The Kransky Sisters

The Kransky Sisters are an Australian musical comedy trio created, written and performed by Annie Lee (Mourne) and Christine Johnston (Eve) in collaboration with Michele Watt (Arva) and Carolyn Johns (Dawn).

The three sisters live a very old-fashioned life and travel around in their 1958 Morris Major performing musical covers. These are performed with their own special panache using tuba, guitar, musical saw and a 60s reed keyboard, not to mention a whole host of other bizarre instruments that pop up from time to time like toilet brushes and kitchen pots.^{[citation needed]}

The Kransky Sisters tell off-beat and occasionally macabre stories and accompany these stories with strangely relevant covers of popular songs.

Fictional history and backstory

The Kransky sisters come from Esk, a real rural town in Queensland. The two eldest sisters, Mourne and Eve Kransky, are full biological sisters and have lived together all their lives. Mourne and Eve's father was a travelling salesman for the (fictional) Asbestos Cookware Company. Their mother left their father to be with his brother, who is Arva and Dawn's father. The two brothers have not spoken since and Mourne and Eve ostracise Arva and Dawn, using their guilt over the affair to dominate them.

Arva, who first toured with the family band, has now joined the Hornbell Military Marching Band. Dawn, the youngest sister, has taken leave from her job as trolley librarian at the Esk Hospital and now tours in Arva's place. The sisters wear the same clothes and Mourne and Eve speak with similar mannerisms. Mourne, the eldest, is clearly the matriarch, sternly keeping control of her younger sisters and doing most of the speaking during a concert, while Eve, a vegetarian who harbours secret passions, eerily echoes many of Mourne's phrases, though she has enough independence to occasionally add to Mourne's stories. Arva and Dawn almost never speak.^{[citation needed]}

The songs they play are learnt from listening to the "wireless" and they drive to their concerts in a 1958 Morris Major. Sometimes the songs are incomplete thanks to an interruption in their reception and the sisters, lacking any normal cultural context, often seem not to fully understand what they are singing about.

One of their neighbours has a computer and has made them a website. They were in The Sideshow with Paul McDermott on ABC Television.

Instruments

• Mourne: vocals, acoustic guitar, reed keyboard, biscuit tin, kitchen pot, tambourine
• Eve: vocals, musical-saw, reed keyboard, toilet brush, tambourine
• Arva: tuba, vocals
• Dawn: tuba, vocals

Awards

• Sydney Theatre Awards – Best Cabaret Production 2008
• Herald Angel Award for Excellence - 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• MO Award - (Australian live entertainment award) - Best Comedy Ensemble 2005
• Green Room Award – Best Cabaret Ensemble 2004 (awarded in 2005)
• The Age Critics' Award - Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2004
• Melbourne Airports Best Newcomers Award - Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2004

Award nominations

• Barry Award - Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2004
• Triple Nominee Green Room Awards 2004 – Best Cabaret Ensemble; Musical Arrangements; Most Outstanding Show.

Discography

• A keepsake of live excerpts from Mourne, Eve and Arva

This CD contains excerpts from their "We Don't Have Husbands" tour in 2005.

Tracklisting

1. Love You When (Kransky Theme)
2. Introduction
3. Sunrise Sunset - original
4. The Bakery
5. MJ Medley - a Michael Jackson medley of Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean
6. Pix People
7. Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel cover
8. Arva's Boil
9. Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye cover
10. Mince
11. Nutbush - Tina Turner cover
12. Overload - Sugababes cover
13. Makeup
14. Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison cover
15. We Will Rock You - Queen cover

External links

• Homepage of the Kransky Sisters
• Interview with Kransky Sisters from Dangerous Ink Magazine
• Interview with Kransky Sisters for the Big Joke Festival