Mrs C Private Detective
In that classic freelancer’s feast or famine, the last couple of weeks have been crazy full-on. The End of Winter finished its premier season on Saturday—great reviews and very enthusiastic audiences—despite Covid restrictions.
Jane Phegan in The End of Winter. Photo by Clare Hawley.
As part of the Antennae Documentary Film Festival my partner’s film The Bystander Story—a short film about a big idea—had its premiere screening the same week.
As did my new audio work, Mrs C Private Detective.
Kate Condon, circa 1927.
Mrs C Private Detective is a portrait of the life and casebook of Kate Condon, a private investigator who operated in Brisbane in the early decades of the twentieth century. Narrated by Mrs C herself—a not always entirely reliable witness to her own life—the piece features Jeanette Cronin as Mrs C. Actors Thomas Campbell and Johnny Nasser provide the script’s various male voices. Mrs C Private Detective also includes commentary from historians Dr Alana Piper and Dr Alecia Simmonds.
Researched and written by myself, produced by Ros Bluett and sound engineered by Isabella Tropiano, Mrs C Private Detective was commissioned and produced by ABC Radio National. It was broadcast on ABC RN’s The History Listen on 8 February and is now available as a podcast. Download it here.
Noëlle Janaczewska 
Congratulations on the feast of successes Noelle – a bumper month! I’ve just listened to the Mrs C Private Detective podcast. What a joy to hear a completely new take on that flapper era: an older woman, tough and streetwise, doing her job, playing with the truth (just slightly) and blow me! – with her own bank account! A fascinating story vividly brought to life.