Do you know anything about an emu, that flightless bird native to Australia, that looks like a quirky ostrich but is a little taller, like over six feet tall? With soft, brown feathers, a long neck and even longer legs, it is a true roadrunner at 30 miles an hour. Emus can go weeks without eating or drinking, but when it finds food or water it catches up copiously.
Female emus fight for a mate and enjoy the mating process….a lot. When incubation occurs over 8 weeks, the males are dedicated to caring for the eggs while the female wanders off. It is not uncommon for the male emu to lose a lot of weight as he hardly eats and drinks while tending to the young.
Believe it or not, in 1932, the emus of Australia went to war, fighting a battalion of soldiers sent by the government. Due to a drought, the emus invaded western Australia and ate up the farmers’ wheat fields. To learn their intriguing story and discover who won the conflict, run don’t fly to the Terris Theatre in Chester for a wonderful high energy emusical comedy “The Great Emu War” until Sunday, October 26.
War is never funny and hysterical but between emus and soldiers with machine guns, you are guaranteed a level of levity you never imagined. Fine Aussie folks Cal Silberstein for book and Paul Hodge for book, music and lyrics take full credit for the fun, with music direction by Angie Benson and Amy Anders Corcoran for direction and choreography. Come make the acquaintance of Claire Saunders’ effervesant and spirited emu Edith whose bravery and boom-mastic desires are boundless.
Edith sees a problem, identifies a plan and runs headlong into the solution. She resents the protective web her father Enoch, Jeremy Davis, exerts on her independence. Even though aware of the seriousness of her situation and her fear of the dangers to her pal emus she doesn’t mind a little lovely diversion when Ethan Peterson’s Ethan enters the wheat field and fixates on her heart. Meanwhile a focused and determined Major Meredith, a gun totting Taylor Matthew declares ad infinitum “I hate birds.”
Morgan Cowling’s McMurray equally supports both enemy emu and warrior soldiers while narrator explanation in word and deed stem from LaRaisha Dievelyn Dionne. Delightful music emanates from tunes like “The Ballad of the Great Emu War,” “Backwards,” “Secede to Succeed,” “Fly Solo,” “Boom,” and “I Hate Birds.”
For tickets ($50), call The Goodspeed at 860-873-8668 or online at goodspeed.org. The play takes place at the Terris, 33 North Main Street, Chester. Remaining performances are Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Come laugh at the ambushes, retreats, magpies, victories, mating calls, sweet tasting wheat, calls for secession. cunning campaigns, plans that failed and plans that succeeded in this wild and real war that raged in the land down under.
