All These Pretty Things | Etcetera Theatre

As Carrie Fisher once said, “take your broken heart, make it into art.” And Australia-born singer-songwriter Tracey Yarad has done just that in her musical memoir All These Pretty Things. Written in the wake of her husband leaving her for her teenage goddaughter, Yarad’s one-woman show is a testament to pain but also to survival.

Wearing her wedding dress, now dyed black, Yarad opens the show in meditation as she narrates the beginning of her relationship with her now ex-husband. A “non-drinking, non-drugging celibate” in her own description, Yarad is a musician with a decidedly non rock and roll lifestyle, while her husband, as the story opens, is a drummer who has just been left by his wife.

The show, co-written and directed by Tessa Souter, tracks their relationship as they learn to juggle with moderate but not enduring success and embark on a tour of Asia, playing power ballads in high-end hotels by night and collecting antique pieces for their future home by day. They return to Australia and build what looks to be their dream home and their dream life but it all falls apart when Yarad’s husband reveals he is leaving her for the aforementioned teenage goddaughter.

While Yarad’s story does have a happy ending (no spoilers, this is all in the programme), with a move to New York and a vibrant new life, it is the raw pain at the centre of the show which is most impactful. At one point, Yarad plays a short audio clip of herself composing and sobbing, recorded in the immediate aftermath of the split. This brave and affecting choice hammers home to the audience that, while it has dressed up in poetic language and music, this all really happened. 

Yarad’s songs, mostly self-written but some in collaboration with Rachael Brady, Abi Tapio and Amber Woodroff, bookmark her emotional journey through the piece. She is, as she says herself, “not an actress” (though she is a fine storyteller) and it is through her music that the piece really shines.  Songs conveying the devastation of the divorce, including Storm Brewing and What a Mess to Clean (the latter written with Rachael Brady), make way for softer, more hopeful numbers such as Wedgewood Blue.

The set is minimalist, giving Yarad and her keyboard centre-stage, while the backdrop comes in the form of a slideshow showing scenes from Yarad’s life. One of the most effective parts of this is an animation depicting marital bliss, accompanying the song We Are Enough (written with Amber Woodroff). 

A raw, brave and powerful piece, All These Pretty Things is worth watching for Yarad’s vocals alone, but also for the message it delivers – that there is hope to be found even in the darkest times.

All These Pretty Things runs at Etcetera Theatre until 31st July 2025. For more information and tickets, follow the link here.

★★★★☆ (4*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Tickets by Rachel Brady