NED Kelly and his gang are taking to the stage at the Melbourne Fringe Festival as they fight to create the the Queerdom of Slaytoria.<\/p>\n
Ned Kelly the Big Gay Musical<\/em> follows the group of bushrangers as the battle to overcome colonialist rulers.<\/p>\n The cast includes actors from regional Victoria, including Ballarat, as well as drag performers and musicians.<\/p>\n The writer and director of the musical, Kaine Hansen, said he was inspired by the idea of juxtaposing bushrangers, who have historically been perceived as masculine figures, with queer characters.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always a big lover of history but I\u2019m also very much into writing queer stories and I thought it was a very funny combination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like the Ned Kelly story is such a masculine one and tied to so much Australian masculinity, so I thought doing a queer retelling was something that felt dangerous and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n His inspiration also came from Captain Moonlight, a bushranger who many people refused to believe was gay.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I look at it historically, Captain Moonlight was a gay bushranger and people over the years just thought he had a good friend,\u201d said Hansen.<\/p>\n \u201cNow all the evidence has come out and people are more accepting, people are now like he was definitely a gay bushranger.<\/p>\n \u201cIt blew me away that bushrangers are so tied to being masculine and aggressive and violent and yet one of them was gay and that was supressed for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Hansen hopes attendees have fun at the show and are surprised by its absurd and crazy aspects.<\/p>\n