Life is a gamble; you never know what hand you’ll be dealt. With humour, heart, and a touch of existential crisis, Natalie Abbott explores the unpredictable nature of life, grief, and what it means to truly live.
Natalie, a performer from Yuin Country (South Coast NSW), made her professional debut as Muriel Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding The Musical (2019) directed by Simon Phillips, earning Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations. Her theatre credits include On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, As You Like It (Melbourne Theatre Company), and The Lovers (Bell Shakespeare) written by Laura Murphy, for which she received a Sydney Theatre Award nomination for best supporting actor. She made her television debut as Diana West in ABC’s After Taste (2020–2022) which filmed in Adelaide, and appeared in Netflix’s A Perfect Pairing (2022). In 2024, she performed in Zombie!: The Musical, Return to Paradise (ABC), and the feature film The Deb, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim.
Natalie is bringing her incredibly powerful new cabaret Bad Hand to this year’s Cabaret Festival.
She spoke to Glam Adelaide about Bad Hand, how the show came about, and if she always knew the performing arts was where she wanted to work.
“I feel very grateful for the career that I’ve had, for sure. I think, when I was growing up, I could not be stopped – I was so annoying. I was singing all the time and dressing up and putting on voices and characters and stuff like that. I really think I drove my family quite crazy. But I never really knew that it was an actual career or it could be a reality for me until I won the Bell Shakespeare regional performance scholarship in year 12. I got to go up and watch the rehearsals of a real-life play. I also got to work on a monologue and really immerse myself in what it could be like to be an actor for a week. That really opened my eyes. I was like, ‘Oh my god, look at these adults. They’re doing what we do in drama class – but as a job. That’s amazing! That looks like so much fun.’ Being from a small town on the south coast, there’s not a lot of opportunities for theatre. So I moved away from home after school and I went to a musical theatre university and the rest is herstory.”
Natalie shared how amazing it was to be the first performer to breathe life into Kate Miller-Heidke’s incredible score in Muriel’s Wedding The Musical.
“I forever will be pinching myself that Muriel was my professional theatre debut. It’s incredible. It was a mammoth of a show, It really was kind of a marathon, and I was really running uphill for about nine months, but I’m forever grateful that I got to perform that show as many times as I did. To be Muriel once is such a dream come true. The score is incredible. An original Australian musical is one thing, but a successful original Australian musical with an epic score is another.”
The world of cabaret can mean different things to every performer, so we were keen to hear what cabaret means to Natalie.
“I think it’s a very authentic form of expression, and I think what’s amazing about it is it means different things to different people. I feel like it’s a really free-form expression of individuality. When you see various cabarets, there are no two cabarets that are the same. There are no two cabarets that follow a specific format. It just kind of exists in its own world, which I think is the appeal.”
Bad Hand embraces the complexities of uncertainty, featuring music that is raw, funny, and deeply poignant. It’s a reflection on love, loss, and taking risks – because in life’s game of chance, the only way to win is to go all in.
We asked Natalie how the show came about.
“I was approached by Virginia Gay and she asked me if I wanted to do the festival. At the time I didn’t have a show but I thought I’d be able to write one by them. I had a tremendous loss last year. It’s just been the one year anniversary of my partner’s passing and it was completely unexpected and horrific. This year of grieving has opened my eyes to a whole new world. I think I never had a cabaret because I never had anything to write about, and now all of a sudden I do. I put all of my energy into writing something and Bad Hand came up. I’m really happy with how it’s sitting at the moment and I can’t wait for audiences in Adelaide to hear it.”
Bad Hand Natalie’s cabaret debut and she would like to dedicate this show entirely to her partner, Ryan.
It will be performed for two performances on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th of June.
“I just hope that someone in the audience walks away and feels inspired in some way to go and do something that they’re a little bit afraid to do.”
Bad Hand
Banquet Room, Adelaide Festival Centre
Wednesday 18 June and Thursday 19 June at 6.00pm
https://cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/natalie-abbott-bad-hand
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