Tag Archives: Sandy Gore

Rachel Gordon interview

Posted on by
Reply

Rachel Gordon is about to star in Nick Enright’s 1989 rom-com Daylight Saving for Darlinghurst Theatre Company. She talks about the play and the many diverse credits in her bio.

Rachel Gordon. Photo: Helen White

Rachel Gordon. Photo: Helen White

Logie Award nominee Rachel Gordon has some pretty interesting things in her bio besides her many acting credits.

In 2007, she was personally trained by Al Gore and The Australian Conservation Foundation as a presenter for The Climate Change Project.

The following year she spent a month walking the Great Wall of China with various celebrities to raise money for Olivia Newton-John’s Cancer and Wellness Centre.

“Joan Rivers was on it. She turned up and said, ‘When you said the Great Wall I thought you said the Great Mall. What am I doing here?’ She was on the Great Wall of China walking along in her high heels. She was hilarious.

“I’m very lucky to have had a lot of incredible experiences like that,” says Gordon.

And don’t be surprised if Gordon one day adds “politician” to her c.v.

Her great grandfather was Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, while his wife, Dame Enid Lyons, was the first woman in the Australian parliament.

“That’s really cool for a feminist, isn’t it?” says Gordon.

“They died before I was born but I’d like to get into politics and I know my brother is very keen as well so it might be in the blood.

“I have a lot of things I would like to change. I really love that Ghandi quote: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ There’s no point sitting back and pointing the finger at politicians. I should probably get up and do something, so who knows?”

For the time being, however, Gordon continues to be in demand as an actor.

She is about to star in a production of Nick Enright’s 1989 hit rom-com Daylight Saving directed by Adam Cook for Darlinghurst Theatre Company with a cast including Helen Dallimore, Belinda Giblin and Ian Stenlake.

“Ian Stenlake and I actually went to NIDA together and lived together for a while – not as a couple but in a share house with lots of other students. We’ve never worked together professionally so that’s really nice,” she says.

Gordon is best known for her television work in shows such as The Moodys, Blue Heelers and Home and Away. She has just finished filming a new Channel Seven series called The Killing Field with Rebecca Gibney and Peter O’Brien in which she plays Gibney’s character’s sister.

She has also done plenty of theatre over the years.

“When I first came out of NIDA that’s all I did,” she says. “It took a long time to get much TV work and then that was what I did for a period of time. But over the last couple of years I’ve been doing quite a lot of theatre again and I absolutely adore it. There’s nothing like having an audience in the room with you.”

Enright (The Boy From Oz, Cloudstreet, Lorenzo’s Oil) wrote Daylight Saving for his close friend, actor Sandy Gore. At the time, he was dispirited by his lack of playwriting success and he considered the play a last ditch effort. Fortunately it proved to be a hit, leading to a stellar career. Sadly, he died in 2003 from melanoma, aged 52.

“It’s such an honour to play this role especially because Nick Enright was so dearly loved by pretty much everybody in the theatre community that met him,” says Gordon.

“But I was terrified when I actually got the role because Sandy is such a dear friend and I so want to do the play and her justice. So I called her and told her and she’s been very supportive.”

Gordon plays a successful Sydney restaurateur who contemplates having a fling with an old flame (Stenlake) while her husband is overseas on one of his many business trips. But their candle-lit dinner is constantly interrupted.

“There’s this beautiful feeling in the play, which I think Nick fostered in a lot of his work of really seizing the moment – as he did in his own life. He filled it with so much and affected so many people on so many levels through his generosity of spirit, his largesse, his intellect and his humour. He gave us these wonderful plays and he taught thousands of students.

“There is a real sense of urgency in the play. Felicity, my character, has one night to perhaps live out her dream of being with this ex-flame. We all have these moments in our lives where you think ‘what would have happened if I had taken a different turn?’

“It’s a very charming romantic comedy and I think it will make people laugh and feel happy and hold their dear ones close,” says Gordon.

Gordon’s own dear ones include her two children with actor Jon Sivewright, who she met on Home and Away.

“I’ve got a three-year old and a ten-month old. He’s with the babies at the moment being a very good father,” she says. “They probably feel like they’re on holiday getting everything they want!”

Daylight Saving runs at the Eternity Playhouse until November 30. Bookings: darlinghursttheatre.com or 8356 9987

A version of this story ran in the Sunday Telegraph on October 26

Calpurnia Descending

Posted on by
Reply

Wharf 2, October 11

Peter Paltos, Paul Capsis and Ash Flanders. Photo: Brett Boardman

Peter Paltos, Paul Capsis and Ash Flanders. Photo: Brett Boardman

Melbourne’s self-styled “gay DIY drag-theatre” group Sisters Grimm (Ash Flanders and Declan Greene) has made a name for itself subverting classic film genres to create hilarious, high camp stage comedies.

Last year, Sydney Theatre Company had a hit when it presented Little Mercy, which played with the tropes of the “evil child” horror film.

Now comes Calpurnia Descending, a Sisters Grimm production commissioned by STC and Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, in which Flanders and Paul Capsis play rival divas. It sounds like a match made in heaven but Calpurnia Descending ends up feeling rather less than the sum of its parts.

It’s 1939. Aging, faded, Broadway legend Beverly Dumont (Capsis) is living as a recluse in a New York apartment with her sinister butler Tootles (Sandy Gore). But when a small-town, wannabe starlet called Violet St Clair (Flanders) comes across her by accident, Dumont agrees to make a dramatic return to the Broadway stage.

Dumont will star as Caesar’s third wife Calpurnia in a tragedy written by her late husband, while St Clair will play Cleopatra.

But will Beverly tolerate Violet when the director (Peter Paltos) is so obviously infatuated with her? And will the not-so-sweet ingénue be content in Beverly’s shadow?

