In Schapelle, Schapelle, Aussie actors sing and dance their way through the arrest, trial, prison time and Schapelle’s homecoming in 2017. Actress Kelsi Boyden plays Schapelle, and she tells New Idea she would be thrilled if the Corby family saw the show. “We would love for the Corbys to see it! We reached out to Schapelle. We didn’t hear anything back, but we’d love for them to come,” Kelsi says.
“We definitely don’t paint them in a bad light at all. We tell it quite honestly and I think she’d love it.”
Instead of piling on Schapelle, Kelsi says the production pokes fun at Aussie culture and the media firestorm that erupted.
“It was pretty horrible for her, I feel the weight of that. We focus on the media circus around Schapelle and her family, how it affected her. It was a really hard time for them,” Kelsi adds.
“We poke fun at Australian culture and it just lends itself to the humour. So we didn’t have to do much comedy writing. What happened to them is so appalling that it seems like it would be a joke.”
It might prove a laugh for theatre fans, however Schapelle’s sister Mercedes exclusively tells New Idea her family’s ordeal wasn’t funny.
“Our family went through a nightmare and it can be hard for us, especially for Schapelle, to relive it all again. But we try to ignore things that might make fun of our experience,” she says.
The show is for a worthy cause, as Lyndey Milan of The Blair Milan Fund backed the production. Despite Kelsi’s hope that the Corbys might be in the audience, Mercedes says they won’t attend.
“We’ve only just heard about the show and while we are able to have a laugh at ourselves, we won’t be going to see it, as it’s in Sydney. If it’s all for a good cause we are all about that,” she adds.