FOR 44 of the past 50 tumultuous years, The Australian’s
former arts editor Deborah Jones has been either a witness, champion or critic
of stage performances in this country.
From
her first visit to a theatre, to see venerable British director Tyrone Guthrie’s
version of Oedipus Rex for the Old Tote in Sydney, when she was a Year 12
student, to last year’s Madama Butterfly, via Don’s Party (1971),
she has seen the performances that both reflected the times and changed
them.Here, in chronological order, are her personal 10 highlights from those years.
Don’s Party (1971). David Williamson’s play combined dashed hopes with too much alcohol and indiscreet revelations as Don and Kath Henderson, of Melbourne’s Lower Plenty, threw a party in fruitless anticipation of a long-awaited Labor Party victory in the federal election of 1969.
Jesus Christ Superstar (1972). The last weeks in the life of Jesus Christ and his relationship with Judas were the unlikely but compelling subject for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rollicking rock opera, given a monumental production by Jim Sharman and designer Brian Thomson (that dodecahedron!).
Away (1986). Love, loss and the lives of three families on summer holiday interconnected in Michael Gow’s play, which touched on Australian class differences and adult and adolescent relationships with understanding and great humanity.
La boheme (1990). Baz Luhrmann’s every-expense-spared production for Opera Australia put Puccini’s impoverished students into a persuasive 1950s setting and featured young singers who looked the part. All the future Baz touches were there and the audience went wild.
Nutcracker: The Story of Clara (1992). In Graeme Murphy’s radical revision of the Christmas favourite, an ageing former ballerina touchingly recalled her journey from early 20th century Russia to Australia, where she can now only dream of the career and life she once knew.
The 1996 Adelaide Festival: Almost 20 years late Barrie Kosky’s turn at the helm remains vivid in the memory — Batsheva Dance Theatre, DV8 Physical Theatre, Maly Theatre of St Petersburg, Handspring Puppet Theatre, La Fura dels Baus, the late-night Red Square club, Hills hoists everywhere. One could go on and on.(Batsheva is still in existence - clip above).
Skin (2000). Stephen Page’s riveting, important two-part work, magisterially designed by Peter England, celebrated the strength, wisdom and resilience of women in Shelter and in Spear unflinchingly portrayed the contemporary pressure on men.
The Ring Cycle (2004). Elke Neidhardt’s production for State Opera of South Australia was a one-off triumph, its spectacular water and fire effects unreproducible elsewhere but part of a vision for the tetralogy that married narrative clarity, perception and wit with a piercingly lovely design by Michael Scott-Mitchell.
Thyestes (2010). The Hayloft Project used the Thyestes legend — hideously violent familial discord, children fed to their father in a pie — to create a contemporary version of events that was brilliantly staged, tremendously well acted and thrilled its audiences to the core.
Madama Butterfly (2014). Alex Olle’s modern-day interpretation of Puccini’s tragedy used the vast outdoor Sydney Harbour stage to make a point about powerful international interests trampling on local concerns while not losing sight of the devastating personal cost. Tears flowed.
More
comments from Deborah Jones:
THE Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, 1970: Venerable British director Tyrone Guthrie is in Sydney to direct Oedipus Rex for the Old Tote and I am on a Year 12 bus trip from Newcastle. In my mind’s eye I can still see the elaborately stylised costumes and masks of Yoshi Tosa’s design but recall nothing else other than being rather bored. I was an inexperienced theatregoer but knew the Age of Aquarius had arrived.
THE Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, 1970: Venerable British director Tyrone Guthrie is in Sydney to direct Oedipus Rex for the Old Tote and I am on a Year 12 bus trip from Newcastle. In my mind’s eye I can still see the elaborately stylised costumes and masks of Yoshi Tosa’s design but recall nothing else other than being rather bored. I was an inexperienced theatregoer but knew the Age of Aquarius had arrived.
As Sharman, below, writes of the opening night in Blood & Tinsel: “The performance ended in a raucous cacophony of cheers and boos. One critic, Kenneth Hince from The Australian newspaper, had already fled to the toilets and flung his head under a tap. He emerged, wet and dripping, lapelled a passing opera executive, and implored: ‘Tell me it’s a joke!’ ”
[....]
In musical theatre the field is still dominated by imported shows, although all hail to Sharman, whose direction of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show proved you didn’t have to bring in an American director. More recently, however, The Boy from Oz (1998) and The Adventures of Priscilla , Queen of the Desert (2006) were hits here and had a life on Broadway. Australia sends coals to Newcastle!
[....]
I can unearth memories for 44 of these 50 years and it would be a satisfyingly round 45 if only Mum had let me go to Hair in 1969.
I regret being so lacking in rebellion.
But there was plenty to come: Sharman’s Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972; Michael Gow’s Away in 1986; Gow’s production of Angels in America, both parts, in 1993; Neil Armfield’s Janacek series for OA; Barrie Kosky’s The Lost Echo, Poppaea and so much else; Elena Kats-Chernin’s score for Meryl Tankard’s Australian Ballet Wild Swans; Cate Blanchett as Blanche Dubois; Richard Roxburgh as Hamlet, Vanya and Estragon; Ewen Leslie as Hamlet (twice); Geoffrey Rush in The Diary of a Madman and Exit the King; watching the AB’s Lucinda Dunn for the entire of her career as she grew from technical prodigy in the corps de ballet into the company’s prima ballerina.
Now for the next 50.
Story and some pictures with thanks to The Australian
Related:
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The Australian Production Of "Hair" Changed The Theatre And The Nation
G.Wayne Thomas - Morning Of The Earth And Open Up Your Heart
Jon English - Jesus Christ Superstar - Heaven On Their Minds & Superstar - Updated
Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom Musical: Dance Is In The Air
Julie Andrews To Direct My Fair Lady production At Sydney Opera House
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