STAGENOISE MEMORIES 2024

By Diana Simmonds

December 30 2024

One evening, in 2005, inevitably in a theatre foyer, Bryce Hallett (then chief theatre critic of the Sydney Morning Herald) and I (then of the Sunday Telegraph, shortly to become Stagenoise), were grizzling about the absence of awards for Sydney theatre people since the implosion of the old awards years before. We then grizzled with Ian Phipps, theatre publicist and contributor to late-night ABC radio.

The result – thanks to Ian’s organisational skills – was the inaugural Sydney Theatre Awards. Held at the Statement Bar under the State Theatre, the event began in the way it would continue with class performers (Caroline O’Connor; Toni Lamond and Tony Sheldon; Lisa Adam, Margi de Ferranti, Benjamin Lewis, Sharon Millerchip, and Shaun Rennie with Musical Director Michael Tyack). And a generous and invested audience.

In recent years, however, I fundamentally disagreed with a move to amalgamate male and female entrants for the Best Actor and Actress categories – Main Stage, Independent, and Supporting. In effect, it halves the chances of the majority male or female performers and is there anything to suggest otherwise than that it’s reductive and mean?

The shortlists for this year’s Sydney Theatre Awards were released on December 23, and the flaws in the system are (in my opinion) yet again seen in the reduced categories mentioned above.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trawling through Stagenoise and, although there are gaps caused by the regular recurrence of Long Covid side effects, it’s been thrilling to go back into the archive (free to you btw). So, here are Not-So-Much-A-Best-Of-But-More my STAGENOISE MEMORIES 2024

In no particular order but all about excellence and my admiration:

The Good Heavens, Not Them Again Award goes to…

EMMA WRIGHT and LUCY CLEMENTS who took over the Old Fitz and began an extraordinary run of productions – from other independent companies and their own New Ghosts. These two have turned independent theatre in Sydney on its head and my money is on them taking over the Sydney Theatre Company one day.

Leading on from them, inevitably, comes previous Old Fitz boss

Australia’s Most-Dynamic-Impresario …
And the imagination and determination of ANDREW HENRY, for Amadeus, at the Opera House; the nationally toured Death of a Salesman, and in 2025, we can expect Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Grief Is The Thing With Feathers.

And he offers a neat segue to The Extraordinary-Stamina-and-Singlehandedly-Keeping-STC-Afloat Award which goes to…

HEATHER MITCHELL for, among other compelling and popular performances over the years, RBG: Of Many One.

Another kind of stamina that must be recognised is for…

Continuing Courage-Despite-Being-Inexplicably-Ignored-By-Mainstages

One of the finest directors of this and a lot of years – ANTHONY SKUSE can be relied on for consistently engrossing productions, on a shoestring yet with maximum talent and results; 2024 was no exception. In August: Gary Owen's adaptation of The Cherry Orchard (Secret House at the Old Fitz). October brought Skuse's version of Hedda Gabler (Secret House with bAKEHOUSE Theatre at KXT Broadway). Both productions were illuminating and original. At the time I wrote: “…it yet again raises the question of why he’s consistently ignored by the mainstream. Meanwhile, independent theatre is the richer for it.”. Ella Prince dazzled as Hedda Gabler.

This brings us to the second Continuing Courage-Despite-Being-Mostly-Unsung-On-Mainstages award which goes to:

DEBORAH GALANOS - whose presence on a stage is a guarantee of magnetic, electric unforgettableness. She was glorious in The Cherry Orchard, and – ironically – she stole enough scenes to warrant immediate arrest as a mesmerising sad drunk in Sweat (STC).

Another stellar actor who finally got to star in and carry a production on his own merits is JAMES LUGTON. He of many sterling performances for Sport for Jove, Bell Shakespeare, Ensemble, and independents, blew audiences away as the “I’m not a racist” dad of Snowflake  (Good Time Theatrics and JB Theatre Co at the Old Fitz).

The production of Snowflake also gave me the same goosebumps as the first time I thought: “Who the hell is that” and it turned out to be (in date order) a fledgling Tracey Ullman, Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett or Sarah Snook. This time the …

…Totally-Unexpected-Excited-Shivers-New-Talent is LILIAN ALEJANDRA VALVERDE whose role as the mystery interloper in Snowflake helped make it so memorable.

