THEATRE ON CAMPUS

The University of WA is blessed with a number of performance spaces on campus and I've been priviledged to have both watched and performed In a number of them back in the day.

My first experience was seeing a production of Romeo and Juliet at the New Fortune Theatre. This theatre, situated in the middle of the Arts Faculty building, is based on the 1600 Fortune Theatre in London. It's an open air space which is also the home to a family of peacocks. I was 13 when I saw R&J and remember writing a fan letter to Romeo and waiting desparately for a reply which never came. My performance opportunity on this stage came in the 1980s when as part of a Graduate Drama Society production, I performed in The Country Wife, a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley. The first and last time I've ever worn a black wig! 

Many of you will have heard the story of how I saw my first Melbourne Theatre Company production after winning a ticket to see a matinee at the new Octagon Theatre in 1969. Not that I knew or even cared who had produced it. I was just thrilled to be seeing the star of Bellbird, Robin Ramsay, perform as Prince Hal in Henry IV Part 1. A few years later, I was sitting in that same theatre space for my Economics 10 lectures, presented by Dr John Jackson, who turned into a long term friend. The Octagon is great performance space with a thrust stage, seating around 750 people. It was designed by local architects in conjunction with theatre entrepreneur and director Sir Tyrone Gutherie. I get the impression, sadly, that it's rarely used for anything other than lectures these days.



After I returned to WA after my stint as a public servant in Canberra and Sydney, I had the challenge of performing on that same stage in a production of Women Beware Women, a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton and directed by Timothy West. I bought one of the props at the after show party and she lived in my backgarden for years to remind me of the moment when Tim's words lead me to a career in arts management.

And then there's the Dolphin Theatre. The orignal and it's 1976 replacement. Both intimate proscenium arch theatres and both with a number of performance memories. The dominating one is a production of The Merchant of Venice directed by Colin O'Brien from the English Department with exquisite Jane Austen-period costumes designed by his wife, Pippa O'Brien. We took this production to the Festival of Australian Theatre in Adelaide in 1974 much to the surprise of the other university drama groups who were all doing guerilla theatre or new Australian work. Shakespeare in frocks was not seen as revolutionary enough!


I had the chance to see a show in the Dolphin last week but sadly, it was the worst sort of amateur theatre - a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia Limited with actors who couldn't act and even some singers who couldn't sing. I have to confess that Susan and I snuck away at interval. However, that experience won't stop me going back on campus for more theatrical activities.

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