So much of my assessment of theatre (and more) is naturally retrospective - even to the extent of what I have missed. But I am very excited to say that, where the future meets the present, I have tickets to see Geoffrey Rush in King Lear in Sydney. It coincides with my 60th birthday – if God allows me to reach it – when I can have a bit of a do in the city of my birth.
I saw Rush, on his return from Ecole Jacques Lecoq in 1978, play The Fool in Sydney, with Warren Mitchell as Lear. The production was mounted by the Queensland Theatre Company – Rush was raised in Brisbane – and toured to the Seymour Centre. It is one of the best productions I have seen.
Another lucky coincidence will be to see The Popular Mechanicals in Adelaide on the same trip. I still laugh when I recall the first performance of this work in Sydney at the Belvoir Street Theatre. Rush directed the original and will do so for the new Adelaide version.
I also happened to see him in a production of Pal Joey in Adelaide five years before the original Mechanicals. His dancing partner in that show was a beautiful woman, Adey Grummet, whom I met at after a performance at a theatre do. We could not see too much into the future then – we still can’t. We have been married for nearly 30 years and have lived in the United Kingdom since 1988.
Clairvoyance notwithstanding, I have my tickets for the Sydney Theatre Company Lear – thanks to a friend - even though I cannot book any flights as yet. Let's hope I lose neither my wits nor eyes before then.
I saw Rush, on his return from Ecole Jacques Lecoq in 1978, play The Fool in Sydney, with Warren Mitchell as Lear. The production was mounted by the Queensland Theatre Company – Rush was raised in Brisbane – and toured to the Seymour Centre. It is one of the best productions I have seen.
Another lucky coincidence will be to see The Popular Mechanicals in Adelaide on the same trip. I still laugh when I recall the first performance of this work in Sydney at the Belvoir Street Theatre. Rush directed the original and will do so for the new Adelaide version.
I also happened to see him in a production of Pal Joey in Adelaide five years before the original Mechanicals. His dancing partner in that show was a beautiful woman, Adey Grummet, whom I met at after a performance at a theatre do. We could not see too much into the future then – we still can’t. We have been married for nearly 30 years and have lived in the United Kingdom since 1988.
Clairvoyance notwithstanding, I have my tickets for the Sydney Theatre Company Lear – thanks to a friend - even though I cannot book any flights as yet. Let's hope I lose neither my wits nor eyes before then.
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