If I die young, Michelle Brasier sings to the audience, what will my legacy be? As someone suffering from self-professed main character energy (WebMD has felt the need to clarify that this is not an actual medical condition), Brasier has plenty of potential legacies to choose from. She worked with Aunty Donna, the cult-hit Melbourne comedy troupe. She auditioned for Cats, and failed, because she didn’t know how to tap dance. And of course, she grew up in Wagga Wagga, the teen pregnancy capital of Australia. With so many selves to choose from, how can Brasier possibly pick just one?
‘Legacy’ explores the way in which our choices shape who we are – but equally, how they also define who we’re not. Brasier touches on themes of motherhood and mortality through the medium of original, musical theatre-adjacent songs, performed alongside her partner Tim Lancaster. Here, Brasier’s theatre-kid legacy truly shines: she’s a captivating performer, whether she’s singing about women who decorate their houses with shells, or the ongoing generational war between Millenials and Gen-X (‘We were born young, and they were born old,’ she belts – which definitely hits the mid-20 somethings in the audience hard).
Outside of these musical interludes, the show is scaffolded around an intruiging mystery: specifically, the way Brasier’s path keeps crossing with an osteopath who happens to share her name. The beats of this story are interspersed with engaging tangents about how she fared on a flight to New York with an open wound on her genitals, and the difficulties Tim encountered when driving on the wrong side of the road in Canada. No matter how sombre the subject matter becomes – as outlined in her 2022 Fringe show, ‘Average Bear’, Brasier has lost her brother and father to cancer, and has a genetic predisposition to the same illness – Brasier’s seemingly-boundless energy and charisma keep the tone light.
By the end of ‘Legacy’, Brasier has resolved the (ultimately anti-climactic, but still enjoyable) mystery of the other Michelle, and decided what she wants her legacy to be. We won’t spoil it, but it’s pretty damn good one.
‘Legacy‘ is at Gilded Balloon Patter House – Doonstairs until Mon 26 Aug 2024 at 19:00
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