Calpurnia Descending begins in familiar territory with echoes of iconic films like All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Then a screen covering the entire stage descends and the production turns filmic. Black and white footage shot live (and badly out of sync) transform the narrative – the rehearsal period – into an old movie. This then morphs into a manic, dizzily colourful, pre-recorded animation in which Beverly appears trapped in a nightmarish video clip or web page.

Where Norma Desmond was undone by the transition from silent films to the talkies, Miss Dumont will struggle to survive in the Internet era where pop stars are the new divas.

Beverly is a gift of a role for Capsis who made his name “channeling” divas as a cabaret performer, and he makes the most of it, playing her spotlight-craving, hard-drinking monstrousness to the hilt while still making her tragic. It’s a fine performance.

Ash Flanders, Sandy Gore and Peter Paltos. Photo: Brett Boardman

Ash Flanders, Sandy Gore and Peter Paltos. Photo: Brett Boardman

Flanders conveys the ruthlessness beneath the sweet façade beautifully. The cross-gender casting also features Gore in nicely observed, amusing performances as Tootles and Broadway producer Max Silvestri who desperately needs a hit, while Paltos hits just the right note as the dashing, young, diva-struck director.

Calpurnia Descending is technically ambitious and cleverly designed (set and costumes by David Fleischer, AV by Matthew Gingold, animation by Matthew Greenwood, lighting by Katie Sfetkidis, sound by Jed Palmer). It’s also fun but the filmic element feels over-long and the plot twists become confusing.

Directed by Greene, the production goes beyond mere homage or parody but in the end what it’s trying to say isn’t clear. Some have read it as an exploration of the commercialisation of queer culture and appropriation of gay icons (think Katy Perry) but I’m not at all convinced that comes across.

Calpurnia Descending is at Wharf 2 until November 8

A version of this review ran in the Sunday Telegraph on October 19

Nick’s Bar

Posted on by
Reply
Nick Enright

Nick Enright

Sydney will soon have a theatre named after Nancye Hayes (the former Darlinghurst Theatre). Now, it has a theatre bar named after the late, much-missed Australian playwright Nick Enright.

Last night, Darlinghurst Theatre Company and the Enright family hosted a wonderful event in the foyer at the newly opened Eternity Playhouse where friends and colleagues of Enright’s, including Nancye Hayes, gathered to celebrate the news that the foyer bar will be known as Nick’s Bar.

Enright’s brother Ian also announced that, over the next three years, the Enright family is supporting Darlinghurst Theatre Company to produce three plays by the renowned Australian playwright, starting with Daylight Saving in 2014.

Enright, who died in 2003 at age 52 of a melanoma, was a dearly loved man of the theatre. A prolific writer for film, television and the stage, he was also an actor, director and teacher who was Head of Acting at NIDA between 1983 and 1984.

His playwriting credits include On the Wallaby, Daylight Saving, St James Infirmary, Mongrels, A Property of the Clan, The Quartet from Rigoletto, Blackrock, Good Works, Spurboard and A Man with Five Children. Together with Justin Monjo he also adapted Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet for the stage.

He wrote the book and lyrics for many musicals including The Venetian Twins, Variations and Summer Rain with composer Terrence Clarke; The Betrothed, Mary Bryant and The Good Fight with David King; and Miracle City with Max Lambert. He also wrote the book for The Boy From Oz, which went on to become a hit on Broadway.

Enright co-wrote the screenplay for Lorenzo’s Oil, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Last night’s event included performances and talks by friends of Enright’s who remembered a man who was warm and witty, wrote comedy and lyrics with effortless ease, and was also a great mentor to many young artists. David Marr (who runs Enright’s estate with Ian Enright) also recalled the playwright’s “ferocious” but insightful editing of his biography of Patrick White.

Enright wasn’t a great drinker himself, said Marr, but understood that red wine and conversation go together so the naming of a bar after him was an apt tribute.

Marr was the MC – a role he said that we didn’t need (given that everyone in the room knew each other) but had to have because Enright loved the formalities of the theatre.

Genevieve Lemon opened the show with “I’ll Hold On” from Miracle City – a heart-breakingly beautiful song, beautifully sung, bringing back great memories of the show, which surely deserves to be seen again soon.

Lynne Pierse and Doug Hansell performed “Love Has Lousy Timing” from the first version of Summer Rain, which was subsequently cut from the show, Paul Capsis sang Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, Jay James-Moody gave us the ever-popular comedy number Jindyworoback from The Venetian Twins with composer Terry Clarke at the piano and Tony Sheldon brought the night to a moving end with “If I Don’t Have You” from Variations (recently given a concert performance by Neglected Musicals).

Sandy Gore did the honours in officially opening “Nick’s Bar”. During a lively, touching speech she revealed that Enright had been so frustrated and depressed at his plays not being picked up and staged that he vowed that he would stop playwriting if Daylight Saving (which he wrote for her in 1989 after Marr suggested he tackled a comedy) was not a success – and she believed him. Happily it sold out and Enright’s career took off.

Mark Kilmurry directs Daylight Saving for the Darlo next year (October 30 – November 30).

“If you need any assistance on the mother, it’s my mother and I can tell you how it’s done,” said Marr.

Hopefully, Daylight Saving is just the first of many Enright revivals to come.

Marr also paid tribute to remarkable Sydney pop artist Martin Sharp who died on Sunday. The Eternity Playhouse is named after Arthur Stace who famously chalked the word “Eternity” on Sydney’s pavements for 30 years after hearing a sermon at the Burton Street Tabernacle now converted into the theatre. Sharp included the word in several works including his 1977 poster Eternity Haymarket! and also illuminated it on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the New Year’s Eve celebrations leading into 2000.