It took a collection of convict-era coins to turn Brisbane singer-songwriter Katie Noonan into a history enthusiast.
Her interest in the National Museum's set of “love tokens” led her to research Australia's convict women, and set their stories to music.
The result is Love-Song-Circus, a song cycle blending Noonan's soaring, pining vocals with a string quartet and three acrobats moving in fluid rhythm around them.
It has its Brisbane premiere at the Cremorne Theatre QPAC this week.
Brisbane songstress Katie Noonan performs in Love-Song-Circus.Credit: Tony Lewis
The 36-year-old said the project was inspired by the messages that convicts bound for Van Diemen's Land would inscribe on coins for the loved ones they were forced to leave behind.
“The words were just full of such loss, love, and longing, that I felt compelled to find out more,” she said.
“I wanted to find out the woman's story because there are plenty of stories and songs about the wild colonial boys, but very few about women.”
Noonan's newfound passion for history saw her read widely on the subject, and visit convict sites including Port Arthur and the Cascades Female Factory outside Hobart.
Katie Noonan rehearses for performance of Love-Song-Circus.
“That was such a sad place, it was called the Valley of Sorrow,” she said.
“I could imagine being sent there from the other side of the world and being so displaced and trying to re-find yourself and re-define yourself in a new country.”
That emotional connection allowed her to choose key figures of the time, including Esther Johnson, Louis Reagen, Ellen Scott and Mary Reibey, and write a song about their life from their perspective.
“It's a mixture of historically accurate and precise facts, with trying to imagine the emotion within each person's story,” she said.
A fan of Brisbane circus company Circa for many years, Noonan said having three female performers working alongside her reflected the sisterhood of convict women.
“They really looked after each other, ... they did the best with what they could and used music and solidarity to get through,” she said.
“[Circa is] creating beautiful little vignettes and shapes of great strength and femininity.”
Circa associate director Ben Knapton said Noonan's musical style had the same grace as Circa's aerialists found in the air, but also allowed them to explore the tension of those early days of hardship.
“The way that we've built the circus language is more about finding physical languages that extend or complement the music and lyrics Katie's playing,” he said.
Love-Song-Circus plays at the Cremorne Theatre until Saturday March 8. Tickets $57.15 available online.