The playwright is Tessa Bremner, now resident in Wagga Wagga but formerly of Canberra, and well-known in this town for her many productions, most recently “the Venetian twins” for Canberra Rep.

The work is an operatic treatment of her play “The Darkside of Midnight,”  first staged at The Courtyard Studio in 2011 by Free-Rain Theatre Company’s Anne Somes, with music by her collaborator, Brisbane composer and singer R J Shearer.

Citynews is intrigued by the description of the work, as a “exotic operatic physiological thriller.” Surely that should read “psychological.”

The story is set in 1947 India, on the eve of partition, a period just before the English gave up their interests in running the country and anarchy and fear spread through the Hindu, Muslim and British inhabitants of India.

This period was known to all in India as “the Darkside of Midnight.” Bremner’s story, loosely based on the experiences of her parents (Bremner herself was born in colonial India) story concerns the lives of a major and his wife Geraldine who are dealing with a far more evil menace in their household, the new and mysterious manservant “Walker”.

The cast include Brisbane sopranos Tessa Heyworth and Elizabeth Shearer, recently returned from the UK, Mezzo soprano Clarice Williams, and well known tenor Iain Henderson as the mysterious “Walker,” and the accompanist is Scottish pianist John Woods.

This evening’s program is set into three parts: from 6pm to 7.30pm an open workshop of the some of the scenes will take place where Bremner will work with performers; then  from 8pm a one-hour concert will begin and show off some of the more evocative scenes of the work; then from 9pm there will be a meet and greet coffee with performers and production team.

“The Darkside of Midnight” 6pm, at 4MBS Studios, Brisbane.