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Geraldine Quinn"I'm an incurable rationalist, and I grew up Catholic as well, so you can't really blame me for that," states Melbourne retro-styled comedic rock/popster, Geraldine Quinn regarding her 2009 Adelaide Fringe offering, 'Hex and the City'; a one person musical she further dubs as, 'The Crucible Meets The Wiz'. "I got quite fascinated with the witch hunts in England during the seventeenth century and now with the world just going to shit it's just made me think, do you know what? It doesn't take very much to get a bit scared and then start blaming each other and how far are we away from that sort of thing?" Quinn questions, with sincere concern in her voice. "The main crux of the plot is there's an angry mob coming to burn me as a witch because I'm a redhead, as well as me being older, single, childless and female, and how that could happen to anyone," she warns. "I guess the bottom line is me, being this beacon of possible witchery, and not knowing what I can do about it. And I don't mean to get all serious," she pauses to consider, "but the sort of intolerance that people display these days is just as senseless," she reiterates, before proffering her original inspiration for the show. "A friend of mine, who's has cerebral palsy had this young mum with a bunch of children try to help push her wheelchair, and when my friend said that she was fine this woman replied, 'well, with an attitude like that no wonder you're the way that you are'. That's so magnificently Medieval," laughs Quinn, incredulously. "Was she presuming the reason she was in a wheelchair was because she was possessed by the devil? I've got red hair, should I be burned at the stake? And that's kind of when the show started to tick along. How many times do we make these presumptions about other people and how much stress do we have to be under before we start taking matters that little bit further?" she asks again, before stopping to remind me, "but don't worry, the show's funny and not really that serious. When the 'Sex and the City' theme came up it was perfect," Quinn says of her show's alter-reference-sake. "Here's a television show about women my age, but it's something that I'll never be cast in," she concedes. "I'm not bitter, but then I get accused of being a witch so with that I try to play up all these 'Sex & The City' references. I'd never even seen the show before" admits Quinn. "I had to borrow the entire box set and watch them all, three times. It's like a car crash, you know? You shouldn't be looking but you can't look away because whatever I think being a woman is, I'd then think, 'no, I don't want to be that'. These people have so much money and all they do is drink, buy shoes and complain! They complain about being single, and they all have about six dates per episode," she winces. "I haven't had a date for three years, what's going on? It's outrageous, and it's so ridiculous that that's how we see ourselves. So I thought, well let's just put some witch burning into it." Tutu and all. Steve Jones |