Convicts, Cross-dressing and Colonial Shenanigans – This Musical’s Got It All
Once upon a time in Van Diemen’s Land – before “Tassie” was the hipster haven it is today – a teenage girl named Martha Hayes got off a ship, heavily pregnant, and unknowingly kicked off the island’s first white birth and what would eventually become a roaring musical theatre show.
Fast forward a couple centuries and Vandemonian Lags, co-written by Aussie music legend Mick Thomas and his filmmaker brother Steve, turns these convict capers into one of the most emotionally charged (and oddly foot-tapping) performances you’ll catch this year.
Debuting in 2013 to standing ovations at Hobart’s Dark Mofo, the show’s now making its Victorian encore with a cracking cast including Tim Rogers, Jeff Lang, Claire Anne Taylor, Darren Hanlon and Brian Nankervis.
Convict Stats Meet Musical Theatre
| Fact or Figure | Stat/Details |
|---|---|
| Convict records in Tasmania | Over 70,000 – now part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register (2007) |
| % of Australians with convict ancestry | 20% |
| % of Tasmanians with convict ancestry | Nearly 70% |
| Year Convicts Prevention Act passed | 1852 – to stop ex-cons from crossing Bass Strait to gold-rich Victoria |
| Show venues (2025 tour) | Bendigo, Melbourne, Ballarat, Frankston – from 22 to 25 May |
| Debut of Vandemonian Lags | 2013, Theatre Royal Hobart, Dark Mofo |
Ripping Yarns, Dodgy Past, Modern Healing
The Thomas brothers mined their own family roots, discovering both Victorian banking respectability and a few cheeky convicts who got far less attention at family barbies.
The show’s backbone comes from convict stories unearthed in the Founders and Survivors project – a research colab so thorough it makes 23andMe look like a Facebook quiz.
Mick’s standout number “Two Grandfathers” hits the emotional bullseye: one grandpa’s a respected gentleman, the other’s the quietly erased chauffeur-granddad – who also happened to be an ex-con.
From Shame to Showbiz
Historian Prof Hamish Maxwell-Stewart notes that Tassie once had an epic case of “convict denial”. You didn’t brag about your great-great-granddad being busted for pinching a pig – until now.
“Back in the ‘70s, people were flat-out lying about it,” said Steve Thomas. “Now it’s convict chic!”
Exhibit A: Samuel Phillips, a transported poacher turned goldfield mogul who made so much dosh he sailed back to the UK and bought the very estate he was busted poaching on. As Mick says, “That’s one hell of a flex.”
But Not Without Truth-Telling
It’s not all toe-tapping nostalgia. The show opens with a sobering truth: convicts didn’t arrive on empty land. The consequences for Tasmania’s First Nations were devastating — war, displacement, and death. That tension lives in the show, and rightly so.
As Steve Thomas puts it: “Convicts didn’t choose to be here. Most had no way of getting back.”
Final Word from Mick Thomas
“In the end, they’re ripping stories. Like Mark Twain said, ‘Australian history reads like a pack of lies – but it’s all true.’ These are wild yarns, but they’re still people’s lives.”
Catch It Live in Victoria
| Date | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 22 May | Ulumbarra Theatre | Bendigo |
| 23 May | Melbourne Recital Centre | Melbourne |
| 24 May | Her Majesty’s Theatre | Ballarat |
| 25 May | Frankston Arts Centre | Frankston |
