Tuesday 15th - Saturday 26th February
GLEN STREET THEATRE, 
FRENCHES FOREST
www.glenstreet.com.au

 
Tuesday 1st - Saturday 12th March
Q THEATRE, PENRITH
www.railwaystreet.com.au

 
Tuesday 15th - Saturday 19th March
IPAC, WOLLONGONG
www.ipac.com.au

 
Wednesday 23rd March
BATHURST ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE

 
Wed 30th March - Saturday 2nd April
JETTY THEATRE, COFFS HARBOUR

 
Tuesday 5th - Saturday 9th April
PARRAMATTA RIVERSIDE THEATRES
www.riversideparramatta.com.au
 
 

Maggie will, for the fourth time and exactly ten years after debuting in the role, play the character Bridie Cartwright in the 2005 New South Wales Tour of the acclaimed The Shoe-Horn Sonata.

Previously, Maggie toured (for the first time) with the production in 1995, with Melissa Jaffer playing the part of Sheila. Read a review of this, from 'The Australian', here. The following year, 1996, Maggie, alongside Susannah York as Sheila, brought the play to London, playing at the King's Head Theatre in the city.

In 2004 Maggie, and Belinda Giblin, as Sheila, took The Shoe-Horn Sonata on a short season in Penrith, near Sydney, and followed that with a short tour of New South Wales. Click here for a great article on this production.

Maggie and Belinda are reprising their respective roles for the 2005 tour of New South Wales. Expect further rave reviews!

PARRAMATTA ADVERTISER
Wednesday 23rd March 2005

Tribute to POWs

Popular Australian actresses Maggie Kirkpatrick and Belinda Giblin will soon make their first appearance at the Riverside Theatres in The Shoe-Horn Sonata. 

The play based on a true story about the ideals of friendship and survival throughout World War II. Playwright John Misto was inspired to write the play after reading the book White Coolies. 

He said he did not have enough power to build a memorial to these women, but could write a play instead. 

White Coolies was written by Betty Jeffrey, a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, who with her 23 colleagues survived four years as prisoners of war in Sumatra and Malaya. 

Misto wrote The Shoe-Horn Sonata based on the experiences of these nurses. 

It tells the story of two women, Bridie and Sheila, who ended up in a Japanese camp together when their ships were sunk when they were escaping from Singapore in 1942. 

A shoe-horn is intrinsic to their story of separation, loyalty and love. 

The Shoe-Horn Sonata will be at the Riverside Theatres from April 5 to April 9, for bookings call 8839 3399.
 

NORTH SHORE TIMES
March 2005

Dark secret from a grim time

Playing a nurse taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II on stage is a role close to the heart of actress Maggie Kirkpatrick, who aspires to maintain the memory of those who served and died.

On the one hand Maggie Kirkpatrick loves her role in The Shoe Horn Sonata because it pays homage to the previous generation - and on the other because she has found it of enormous meaning to the next.

Maggie is currently on stage with Belinda Giblin at Glen Street Theatre in John Misto's award-winning two-hander which celebrates the friendship, survival and courage of two women imprisoned by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942.

Bridie (played by Maggie) was an Australian Army nurse and Sheila (played by Belinda) was then a teenager. Fifty years after their wartime ordeal they meet again when asked to take part in a documentary.

Maggie's own father, Lieutenant Jim Downs, was killed in action in North Africa in August 1941 after the siege of Tobruk - only months after Maggie's January birth.

She takes up the tale: "Although Bridie and Sheila were in prison for three and a half years they have not met since - and the play reveals why - a very traumatic secret.

"One of the reasons I love playing women of this generation is because I really feel the need to pay homage to people who survived both the Great Depression and then World War II.

"I have an immense pride in my parents' generations and it's been wonderful to see how young people, especially school audiences who are studying the play for their HSC, are deeply affected.

"Another inspiration is the commitment of playwright John Misto, who first wrote the play for the 50th Anniversary of VJ (victory over Japan) Day in 1995 and who donated his prize money from that year's Australia Remembers National Play competition and the 1996 premier's Literary Award to the building of a memorial in Canberra to Australian nurses killed in war.

"I had the privelege of playing Bridie in that opening production; the following year in London; and last year on a NSW tour."

Words: Carol Payne
North Shore Times
March 2005
Thanks to Decker for the article.