So Brady, we’ve got the tagline but can you tell us a little more about your new show; ‘What Happened to Maryanne?’  

Sure! It's about this night nurse, Maryanne, who through trial and tribulation makes four bad decisions that lead her to change the trajectory of her life completely. 

So it’s her retelling that story and embarking on this journey to find out who she really is without all the labels and expectations of society that have always held her back—and it’s peppered with an insane soundtrack of really nostalgic rock tunes, of course!

I think, at the heart of it, the show is about it never being too late—never being too late to start again, to live as authentically as you possibly can, to decide to scream at whoever needs to be screamed at, to tell the truth. And it's never too late to sing like a rock star. No matter what your age, we all have a rock star within us that just needs to be set free and Maryanne taps into that.

The way Brady says these last lines even has me, a wholly committed introvert, excited.

What inspired you to write this show?

I had a house inspection and as I was cleaning up for it I was playing rock music very, very loudly—something that I don't normally do. 

Anyway, I was playing it and the character, Maryanne—this is the spiritual actor coming out of me now—but the character Maryanne came through my French doors; flew in, sat next to me, and said, ‘You need to write me, right now’. And I went, ‘Ok!’.

 So I literally dropped all the cleaning that I was doing and wrote the story. I got about fifteen pages in that very day. Normally, I'll get to that stage and be like, ‘This is giving me anxiety, this is never gonna happen,’ but that didn't happen, so I was like, ‘Right, ok, I need to keep writing it,’ and then all these opportunities just came up which allowed me to really make it happen. 

It was almost fate, I feel. Everything was just put in place so I could just get up and do it.

Wow. Meant to be.

Yeah, she flew in through the windows.

I totally believe Maryanne flew in through the windows for Brady but I also wonder if parts of her might have already been in the room. 

A big part of Maryanne’s story is that she’s a trans woman facing the judgements of the world. You’re a trans woman too so I’m guessing a lot of that storyline comes from your own experience. 

What is some of the messaging that you’ve experienced around your gender and passed on to this character?

I feel like the narrative never shifts. Some people are always trying to tell us that we need to suppress ourselves. We need to hide who we are.

And I think for Maryanne a lot of that comes out with her whānau. In the beginning, she's pictured as this sort of, ‘Yes, sir, no sir’ type of person. She puts her head down, she works hard for her family and she loves her family because they accepted her for who she was—but they didn't really accept her, they just tolerated her because she helps out around the house and so… I guess, living in that sort of complacency, you just kind of get relaxed, 

It's not until she starts living for herself that she realizes, these people aren't actually for me, they're against me so how do I shift from that? I guess that's what motivated the story and her drifting into her self-liberation.

This is a story that just puts the middle finger up to all of that kind of messaging and says no—I'm not going to hide myself, I‘m not going to do that. I'm defiant to how you're expecting me to live. I'm gonna live for myself.

It’s an outrageously funny one-woman comedy rock show but you’ve underpinned it with some pretty big kaupapa, nē? I feel like that’s a Māori creative specialty….

Yeah, I don't… I didn't shy away from them. I'm not a person to be scared of anything.

Brady says this nonchalantly but having watched her (magnificent) work on TransGenerations, I know it’s a confidence she’s worked really hard to develop over many years.

That's kinda huge because from here it all sounds pretty scary. I mean, just writing and performing your own show is scary but especially if it makes you a target to some people.

Absolutely. We first showcased this during Auckland Pride and, if we all remember what happened during Auckland Pride, it was scary for a while. 

We had to ask ourselves; Do we do the show? And make people unsafe? And the answer was that we have to still do it—because we have to be telling our stories, we still have to be visible, we have to show people...

Because it's also so easy to hide now. I think COVID did a lot of that to us, where we could just stay in our rooms, lock ourselves away, and just be fine with it. Even I've… kind of dabbled in that but I don't think it serves us at all. 

And so, yeah, the decisions were made to keep the show going.

Well I think that’s brave (and wish you didn’t have to be). Is Maryanne Māori too?

She is, yeah, but she’s an example of what colonised families can look like—without judging what colonised families look like. And because it's set in the 80s and 90s as well, she and her whānau definitely sit in the center of that, showing how normal it was to feel and be like that. 

Because, I mean… I grew up far removed from my marae, like so many of us do, so we just try and make do with what we've got.

The conversations can get a little bit… tough, but addressing those conversations and showing that’s a Māori story too is something that is necessary I think, for growth.

ABSOLUTELY.

Maryanne is such a specific character but I feel like people from all walks of life can relate to her in that we all feel the weight of society's expectations and labels, whether it’s about our culture or looks or gender or work, to some degree. 

I’m also starting to think that maybe everyone shares my secret fantasy of one day just letting go and saying, ‘Screw it, I’m going to do something OUTRAGEOUS’?!

Yep and particularly for females. Feminine rage is something that should be very special to all of us because in using it you release so much and you tell the truth and it's almost getting us into this sort of liberated stage.

I think it's been utilised throughout history to show exactly what we stand for.

I didn't write about it at first. My wonderful director, Benjamin Kilby-Henson, was like, ‘She's angry here. You’ve got to show it,’ and so I had to go back and insert it in. 

That was the most liberating, freeing thing to do and to perform it every night is… quite remarkable.

Amazing, jeez, I can probably name the last time I felt rage but not the last time I really expressed it. 

We need to embrace it more, nē? All of this makes me think of my aunty, who is a nurse and does everything for everybody and my mum, who has just devoted her whole life to serving everybody else, and I'd just love to see them let loose …

Yes.

To a rock song…

Absolutely. And so if this show does anything, it teaches everybody; you can do this. You can scream it out—to Led Zeppelin!

I do hear a lot of what you just said from other people too; ‘My aunty's exactly like that. My mum is exactly like that and if only she could just see this,’ and it's like, well… give her a rock song. and tell her to go scream it! Scream it to the high heavens!

Yes!

See what Brady’s energy does to you? It’s absolutely infectious.

You've mentioned some of the other themes of the show previously; the 80s, the 90s, the underdog, whānau drama, the effects of christianity in Māori families, nursing, forgiving yourself, whakawāhine and their fathers… one that stood out to me was joy. 

I think it's almost actually an unpopular message because it's easier to be down, it's easier to be scared but I see some of the people in my life who have gone through the hardest things come out with the most respect for, and this real desire to protect, the joy in their lives… Can you tell me a little bit more about why it's an important theme to you?

100% agree with everything that you said. I think the most important thing to know is that not every feeling lasts forever—and if you allow yourself to see it, there's joy peppered throughout every single thing that you do.

That's what I wanted to share in this story as well, was that although you might be in the lowest of the lows of your life, you can still stand up and decide to take a moment and enjoy something.

Laughter is the best medicine. Honestly that’s what this show is all about. It’s very funny, very loud, very sassy, and just about getting together—getting nostalgic and singing some songs together. 

Let's dance together, but just… like dance from your seat please because I've got it on the main stage honey. I've got it from the top.

I have NO doubt of that e hoa.

—-

There you go e te whānau, call your mates (especially girlfriends, aunties, and mums) and come join me on opening night at Te Pou Theatre to experience the absolute joy of ‘What Happened to Maryanne?’

‘What Happened to Maryanne?’ is being performed at Te Pou Theatre Friday 19, Sat 20, and Sunday 21 September (but come to opening night with me). Get your tickets here.

Not in Tāmaki? Don’t despair, Brady will be announcing tour dates around the country on her instagram very soon.