Another shivery award is the Look-What-Happens-When-She’s-Stretched and that happened in Cut Chilli. This excellent new play by Chenturan Aran, directed by David Burrowes and produced by New Ghosts at the Old Fitz featured a timely reminder that SUSIE LINDEMAN is rarely challenged in a role and when she is – amazing.

At the other end of the scale: the year’s Hugely-Expensive-Much-Trumpeted-Disappointment award is shared by … STC’s Dracula, which drew laughter from the audience for all the wrong reasons. And showy import National Theatre and Neal Street Productions fatally-aged 2018 The Lehman Trilogy. Both were full of themselves for no discernible reason and went on for far too long. Or seemed to.

Going on for absolutely long enough – for most of a day, that is – were two multi-productions that share the Please-Sir-I-Want-Some-More trophy for sumptuous length and content. Griffin Theatre’s THE LEWIS TRILOGY, at the Stables Theatre, drew together its original parts – This Much Is True, Cosî, and Summer of the Aliens in a masterly edit by Louis Nowra with artistic director Declan Greene. It was a feast of performance and story.

The same must be said of THE INHERITANCE, Part One & Part Two. It filled the Reg at the Seymour Centre with a flawless cast of a dozen including rarely seen gem John Adam and a non-singing Simon Burke. For those who’ve never understood why Angels In America, this is the play(s) for you.

Also seen in The Inheritance and walking off with the Most Effective Cameo of the Year – VANESSA DOWNING – whose appearance for about 15 minutes at the very end of the six hours was exhilarating and heart-wrenching.

Also exhilarating in carrying off the Most-Welcome-Visitor-From-Bleak-City award – NIKKI SHIELS in the title role of Sunday, from STC and MTC, in portraying Sunday Reed, mother of Heide and Modernism in Victoria. Shiels was riveting.

Then, the Director-Who-Should-Be-In-Charge-of-All-Shakespeares award goes, as it probably should each year, to DAMIEN RYAN. This time though for a production of Esther Vilar’s Isolde & Tristan. Produced by Sport for Jove and New Ghosts at the Old Fitz, I wrote of it: “How the dénouement is reached in just 100 finely-wrought, often violent, frequently surprising minutes is a tribute to director and cast.”

The biggest shock in 2024 was the news that Sarah Brightman allegedly cost Opera Australia more per week than the rest of the cast combined for her occasional appearances in Sunset Boulevard. Happily the stand-out in that production was ASHLEIGH RUBENACH. It will be good to see her in something better. Meanwhile, we did get the Brett Dean/ Neil Armfield Hamlet and that made up for a lot.

In contrast though to the Lloyd Webber dino …

The-Musical-That-Was-Worth-Every-Penny was The Hello Girls, from Heart Strings Theatre Co at Hayes Theatre Co. Of it I wrote, back in January, “Just when you thought there was no possibility of a never-been-told story of WW1 emerging from the mists of time, along comes one so unexpected and stirring as to open your heart to the wonders of humanity all over again.”

And we can’t overlook the They-Will-Go-Down-In-History garden gnome that belongs now and probably forever to The Wharf Revue in all its incarnations. Jonathan Biggins, Phil Scott, and Drew Forsythe with a starry list of fourths - most recently Amanda Bishop – have entertained and appalled tens of thousands of laughing and/or gasping people for 25 (twenty-five – yes, really) brilliant years. We shall never see their like again.

What else made it worth the trip to a theatre in 2024? So much and so few duds. On the plus side: in March – Mercury Poisoning from Snatched Collective & White Box at KXT on Broadway. Also in January and the sign that the Old Fitz was in good hands: Empress Theatre’s production of The Lonesome West, a shit-hot staging of one of Sydney’s favourite treats: “a Martin McDonough”.

At this end of the year: Belvoir’s beautifully cast August Osage County with Tamsin Carroll, Pamela Rabe, and Helen Thomson leading the ensemble. (It goes to Perth in 2025 with Caroline Brazier taking over from Thomson – worth the trip for that fact alone.)

And so much more besides, I could go on.  So add your choices or disagreements!

Finally, the ultimate shooting star of 2023 Janet Anderson (in Collapsible, at the Old Fitz) dazzled again in All The Fraudulent Horse Girls (New Works Festival, Old Fitz). And – prediction time – will do so again in Belvoir’s Orlando. They were born to play Virginia Woolf’s slip-sliding hero-heroine and I Cannot Wait! Happy 2025 to all and here’s to Sydney’s theatre people to whom I owe so much joy and wonder.

The Pix: August Osage County, The Cherry Orchard, Snowflake