Is there something wrong with Debra Oswald? 

26 September 2023

By James Mullan

Debra Oswald is an Australian literary legend. From books to plays and TV shows she has done it all, with credits including Offspring, The Peach Season and even Bananas in Pajamas. But now Oswald steps out from the writers desk and onto the stage in her new show Is There Something Wrong with That Lady? 

It was at first a strange feeling for Debra to go from working behind the scenes to centre stage. It all started when she was invited one day to do live story telling at a Giant Dwarf, a comedy and live performance theatre. “The first time I did it I was incredibly nervous, but once I got out I loved it.  There was something about the direct connection with the audience. You’d write a story and tell it to the people in the room, right in front of you,” she told the Sun.

Although it took her some time to warm up to the new format, the playwright felt like she was onto something. “You get to an age where you think, I’m across the old dame, I might just tell people what it’s like. I’m not a performer by any means but my instinct is to be a storyteller and I want to make people laugh.” 

Oswald then pitched the idea of the one person show to Lee Lewis, who at the time was the artistic director at the Griffin Theatre. The production was programmed in 2021, putting Oswald straight to work with Lewis helping to shape the piece.

The opening run was very popular and well received. “It’s always amusing, often moving and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny in its excruciating honesty.” Harriet Cunningham of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote.

But what’s it actually about? It is a series of stories and reflections from the writer’s life, which in a way can appear to be a crowd sourced therapy session with the audience. Oswald sums it up as stories about “a kid who decided to be a playwright when I was eleven, about being a junior hypochondriac, being a desperate virgin in my teens. There’s absolutely no dignity.”

She will tell any embarrassing story as long as she thinks it’s interesting and it will amuse people: “There’s something about the honesty of the transaction. I’m saying to the audience; here’s my story, what do you think?”

Director Lee Lewis has helped Oswald to come to life and says “she is stepping out of the shadows of the story to share with us all a glimpse into the life of a professional writer. It is generous and brave, touching and slightly scary, for her and us too. Sometimes it’s easier not to think about the mind and life of real creators.”

Is There Something Wrong with That Lady will be running at Ensemble Theatre until 14th of October.