A Girl’s Guide to World War is quality from start to finish

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an original musical, much less one with a Queensland connection, but this one made it worth the wait, writes Frances Whiting.

Minette Cooper (Nurse Higgins) and Aleathea Monsour (Doctor Bennett) ahead of their performance A Girl’s Guide to World War, showing at QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre. Picture: Nigel Hallett

You know a show is very, very good, when you can’t decide which part you enjoyed best.

You know the cast is very, very good when you can’t decide which performance you enjoyed best.

A Girl’s Guide to World War, now playing at QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre ticks both of those boxes - and quite a few more.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an original musical, much less one with a Queensland connection, and this one is a gem.

Created by the Sunshine Coast based duo of Aleathea Monsour (who also plays one of the leads, Dr Agnes Bennett) and Katy Forde, it tells the remarkable true story of a small, World War I hospital run entirely by women treating the Serbian army in Macedonia.

Led by Bennett - formidable, full of love and longing, and played beautifully by Monsour, and the hospital’s surgeon Dr Lilian Cooper (Susie French), the two women and their formidable team saved hundreds of lives in their makeshift, field hospital.

Cooper’s life partner Miss Josephine Bedford (Zoe Georgakis) is there as Cooper’s rock, and later, head of the ambulance division, and all three women put in performances that are, like their true life counterparts, completely compelling.

The show is well worth seeing. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Georgakis somehow manages to pull off no-nonsense and charming, and French - who won a Best Supporting Actor Matilda award for this role - is an unapologetic, chain smoking, swashbuckling delight.

Gosh, as one of the plucky ambulance drivers, Lady Elsie Corbett (Rahel Fentiman) or Miss Katherine Dillon (Matilda Malone) might say, this is a terrific show.

Fentiman and Dillon’s comic timing is excellent, their plummy British accents are spot on, and their rapport is a joy to watch.

Compelling too is Minette Cooper as nurse Higgins - determined, sparky, utterly believable, and the always terrific Margery Forde as Mrs Harley does exactly as she’s meant to in playing this haughty, entitled woman - infuriates you.

Pulling it all together is the charismatic Vix Nightsinger who narrates the show, in between playing some excellent lead guitar and providing the audience with context, wry observations and a rollicking history lesson.

Watching the musical unfold, its clever, simple set designs, and on stage talent, makes it hard to believe there are only eight in the cast, and two excellent musicians (Sue Moxon, piano, cello) and Suzanne Hibbs (drums).

But these eight - with beautiful vocals - are small but mighty. It’s a small cast for a big story, and one which, as I mentioned early, has a strong Queensland connection.

In real life, Dr Cooper was Brisbane’s first female doctor, and the home she and Bedford shared was bequeathed by the two women to the Sisters of Charity and is today the site of the Mt Olivet palliative care hospital in Kangaroo Point.

And, in a fitting bookend to their love story, the two are buried together at Brisbane’s Toowong cemetery - after this show, I predict an increase in pilgrimages to its site.

I also predict a rush of tickets for this remarkable production as word of mouth spreads about a show that’s as plucky and poignant as the story it tells.

Due to popular demand, an additional performance will be on today at 3pm.

A Girls Guide to World War

Cremorne Theatre until April 13

Tix from qpac.com.au