Watching a sixty-something man cavort naked 10 feet in front of me on a Saturday night was not on my bingo card. Nonetheless there I was … watching actor Simon Burke kick off the one-man play, The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin by gyrating to The Jean Genie dressed in nothing but a pink feather boa and black stockings. Definitely one of the most arresting opening scenes I’ve ever experienced in a long career of theatre-going.
Written by Australian playwright Steve J Spears, the play premiered at Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre in 1976. In a pleasing full-circle moment, Belvoir St Theatre – renamed from Nimrod in 1984 – is staging the current production in the same, intimate 80-seat space where it first appeared half a century ago.
A secret life
Robert O’Brien is an aging actor-turned-elocution-teacher living and working in Sydney’s upmarket Double Bay. He has a married stockbroker boyfriend named Bruce, with whom he dresses in drag whenever they can get away with it. In NSW in 1976, homosexuality would not be decriminalised for another eight years and so Robert and Bruce inhabit a precarious “twilight world” between their respectable day personas and their female-presenting selves.
To his clients, Robert is the respectable, suit-clad owner of Shakespeare Speech & Drama. His lessons are conducted in his consciously upmarket sitting room, complete with piano, gilt mirror, portraits of theatrical luminaries and a bust of the Bard presiding over proceedings. By day, Robert works with adult and children on their speech problems and diaphragm breathing. By night (or whenever he dares), he slips into padded bra and lipstick to serenade a pouting poster of Mick Jagger that he keeps hidden. (Tellingly, even when conservatively dressed as Mr O’Brien, he keeps his black stockings on under his sensible brown trousers as a quiet act of protest.)
His latest pupil, the improbably named Benjamin Franklin is a 12-year-old with a lisp. At their first lesson, Robert recognises the boy’s raw talent and charisma, raving to Bruce that Benjamin is “a born actor. For the first time, I feel like I could be more than adequate. This kid could save me!” he says.
Benjamin, however, has other things on his mind and soon places Robert in a compromising position – with catastrophic consequences.
Virtuoso performance
A moving, funny, heartbreaking play thoughtfully directed by Declan Greene, The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin is both confronting and thought-provoking. As the only performer, Simon Burke AO deserves all the praise he is receiving for this incredibly challenging role performed over 90 minutes. All the talents of this thespian national treasure are on display here, and despite its age, the play still has much to say that is relevant about bigotry, love, courage and integrity.
In the end, it is less a play about elocution than about voice – and the devastating cost of being denied one.
The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin
Until 29 March, 2026
Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir
griffintheatre.com.au
Photography by Brett Boardman.
