Reviews/Musical Theatre/Theatre

The real high school musical

28 January 2022

A fresh, coming-of-age musical makes space for diverse stories, and Claire Trolio is on board with it.

107, Michele Gould ·
The Blue Room Theatre, Thursday 27 January 2022 ·

The iconic teenage, coming-of-age story rewritten from a queer, feminist perspective, 107 is The Breakfast Club, if The Breakfast Club were a musical set at a bus stop in Perth’s western suburbs and the characters weren’t all white, heterosexual, cisgender kids.

WAAPA musical theatre-trained Michele Gould has written and composed this new work. It’s her second original musical after her debut, PASSING, was performed at Fringe World 2021. 

Four teenagers linger at a bus stop on their way to school. There’s Joy (Jenny Guigayoma), timid and conformist, searching for her own identity beneath the one her “tiger mum” has written for her. Olivia (Lukas Pérez) is a queer, boisterous, drug-dealing softie, exploring their gender identity, alongside their best friend Zoe (Paris Leveque) who’s grappling with privilege as a minority. Finally, Queen Bee Charlotte (Ruby Short) struggles with her sexuality and her own place atop the high school popularity pyramid.

These are themes close to Gould’s heart – 107 is inspired by her experience of growing up as a queer Thai-Australian teenager in the private school system.

A snapshot from the musical 107. Pictured is four actors smiling as they embrace each other.
The ‘107’ cast, clockwise from top: Ruby Short, Lukas Pérez, Jenny Guigayoma and Paris Leveque. Photo: Tasha Faye

Conceptually, there’s a lot to get excited about.

Gould’s punk-rock-meets-pop songs are a load of fun: short and punchy, filled with wry social commentary, though they do begin to feel a tad repetitive.

On opening night there were a few minor shakes and stumbles over missed lines and notes and an unforgiving recorded musical arrangement. But the voices of the four performers rose above it all.

I cherished each performance: their poise, confidence and power. Guigayoma plays Joy with such restraint that her first solo caught me by surprise, what a delight. Pérez is a vocal treasure, classy and commanding.

Daley Rangi, who also directs the show, nails the costume design. Many fellow private school alumni will recognise hemline requirements and the accompanying rolling of the skirt waistband.

The costumes are also a source of subtle differences and characterisation: four different pairs of school shoes sum up the characters better than anything else.

Which brings me to what I think is 107’s shortcoming, and that’s its character development. 

There’s a wealth of potential material in the way teenagers talk and relate to one another, and I thought Gould missed an opportunity to explore that further. I craved more dialogue between the characters, to truly understand how they fitted into the high school milieu and to offer each of them more developed backstories.

Perhaps the time it takes for the 107 bus to sail down Stirling Highway in peak hour isn’t enough.

Although 107 isn’t everything I hoped, it is fun, feel-good, feminist theatre. I’m grateful to Gould and Rangi for carving out this site of diversity and self-determination, and I’ll gladly catch their bus time and time again.

107 continues until 5 February 2022

UPDATE: RETURN SEASON NOVEMBER 2022

107 returns to The Blue Room, 1-19 November

Pictured top: Ruby Short and Lukas Pérez at the bus stop. Photo by Tasha Faye

Read Seesaw Mag’s Q&A with 107 playwright and composer Michele Gould.

Like what you're reading? Support Seesaw.

Author —
Claire Trolio

Claire Trolio completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) at UWA. She writes about Western Australia for various digital and print media and owns a shop with her sister. For her, the spider swing is the ultimate in playground fun.

Past Articles

  • Gentle touch guides lunar landing 

    Balancing weight with whimsy, this children’s theatre work strikes the right chord for its target audience, writes Claire Trolio.

  • Next-gen theatre makers impress

    From the fresh and funny to the weird and wonderful, WAAPA’s Performance Making students bring fresh, incisive work at full tilt, writes Claire Trolio.

Read Next

  • Just what the doctor ordered
    Reviews

    Just what the doctor ordered

    29 September 2023

    Dr AudiYO uses vocal gymnastics to take the audience on a fun adventure. Junior reviewers Jackson and Chloe Davis are happy to take this prescription. 

    Reading time • 3 minutesTheatre
  • Seadragon weaves magic spell
    Reviews

    Seadragon weaves magic spell

    28 September 2023

    The Magical Weedy Seadragon enchants junior reviewer Isabel Greentree with a winning blend of story, song and humour.   

    Reading time • 4 minutesMulti-arts
  • Lifting the weight of the world
    Reviews

    Lifting the weight of the world

    28 September 2023

    Junior reviewers Jackson and Chloe Davis are taken on a thoughtful and funny journey to the Moon with one overwhelmed girl.

    Reading time • 4 minutesTheatre

Cleaver Street Studio

Cleaver Street Studio

 

Cleaver Street Studio