Author Description

In this entertaining backstage tour, Graeme Blundell has selected almost three hundred anecdotes about Australian theatre from its rather sordid origins in the 1790s to the more celebrated age of Barry Humphries, Wendy Harmer and John Bell. Drawn from newspapers, magazines, biographies, memoirs, and historical works, the anecdotes are arranged chronologically and contain reminiscences of all the great figures of the Australian stage: George Coppin, J.C. Williamson, Nellie Melba, Gladys Moncrieff, Roy Rene (`Mo'), Gwen Plumb, Peter Finch, Ray Barrett, Frank Thring, Noel Ferrier, June Slater, Gordon Chater, David Williamson, and Reg Livermore. Overseas artists have also been drawn to the Australian stage, and several of them drift through these pages - Lola Montez, Charles Kean, Sarah Bernhardt, and Noel Coward. (Asked at the airport if he had anything to say to the Sydney Sun, the Master said simply `Shine'.) Ending with Barry Humphries' caustic account of the opening night of the operatic version of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and with Barrie Kosky's notorious attack on the current state of Australian culture, this is a memorable and spirited celebration of Australian theatre.