A musical theatre production chronicling the fascinating life and times of one of modern Australiaโs most influential cooks, Margaret Fulton, will take the cake when it comes to The Q later this month.
Having debuted their production earlier this month, Margaret Fulton the Musical producer Alli Pope told Canberra Daily the work had been on her radar since first seeing the script in 2018.
โI wasnโt entirely convinced at the beginning because I wondered how exciting a musical could be about a cook,โ she said.
โThen I read the script and I was blown away. She was so interesting and had such a full life.โ
The delightful musical follows Fultonโs journey from humble beginnings in her Scottish immigrant family to celebrity cook super-stardom.
The production features a cast of six and comes to The Q, Queanbeyan on 23-27 March near the beginning of an 83-performance regional tour covering most of Australia.
Twentieth century Australian home cooking can be defined by a pre-Fulton and post-Fulton era, both either side of the 1969 release of the seminal Margaret Fulton Cookbook.
The book featured Fultonโs burnt orange crockpots and chunky stoneware serving dishes and encouraged housewives to try their hand at nasi goreng and apricot chicken.
โSheโs the woman who taught Australians how to cook,โ Pope said.
In 2021, Australia is a culinary melting pot where many of us happily sample and enjoy exotic foods from right across the world. But 52 years ago, that wasnโt so, and, in that respect, Fulton blazed the trail; prior to her book Australian home cooking revolved almost entirely around the classic meat and three veg.
โShe brought something different and encouraged people to try new ingredients,โ Pope said. โBefore that people didnโt even think outside that box.โ
The productionโs set and costumes lend itself to Fultonโs cooking and home lives and leans into a late 1960s/early 1970s Australian aesthetic.
Fultonโs kitchen and living area occupies each side of the stage, and the set is adorned with pink paisley wallpapers, pale blue panelling and kitschy cookware.
โItโs a really bright, colourful show with lots going on,โ Pope said. โYou could imagine sheโs in the kitchen doing a demo and then breaks into full song about a pressure cooker.โ
The creative pedigree of the musicalโs creators is nearly as impressive as Fultonโs own work.
Writer Doug MacLeod has worked on Fast Forward, Full Frontal, Kath and Kim and The Micallef Program, and brings the quirky, clever sensibility of those works to Margaret Fulton.
Similarly, composer Yuri Worontschak has worked across theatre, screen and studio music; with some credits including Eric Bana feature film Love the Beast, Mad as Hell, and Kath and Kim too.
โAll the songs are quite different, so it makes for a really interesting 80 minutes,โ Pope said.
Both Macleod and Worontschak started whipping up Margaret Fulton the Musical in 2005.
Although she passed in 2019 aged 94, Ms Fulton saw an early version of the musical in 2012 when it was in workshop stage.
โAt least she got to see her life on stage, which thrilled her; I heard she was absolutely thrilled by that,โ Pope said.
Margaret Fulton the Musical comes to The Q, Queanbeyan, 23-27 March; theq.net.au
For more entertainment:
