By Helen Moulder
Director Jeff Kingsford-Brown

‘Music, mayhem and madness’

The magnificent Cynthia Fortitude, played by Helen Moulder, is definitely in the twilight of her long career as operatic diva. Tonight she has arrived to give a musical lecture for the inaugural meeting of the Island Bay Opera Guild (IBOG). Her long-suffering accompanist Miss Gertrude Rallentando is nowhere to be found, so Cynthia must battle on without her. “I wanted to honour the character of Gertie,” Helen says. “My good friend, Rose Beauchamp, who played Gertie for thirty years with me in Hens’ Teeth, The Legend Returns and Cynthia & Gertie Go Baroque, sadly died in 2022, and I wanted the delicious character of Gertie to live on somehow.” Gertie does not appear in this show of course but is very present in all sorts of ways!

Reviews:

“Helen Moulder’s determined, dotty and totally delightful Cynthia…. an unbeatable gem of a comic character.” Laurie Atkinson – Dominion-Post

“A most enduring clown, an irreverent and fanciful diva” – Thomas La Hood – Theatreview

16 Oct – 2 Nov
Preview 15 Oct
Circa Two
Tues – Sat 7.30pm, Sun 4.30pm
$30–$55

Sponsored by: Willow Productions