked effectively to create a sense of location. An excellent lighting design (Tim Bonser) creates a sense of mood with great effect. Choreography cleverly incorporated some very smooth scene changes. Footballs made their way on and off the stage like magic.
One of the highlights of the show was the extraordinary choreography. I’d return just for the chorey! Some choreography incorporated football match activity. It was incredibly strong and masculine, and created a sense of footy being played. I was so impressed I was rushing to to the program to see who this amazing choreographer was: Mackenzie Dunn (with Keanu Gonzalez as associate choreographer).
Keanu Gonzalez is wonderful as leading man Sam Thompson. He looks the part as the strong, athletic professional footballer. A good-looking footballer is a marketing dream and the media will – and do – pounce. Gonzalez brings a beautiful humanity to the character, immediately endearing to the audience.
Lorinda May Merrypor is delightful as Sophie, the wanna-be influencer. While her character initially comes across as somewhat self-absorbed and shallow, Merrypor brings a warmth to the role that certainly avoids her character being the villain of the story.
The only constructive criticism I have is that while Sophie’s motivation to date Sam was clearly explained through an entire song, it felt like Sam’s need to date Sophie was less clear. Perhaps this could be fleshed out just a little more to better explain Sam’s motivation and ensure it isn’t lost in just a couple of lines. Although, having said that, there were some surprise moments that had the audience audibly gasping, so I also appreciate the need to not give away too much early in the show.
Ashleigh Rubenach is beautiful as Maya. She brings a maturity and tenderness the role. Yashith Fernando is charming as Maya’s brother, Jesse. Des Flanagan is excellent as Nathan – Maya’s husband. Flanagan’s character portrays the relatively short term career of a AFL footballer and the uncertainty of what comes next, and Flanagan brings a warmth and empathy to the role.
Anyone who has watched an AFL match on tv will immediately identify with the perky but rather awkward on-ground commentator. In One Day In September this role is played by Nick Simpson-Deeks. Simpson-Deeks is brilliant, and by the later parts of the show, just the appearance of his character on stage already had the audience smiling. Demonstrating his outstanding acting skills, Simpson-Deeks also portrays the father of Sam Thompson. With just a change of jacket Simpson-Deeks is almost unrecognisable as the quietly proud father, grieving the loss of his wife and wanting time to connect with his son. It’s an endearing portrayal that tugs at the heartstrings.
Rounding out the cast are an outstanding ensemble who all have their moments in the spotlight.
One Day in September has a beautiful mix of warmth and humour, it takes the audience on a journey and will leave them pondering the messages for sometime.
Congratulations to Perryman Theatre. This is a beautiful show that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Whilst it will instantly appeal to any AFL fan, it’s also a well written musical with an intriguing story line that could apply to other sports – and indeed to other aspects of life. I’d unpack it further but don’t want to give away any spoilers.
With three of its five performances sold out before it opened, I certainly hope One Day In September returns for a longer season.
