Ad Astra Production
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To open our new black box theatre, Pluto, Ad Astra brings you a comedy, the romance of the waitress and the short order cook, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, by the American playwright and screen writer, Terrence McNally.
The play opens with the audience in the dark and the sounds of enthusiastic lovemaking. What begins as a first date fling in Frankie’s 1980’s New York walk-up tenement, evolves into a search, almost a battle, for connection. Wild passion is followed by unbridled, witty interplay between two fascinating, lonely characters: the romantic and the realist, the grandiose and the introverted.
Johnny is certain that he wants to marry Frankie and have children. She is not convinced. He asks, “How well do you want to know me?” She answers,
I’ll let you know Monday between orders. “I got a BLT down working!” “Tell me about your childhood.” “Take the moo out of two!” “Were you toilet trained?”
The first production off Broadway in 1987 starred Kathy Bates and F. Murray Abraham and revivals have included Stanley Tucci and Rosie Perez, but audiences may be most familiar with the film version, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino.
This play celebrates intimacy and vulnerability. It is funny, disconcerting and poignant: all that black box theatre should be. Come for date night. You’ll be startled, and glad.
Content Warnings : Partial Nudity, Sexual References.
Accessibility : Please note we are still waiting for the lift to be installed. Sadly, there is currently only stairs to access this space. There are 16 stairs and 30m to access the entrance of Pluto.
In the space there are very small stairs to get to each row, except the front. We can seat you there if you prefer, or further back if you do not like to be in the front row.
There are bathrooms on this level, but the specially designed accessible bathroom has not been completed.
Please see Front of House staff on arrival at the front entrance or or send us an email and we will have it noted prior to your arrival..
(Please note that - Stacie Hobbs will play Frankie 30/10, 8/11 (matinee), 15/11 (matinee) & 20/11.)
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In the ethereal otherworldliness of the small hours of the morning, in the afterglow of lovemaking, feelings can be intense. Apparently, our neurobiology reaches a turning point at 3.00am and, if you have not slept, your Circadian rhythms are likely to be disturbed. In this half-light, when the city and the real world are asleep, Frankie is reluctant to make life changing decisions. She will not be coerced.
For Johnny, this night in Frankie’s apartment is not just a momentary escape from life as a short order cook in the grind of a New York diner. He has entered Brigadoon, that place that magically appears once every hundred years, he has found the one he desires and he wants to seize the moment.
I have had the privilege of sharing this other world with my talented cast and crew for several months now. We have travelled this journey with the cook and the waitress, delving into the nature of a love that longs to be long term, of the harmful baggage we carry into middle age making us wary, of the fears and joys that come with profound connection: of what it is to be human and in need of a companion.
I know that the calibre of the actors and the designers of set, lighting and sound will carry you away to New York in the late eighties. I hope that in this other world you will feel connected when you recognise the longing that makes us human and enables us to love.
Fiona Kennedy
Director
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Frankie | Candice Hill & Stacie Hobbs
(Stacie Hobbs will play Frankie 30/10, 8/11 (Matinee), 15/11 (Matinee) & 20/11.)
Johnny | Nathaniel Currie
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Director | FIona Kennedy
Assistant Director | Prue Robb
Set Design | Fiona Kennedy/Prue Robb
Intimacy Coordinator | Heidi Gledhill
Stage Manager | Isabel Foland
Lighting and Sound Design | Kyle Royall-West
Production Assistant - Nicholas Hargreaves
Set Build | Scott Lymbery
Show Poster
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“There’s a sense that something intimate, daring, and deliciously human is about to unfold, and from 29 October to 22 November 2025, that something is Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune.”
Kitty Goodall - Weekend Notes | Read More
“Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” is a heartwarming reminder of the potential for beauty to be found in ordinary lives.”
Meredith Walker - Blue Curtains Brisbane | Read More
“It felt exhilarating to be in the audience for such a witty and personal play, with such a talented and generous cast …There are no cheesy diner scenes, just the late-night moonlight and two fragile characters cocooned together with their secret hopes and aspirations.”
Beth Keehn - Stage Whispers | Read More
“Seating only 44, you cannot help but be instantly connected to the storyline and the actors. No matter where you sat, you felt like you were in Frankie’s NY studio apartment on this emotionally wild ride.”
Bronwyn Cook - Theatre Matters | Read More
