Moonah Arts Centre: A Woman On The Edge

For 20 years singer/actor Claire Dawson has called Tasmania home. In August she flies home to the UK to take her latest Tasmanian grown show, A WOMAN ON THE EDGE, to the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

“It’s a huge gamble”, says Claire. “Astoundingly, we were selected by a major presenter to appear for the last week of the festival in one of the top theatres! So we are up against acts from around the world as well as local favourites like Adam Hills, Josh Byrne and Jimeoin. Let’s hope our touch of Tasmanian magic does the trick!”

Luckily, the Tasmanian creative team behind Claire is world class, with all three members active on the national and international scene. Michael Gissing, who created the show’s most distinctive feature, its non stop video backgrounds where Claire appears as her own backing group, is an AFI winning audio and film editor whose clients regularly fly from different parts of the world to have him edit their work in his straw bale, state of the art, studios in Cygnet. Yolanda Peart-Smith, designer of Claire’s great costumes has worked internationally on movies like Lord of the Rings as well as TV series like the recently completed Kettering Incident.

Rod Anderson, writer and Director is the only one to have taken a show to the festival before. “It’s a mind blowing experience”, says Rod. “There are thousands of performers and tens of thousands of audience members all shopping between the shows that are programmed from 10am till after midnight every day for a month. Meanwhile the streets have buskers on every block, outdoor stages dotted along the Golden Mile and cabaret venues that open up when all the other stuff starts to wind down.”

To help boost Claire’s visibility, she is already booked for outdoor stage appearances and a number of cabaret star turns as well as the show itself. For everything else, the team is relying on reviews, word of mouth and Claire’s inimitable popularity with audiences. If it succeeds they hope to receive offers for further international seasons from the many presenters who flock to the festival to spot new talent.

A Woman On The Edge opened to a sell out crowd in Hobart’s Spiegeltent in 2015 and has been adapted for the overseas tour. This “international” version has located much of the show more firmly in Tasmania and plays up Claire’s initial experiences as a girl from Liverpool confronted by life in our island state. Come along and join in the big send off at her final Hobart season on July 22 and 23. The show has been described as a “music and comedy, multimedia tour de force” and it’s very, very, funny.

Where: Moonah Arts Centre, 23 Albert Rd, Moonah
When: Friday July 22, 1.30pm and 8PM; Saturday July 23, 8PM (The gala send off!)
Tickets from the Moonah Arts Centre and from www.trybooking.com/LJYR

More Information: www.andersondawson.com
Rod Anderson