Frank Christie, Frank Clarke! – About

 A knock-a-bout musical comedy based very loosely on the life and exploits of Australian Bushranger (Outlaw) Frank Gardiner.

Set on the Australian goldfields of the 1860’s, its illumination of Australian identity and attitude is timeless.

Characters:

Frank Gardner (Christie / Clarke): Bushranger, hero.

Wu Lin: Chinese girl on the goldfields, in love with Frank.

Pottinger: Incompetent Police Inspector

Torpy: Publican

Ernie and Dave: Bushrangers, offsiders of Frank.

Constables Paddy and Mick: Incompetent policemen.  (Played by the actors playing Ernie and Dave)

Silvia: Wife of Torpy, ex music-hall performer.

Grandma: Wise indigenous woman. Actress doubles as Farmer’s Wife.

All other minor characters played by the above.

Cast size: 9

Orchestration:

Piano; Bass; Drums; Guitar and/or Banjo; 2 Violins and Cello (Can be performed with solo piano)

Synopsis: Frank, Ernie and Dave, bail up a stagecoach carrying wealthy publican, Torpy and his wife Sylvia. Frank charms Sylvia, thereby creating in Torpy an enemy for life. Later, pulling off the robbery of the largest gold shipment in the colony’s history, Frank finds Australia changing, and himself being marginalised. So he adapts – into respectability, becoming a newspaper proprietor and subsequently a politician. A parable of modern day Australia …