Sydney is addicted to the arts on a grand scale. Each year begins with the Sydney Festival, an extravaganza that collects the world’s best musicians, actors, theatre companies and performance groups, to perform to packed audiences throughout the city. The year ends with the extraordinary fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Year’s Eve, while in between are major arts events like the Sydney Writer’s Festival, the free Tropfest short film festival and many food and multicultural festivals, which bring the city together in landmark venues like The Rocks area, or the Domain.
Yet visitors to Sydney who are interested in the arts usually head to the Sydney Opera House – not surprising, given that the building is a national icon. But for theatre lovers, the Sydney Opera House is only the beginning. Sydney also boasts three distinct flagship theatre companies: the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street Theatre and The Bell Shakespeare Company, each of which offer a different perspective on both the Australian arts scene and Australia itself.
The biggest is the Sydney Theatre Company, under the joint artistic directorship of actress Cate Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton since 2008. That she is the artistic director has not stopped Blanchett from treading the boards in plays such as the massive Wars of the Roses, a two-part epic. International talent like Liv Ullman and Philip Seymour Hoffman occasionally collaborate, while the company also has a strong roster of Australia’s finest actors including Colin Friels, Hugo Weaving and Judy Davis.
“For the international traveller, obviously the Australian work we put on the stage is something they won’t see elsewhere,” says managing director Rob Brockman. “We also usually present one play from the existing repertoire, performed by fantastic Australian actors they may or may not be familiar with, from A Streetcar Named Desire with Cate Blanchett, through to actors they will never have heard of.”
Many of the actors will have been trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the famous drama school that has trained the likes of Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett, “I think Australian performers have a particular style,” says Brockman. “If you were talking about actors in England, you would say it was all about voice and their work with text. In America, it would go back to method acting. With Australia, it’s the physicality, so you’ll see actors who feel very natural.” He adds that Australian actors bring a “particular type of courage” to their work, which he suggests is because the Australian industry is so small, that performers have to stretch themselves further to stay in work.
The Sydney Theatre Company works in three distinct spaces. The first is the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, a traditional proscenium arch theatre. Here is where the Sydney Theatre stages productions of classic plays, which can include anything from Nicholas Nickleby to the works of Noel Coward.
The second space is the Wharf Theatre which was once, literally, a wharf and juts out onto Sydney Harbour. It shares space with the Wharf Restaurant, a spectacular place for pre-theatre dinner or drinks. Other neighbours include the Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company and Sydney Philharmonia, giving the Wharf Theatre a lively artistic buzz. Here there are two smaller theatre spaces, which offers edgier plays. Finally the Sydney Theatre itself, which is also in the Walsh Bay precinct, presents works on a much larger scale. International companies also occasionally appear, such as Britain’s National Theatre, Out of Joint and Cheek by Jowl.
Belvoir Street Theatre, in the inner city region of Surry Hills, is a tiny, rather battered looking theatre with a proud history. It’s the home of Company B, a theatre co-operative, where the actors, directors, front of house people and cleaners are all paid the same.
The audience sit closely packed around the stage, so there is no escaping the emotional intensity of what’s happening. “I think what makes it different is that Belvoir’s a beautiful, intimate space,” says general manager Brenda Hobson. “Our focus is on creating stories about what it means to be Australian here and now.”
She says at any given time Belvoir might be offering an international classic or contemporary play, or an indigenous Australian work. “For example, we’re running The Promise at the moment, a rediscovered Russian classic about the siege of Leningrad.” Hobson says Belvoir is also proud of its strong commitment to indigenous plays and actors.
Important names associated with Belvoir include Oscar winning actor Geoffrey Rush, and director Neil Armfield, one of Australia’s most internationally significant directors, who is also artistic director of the Theatre. Belvoir also offers another area, Downstairs. “It’s a way to support independent theatre in Sydney,” says Hobson. She explains that it offers a space for up-and-coming directors and small theatre companies to showcase their works. What’s shown is as eclectic as the theatre companies themselves.
The third and final of the flagship theatre's is The Bell Shakespeare Company, which offers, as you might guess from the name, the plays of Shakespeare, along with occasional forays into other classic works. But don’t expect to see actors wearing doublets and hose, because the theatre likes to re-imagine the classics to reflect modern Australia. As the company’s founder and artistic director John Bell says: “It’s far more important to reflect who we are and where we live and compare it to Shakespeare’s text.
I find tension between a 400 year-old text and us very exciting.”
One thing that Sydney has never done very well traditionally is post-theatre drinks, as many places around the city would already be closed by the time the theatre came out. These days, the bars around the Harbour are always open for drinks, so finish your night sipping a glass of something as you look out over the water – something of an artistic and uplifting sight in and of itself.
Sydney Theatre CompanyPier 4, Hickson Road,
Walsh Bay.
Tel: 9250 1777.
Belvoir Street Theatre25 Belvoir Street,
Surry Hills.
Tel: 9699 3344.
The Bell Shakespeare Companywww.bellshakespeare.com.auTel: 8298 9000.