Sydney Reviews

In this humorous one woman show, Melita Rowston, regales us with her family’s relationship with the infamous Ned Kelly and his outlawed gang. Whether your view is that they were just a bunch of misguided youths who were a menace to society or a group of young men who were rebelling against injustice and fighting for a better life, Rowston has you covered. 

Everyone has heard of the Kelly Gang and love him or loathe him. Ned Kelly’s place in Australian history is assured. His armour cuts an imposing figure and is instantly recognisable even today. Rowston gives the Kelly Gang and their story a new life by intertwining both her own family history and other anecdotes with a recap of the history and impact of Ned Kelly on Australia.

Rowston shares her grandfather’s story of stealing Ned Kelly’s bones that had her raptured as a kid and fascinated as an adult. Her great, great, great, great grandmother Nora is shrouded in mystery but the fact that she owned a bar that Kelly was afraid to enter is now family legend. Armed with two Kelly connections, Rowston began to delve deeper into her family’s stories and tries to confirm their validity.

It is her story telling that makes this show so enjoyable. Some of Rowston’s tales mix fact and folklore, some of them honest and some of them are wonderfully absurd. Whether it is a juxtaposition of words and facial expressions or implied by the visual images that support her show, Rowston has a great ability to convey two meanings in her storytelling. She never mocks the people she met even though she admits that some of them were a bit nuts. Instead she enjoys their enthusiasm and gets swept up in their passion for everything Kelly. This comes through in the show and it makes you want to high tail it to the next Ned Kelly renactment.   

After watching Rowston for about 5 minutes you can see why people shared their Kellyisms with her. She is open and funny and genuine. She makes you want to have a Kelly connection too, so you can share the joy of the myth with her. Her show has bits that will fascinate you, bits that will make you laugh and bits that will leave you wanting to know more. I only wish she had read out the quote from Ned Kelly about the Police. The show is worth seeing just to discover that wonderful piece of literature from Ned himself.


Melita Rowston’s Shit Tourism presents
6 DEGREES OF NED KELLY
Melita Rowston

Venue: The Village Theatre |  Erko Town Hall, 104 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville
Dates: 2 – 6 Sept, 2015
Tickets: $25 – $15
Bookings: sydneyfringe.com

Part of the 2015 Sydney Fringe Festival