Drama Tuesday - The Victoria Theatre Newcastle
/More than a Ghost Light Glowing in Memory
We are ushered into the theatre space after a long day of conferencing. It is the first time since 2018 that Drama Australia has met in person so we are happy to be with each other, catching up and sharing stories of what we have been doing.
The Victoria Theatre sits alongside the Crown and Anchor, a traditional beery smelling Australian pub, just off the famous Hunter Street (Bob Hudson sang of Hunter Street and the immortal refrain, Never let a Chance Go By, Oh Lord, to the top of the Australian charts around 1975; look it up on YouTube).
For the conference, we have been invited in to look and play before the building enters even more refurbishment.
Stepping inside, the worse-for-wear space was lit with red and gold lighting in a sea of blue. Plastic chairs are arranged in the ‘safe space’ of the uneven floor. A table for drinks sits to one side. Above us a weird relic of perhaps a rock band era fades into the rococo plaster panels on the ceiling.
The once raked auditorium was long ago levelled so the floor sits a small step to the stage. But the stage rakes up with what looks like to be one in three and above the stage is a cavernous, darkened fly tower, the wooden scaffolding in shadowy darkness and eerie whistling wind.
I am entranced.
Atmospheric/ Beautiful in grungy splendour. Broken. Beautiful in tatters. Rough pockmarked scar tissue surfaces. Grime, ground into surfaces. Soft mouldy smell of age and decay. Panoramas of forgotten dreams.
History. Around 1857 the first Victoria Theatre with basic timber and iron construction was built on Watt Street behind the Commercial Hotel by Mr J. Croft (Mayor of Newcastle and licensee of the Commercial Hotel). But in 859: Croft's Victoria Theatre was destroyed by fire.
In 1876: a new Victoria Theatre owned by Mr John Bennett of Sydney opened on 8-10 Perkins Street and was Newcastle’s first purpose built theatre. It was built in 9 weeks with a timber structure and seated up to 1200 people. IN 1890 two new buildings were built 'over' existing building and then the existing building was razed. There was a hotel on the Perkins Street frontage with theatre auditorium in rear. Designed by architect James Henderson the Victoria Theatre as a four storey brick and iron building with fly tower and a Corinthian style facade seating 2000.
1906: Victoria Theatre reopens again after remodelling. 1921, reopens to accommodate cinema and in 1929 saw the arrival of talkies. 1930-60: Film dominates program although there were significant live performances throughout this period. 1966, closes as a movie theatre and place of entertainment; becomes a clothing store.
2015 local action saves the derelict theatre and attracts funding for refurbishment.
Theatres of the soul. We all have somewhere in our drama teacher souls, memories of theatre spaces. My first teaching appointment was to Merredin in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Arriving there in 1975 (to echoes of The Newcastle Song), I eagerly joined the Merredin Rep Club who had taken possession of Cummins Theatre.
It had been a cinema but still had a full fly tower and stage. Over 4 years 1975-79 (and one baby), we staged school productions and the annual dinner show with the Rep Club. When Liz and I married we moved into the Brewery House, or part of it. It had been built by Miss Cummins, the owner of the Brewery (long gone). I have fond memories of building sets and working in the rickety tin lined backstage and even climbing into the fly tower (something I wouldn’t be doing today!). I cut many a theatre tooth in that space.
The Victoria resonated with my own experience.
In those days, the Rep Club hosted (and manned security on) visits by passing rock bands – ACDC and bourbon fuelled raging Bon Scott. Production from the Playhouse in Perth followed by a drama workshop run by Aarne Neeme. The legendary touring production of Godspell when teachers from the High School refused to get off the bus as the company left town.
A little of my soul was left in that dusty theatre in Merredin. I found traces of it in The Victoria.
The opening Keynote by Associate Professor Gillian Arrighi (UNSW) challenged drama educators to think about why drama curricula give precedence to Western European legitimised theatre over the popular entertainments of music hall, magicians, singers, tap dancers and animal shows. This theatre was a wonderful answer to that provocation.
Send in the Clowns! And tap dancers. And Slapstick Comics. Blue jokes stinking of Mo (Roy Rene)/ The smell of the orchestra. The roar of the crowd.
