Be gay, do crime! Captain Moonlite: A New Australian Musical is coming to the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre this month and tells the story of Andrew George Scott – Australia’s “gay bushranger!”
When composer Jye Bryant stumbled across the story of a bushranger who had gone to his death with a ring made from another man’s hair on his finger, and who wished to be buried beside him in the same grave, he knew he had to tell it.
Andrew George Scott, AKA Captain Moonlite, first rose to prominence when he was accused of robbing the Egerton gold bank in Victoria in 1869 where he was ministering as an Anglican lay preacher to the miners.
But it was his kidnapping of forty people at Wantabadgery Station in NSW and subsequent shootout with police that resulted in his conviction in the courthouse behind Taylor Square and then hanging in Darlinghurst Gaol in 1880.
His death cell letters suggest a relationship between himself and his main sidekick, a young man named James Nesbitt, who he had lived with on the outside after meeting him in jail, and who died in his arms in the shootout.
“I stumbled across the Moonlite story a fair few years back and I remember thinking that this would make a really interesting musical but I didn’t know how I would go about it until I read those letters, Bryant tells QNews.
“When I did, they spoke so beautifully and passionately to me. Imagining him in his death cell in Darlinghurst Gaol in the midst of his grief for James Nesbitt while having to fight for his own life in court.
“I just knew that would be how I told the story. With him reliving all of the events that had led up to those final hours of his life.”
We exist through the centuries
Bryant says he thinks it’s important for these sorts of stories to be told so that LGBTQIA+ people can see themselves as present in the historical fabric of Australia.
“It’s particularly important for emerging younger queer people to see that there are generations of queer people before them and we as a society should recognise that. We’ve always been here,” Bryant says.
The version of the musical that will greet audiences at its Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre season is actually its third iteration as Bryant has updated the play based on feedback from audiences and historians each time it has been performed since it premiered in Queensland in 2020.
“I’m quite excited to see some of those changes and how audiences will react to them after sitting in on a couple of rehearsals,” Bryant says ahead of the 2024 season.
The Heritage Council of NSW is currently considering adding the Gundagai gravesite of Scott and Nesbitt to the State Heritage Register for their significance in providing “a window into queer relationships in the nineteenth century.”
Bryant would also like to see some form of permanent recognition near Taylor Square.
“Someone who was allegedly part of our community was put to death in the heart of gay Sydney with a ring of his partner’s hair on his finger, yet that story is so invisible when you go there,” Bryant says.
He’d also love to see a future version of the musical staged by the Darlinghurst Theatre Company one day, just a stone’s throw from where Scott’s trial and death played out.
Captain Moonlite: A New Australian Musical is at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre with performances daily from Wednesday, May 15 to Saturday, May 18.
-For more information go to www.casulapowerhouse.com
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My thanks for the informative article on This new musical, “CAPTAIN MOONLIGHT” that I certainly hope I shall be able to see and listen to; despite living so far away, on Kangaroo Island, at Penneshaw, where I truly enjoy being on, and being a small part of.