Day After Terrible Day

‘Where were you? You said you would call. You said you would be here.’

A quartet of morose, reclusive Victorian brides-to-be in spirit form roam the halls of an opulent mansion once home to weddings, baby showers and extravagance now transformed into a loveless, forgotten relic waiting for new tenants. Inspired by true events, award-winning contemporary theatre provocateurs The Dangle Ensemble present Day After Terrible Day, a haunting, beautiful and mesmerising promenade theatre experience.

Now on stage at Theatre Works, audience members are guided into the mansion by two relators, which, by their own admission, is “to die for”. A red-haired goddess emerges, scaling a ladder among vestiges of a bygone era and a glass case decorated by bouquets and a large table with a tiered wedding cake. The woman is Emily Eliza Donnithorne.

In Sydney during the 1850s, Miss Donnithorne was jilted on her wedding day and became a recluse, shut off from the world. Thirty years later, she died wearing her bridal gown, her wedding feast uneaten. Losing her man and mourning the loss of a stillborn baby, Miss Donnithorne languishes in perpetuity, longing for her love and a chance of happiness.

‘In every city I have ever lived there has been this woman, a different woman, but they seem connected across time and geography. I’ve seen her on the street and in the malls, she’s dressed to the nines, make up inch-thick, dripping with accessories, her nails are long and painted and she carries herself with the weight of a life thoroughly lived … You know she has stories to tell, but no one ever asks her. This show is for her,’ says Director Steven Mitchell Wright.

Performers and devisors Chris Beckey, Eidann Glover, Deborah Leiser-Moore and Polly Sará are marvellous and powerful portraying the ghosts of the past still hung up on a man that won’t return. ‘I love my love because he’s …’ game was the exemplification of memory and acting prowess. Other highlights include the mash-up of a YouTube make up tutorial and the four performers preparing for their big day and the horrifying moments where Emily Eliza mourns her stillborn child.

To say Day After Terrible Day is astounding is an understatement. It’s hilarious, chilling, poignant. I thoroughly enjoyed the melding of several sub-genres, such as Aussie larrikinism and colloquial caricatures espousing very-now language, Victorian-era sensibilities and punk rock. It gives American Horror Story circa 1800s.

Day After Terrible Day
Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, 3182
On stage till Saturday 12 November 2024
theatreworks.org.au/program/day-after-terrible-day

Images: Morgan Roberts