For a show with a sparse stage, simple lighting, minimal costume changes and a lone actor on stage the whole time, RBG: Of Many, One is incredibly rich, warm, expansive and emotional.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Heather Mitchell's performance as the famed second woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is remarkable.
Alone, she embodies the woman known as RBG from a young girl through to an 87-year-old on her death bed, transforming through the different ages, and keeping her graceful manner as she thanks stage staff for props or acknowledges audience applause.
She also inserts wise, wry commentary that responds to the present day: like when discussing Ginsburg's reservations about Roe vs Wade not being strong enough to protect women's right to abortion.
The law was overturned in 2022, years after Ginsberg's death, which shocked women across America - but the show notes Ginsburg's reservations that it was designed to protect doctors' rights to private medical practice, and not a woman's right to determine what happens to her own body.
Although RBG, Of Many One first ran in 2022, the showing in Wollongong in 2024 - as the world hurtles towards the spectre of another Trump presidency - has infused RBG's life and struggle for equality for women with new relevance.
The show was written by former lawyer Suzie Miller, and knits together the career and life of the lawyer and judge - with the story beginning as she waits for a phone call from President Bill Clinton in 1993 to tell her she has been appointed to the Supreme Court.
It ends as she tries, and fails, to outlast cancer for another 46 days at the end of Trump's presidency in 2020.
The play also deals with her controversial and much debated decision towards the end of her career not to retire during Obama's presidency so he could appoint another liberal judge in her place, rather than risk the court becoming more conservative under the next presidency.
Her conviction that the congress and court should remain separate and not influence each other, as well as her strong hope that a woman would win the 2016 election meant Ginsburg stayed in the job.
For those who might have thought she should have listened to Obama after the story played out as it did, the show highlights the power of her dissenting judgements in those final years amid an increasingly conservative court. She calls them letters to the future, and to future women presidents and described as some of her best work.
Alas, RBG's wish for president Hilary Clinton - who is mentioned even in the first scenes - remains out of reach at the poignant end of the play.
Even though her story is well-known, each of the milestones, deaths and triumphs are surprisingly emotional in Heather Mitchell's hands.
And by the end of the play, it's hard to tell where the Australian actress ends and the American judge begins.
The audience at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on opening night hung on her every word, gasping, applauding and even crying as it played out.
It ended with a standing ovation for the magnificent writing and acting, which were delivered with such clarity amid a beautifully sparse production that let you focus on the words and voice that Ginsberg valued so much during her life.
Merrigong Theatre Company's Artistic Director and CEO Simon Hinton said he was thrilled to have the show, which had sold out, in Wollongong.
"Playwright Suzie Miller on her own streak of incredible international success, has drawn an insightful, funny, and moving portrait of a legal and cultural icon," he said.
"The wonderful Heather Mitchell more than meets the challenge of portraying RBG, giving one of the greatest performances to be seen on Australian stages for some decades. It's truly unmissable theatre, which is why it has sold out across the country".
RBG: Of Many, One is on until April 6 at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre.