{"id":30,"date":"2019-10-04T14:38:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T21:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/?p=30"},"modified":"2020-04-28T02:32:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T09:32:28","slug":"when-sir-tyrone-guthrie-launched-the-sir-john-clancy-auditorium-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/blog\/2019\/10\/when-sir-tyrone-guthrie-launched-the-sir-john-clancy-auditorium-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"When Sir Tyrone Guthrie launched the Sir John Clancy Auditorium, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Work on the Wolanski collection has underscored the vital role UNSW has played \u2013 and continues to play &#8211; in Australian cultural life. It has illustrated the value of bringing photographs, objects, oral history interviews and other production material together to gain a better understanding of what happened on stage. And it has raised heritage questions about the scattered information and artefacts relating to Sir Tyrone Guthrie\u2019s production of King Oedipus at UNSW in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-30 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-medium'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"182\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023-182x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023-182x300.jpg 182w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023-768x1265.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023-622x1024.jpg 622w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1023.jpg 1256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 182px) 100vw, 182px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"213\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022-213x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022-768x1083.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022-726x1024.jpg 726w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1022.jpg 1477w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"184\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021-184x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021-184x300.jpg 184w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021-768x1254.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021-627x1024.jpg 627w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1021.jpg 1257w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"213\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014-213x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014-768x1083.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014-726x1024.jpg 726w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Oedipus-SP20190828-1014.jpg 1572w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>King Oedipus production photos, courtesy UNSW Archives<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On 21 August 1970, <strong>Sir Tyrone Guthrie<\/strong>, the distinguished English theatre director, helped launch the Sir John Clancy Auditorium with the world premiere of John Lewin\u2019s adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy, <strong>King Oedipus.<\/strong> The season at UNSW closed on 26 September before the production toured as a re-staged version in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide until March 1971,&nbsp;with <strong>Dr Jean Wilhelm<\/strong> from the UNSW School of Drama in charge.&nbsp;A less theatrical official opening of the Clancy auditorium occurred a year later, on 23 August 1971<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>University of New South Wales Drama Foundation,<\/strong> with financial support from the Australia Council, had arranged for Guthrie to come to Australia to direct the production by the Old Tote Theatre Company, which had been launched on the University of New South Wales campus in 1963.&nbsp;He had also been engaged to direct <em>All\u2019s Well That End\u2019s Well<\/em> for the Melbourne Theatre Company.<\/p>\n<p>The 2-metre tall Sir Tyrone had visited Australia twice before. On the first occasion, in 1949 &#8211; the year the University of New South Wales was given statutory status as the New South Wales University of Technology &#8211; the invitation had come from the Australian Prime Minister, <strong>Ben Chifley<\/strong>, who had commissioned him to report on the establishment of an Australian national theatre. Guthrie had concluded then, as he concluded in 1970, that \u201cAustralia was not ready for a national theatre building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, after a tour of the unfinished Sydney Opera House before the King Oedipus opening, he described the building as \u201can expensive knick knack\u201d. It was \u201ca mish-mash of buildings\u201d and \u201cquite inadequate.\u201d Harking back to his 1949 conclusion, it was \u201cputting the cart before the horse\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He died the following year, in May 1971. Had he lived longer he may have reassessed his view on the value of buildings in stimulating growth of the performing arts industry in a far-flung country like Australia.<\/p>\n<h2>The local production<\/h2>\n<p>Guthrie had produced Oedipus several times before, beginning with his production for the Habimah Theatre, Tel-Aviv, in 1947. The Old Tote Theatre staging drew on Guthrie\u2019s famous 1957 production of <em>Oedipus Rex<\/em> for the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario.<\/p>\n<p>The cast in Sydney included <strong>Ron Haddrick<\/strong> (Oedipus), <strong>Ruth Cracknell<\/strong> (Jocasta). <strong>James Condon<\/strong> (Creon) and <strong>Ronald Falk<\/strong> (as the soothsayer Teiresias) in the lead roles, as well as <strong>Jane Harders, John Hargreaves, Ivor Kants, John Wood, Shane Porteu<\/strong>s and <strong>Pamela Stephenson<\/strong>. In early deliberations about the production, surprisingly <strong>Sir Robert Helpmann<\/strong> had been in the frame to perform the role of Jocasta. <strong>Richard Wherrett,<\/strong> who is not acknowledged in the program, had been engaged as an observer and diarist prior to his appointment as Associate Artistic Director of the Old Tote<\/p>\n<p>For Ruth Cracknell the joy of working with Guthrie was one of the high points of her career. In an interview with Michelle Potter for the National Library in 1986, she recalled Guthrie\u2019s insistence that it be performed with Australian accents.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37\" style=\"width: 298px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37\" class=\"wp-image-37 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Scan-11-Jun-2019-at-10.08RS-288x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Scan-11-Jun-2019-at-10.08RS-288x300.jpg 288w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Scan-11-Jun-2019-at-10.08RS-768x799.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/files\/2019\/10\/Scan-11-Jun-2019-at-10.08RS.jpg 796w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sir Tyrone Guthrie discusses King Oedipus with designer Yoshi Tosa. Source: Wolanski Collection, UNSW<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ronald Falk, who played Teiresias, in an interview with Margaret Leask, also treasured the experience of working with him. \u201cHe listened all the time.\u201d He was \u201cvery conscious of the sound of the thing.\u201d He had a memorable way of giving direction. After Falk had attempted a challenging stage movement, he received the following suggestion from Guthrie: \u201cRonald: just a little less C major, please.\u201d Hinting at the organic nature of works on stage, Falk felt the production never came into its own until it reached the Octagon Theatre in Perth the following February.<\/p>\n<p>The set and costumes were designed by <strong>Yoshi Tosa<\/strong>, who in another oral history interview with Leask, described the work that had begun six months before the opening to produce 80 masks, 55 costumes, and platform shoes for the principals to elevate them in height and status.<\/p>\n<p>The music for the production was composed by the late <strong>Roger Covell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>The reaction<\/h2>\n<p>There were mixed reviews.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HG Kippax<\/strong>, the <em>Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> critic, was disappointed but urged everyone to see it. \u201cSir Tyrone Guthrie\u2019s visit has been eagerly awaited, and no theatre-lover no matter what I or anybody else says, should miss his production of King Oedipus at the Sir John Clancy Auditorium at the University of New South Wales\u201d. It was a conception of \u201cperhaps the greatest work of pessimism every written, staged with sustained grace and beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yoshi Tosa\u2019s settings and costumes were singled out. <strong>Robin Ingram<\/strong>, in <em>The Sun<\/em>, wrote that \u201cso much awe that this production holds is in [Tosa\u2019s] lavish masks and costumes.\u201d <strong>Ursula O\u2019Clonnor<\/strong>, in <em>The Sydney Morning Herald t<\/em>he following year recalled: \u201cthe one thing that most people agreed on was that was visually stunning\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Robin Ingram<\/strong>, in <em>The Sun<\/em>, described it as a \u201cmomentous production.\u201d <strong>Katharine Brisbane<\/strong> in the Australian praised the standard of performance and mounting as \u201cway in advance of the Old Tote Company\u2019s work for some time.\u201d However, T<em>he Daily Telegraph\u2019s<\/em> <strong>Barbara Hall <\/strong>remembered it as \u201ca dream that did not come to life\u201d. And <strong>Brian Hoad<\/strong>, in <em>The Bulletin,<\/em> was scathing. He saw it as a \u201ctragedy transmuted into something more like vaudeville comedy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The auditorium was savaged as a theatre venue by almost everyone.<\/p>\n<p>A fortnight before the opening, Guthrie had put the hall\u2019s acoustics to the test in front of an audience of 900 school children, drama students and the singer and comedian <strong>Anna Russell<\/strong>, before declaring the acoustics \u201cain\u2019t so bad as we afeared.\u201d Kippax, however, blamed the acoustics for his disappointment, along with the inclusion of an interval, which he said destroyed the play\u2019s long controlled movement of climax. Most participants and commentators agreed.<\/p>\n<p>The choice of the theatre, however, had been Guthrie\u2019s. Robert Quentin had offered him the 330-seat Parade Theatre nearby or the 999-seat Sir John Clancy Auditorium. After an unsuccessful search for other options, Guthrie chose the larger auditorium, despite its stage limitations and questionable acoustics, over the more limited seating capacity of the Parade.<\/p>\n<p>There were indelible impressions.<\/p>\n<p>Two high school teachers,&nbsp;<strong>OC Mortimer<\/strong> and <strong>BM Potter<\/strong> from Parramatta, who had brought with them a class of students, read Hoad\u2019s damaging critique with disbelief. \u201cIt was a profound experience among a spellbound audience\u201d and had \u201cmade out lives richer for seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, <strong>Deborah Jones<\/strong>, remembering years later her visit as a Year 12 student from Newcastle, could recall nothing other than being bored, except for the impact of the \u201celaborately stylised costumes and masks of Yoshi Tosa\u2019s design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For another schoolboy, <strong>Tony Knight<\/strong>, later Head of Acting at NIDA, \u201cit was massive, with all the characteristics of Guthrie\u2019s particular \u2018epic\u2019 style. Everything was big \u2013 the masks, the costumes, the theatre space \u2013 everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his view, it was partly due to Guthrie that the respective state theatre companies and NIDA were established, and he had a major influence on <strong>John Bell<\/strong> and <strong>Anna Volska<\/strong>, who worked with Guthrie in the UK during the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lex Marinos<\/strong> \u201cwas among a squad of plague-riddled Thebes supernumeraries needed for a groaning, smoky opening scene. Most of them were NIDA students.\u201d It was an experience that left its mark: \u201cBy the time I graduated, there was only one thing I aspired to \u2013 I wanted to be a jobbing actor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/blog\/2020\/04\/when-sir-tyrone-guthrie-launched-the-sir-john-clancy-auditorium-part-2\/\">part 2<\/a>,<\/strong> we will look other UNSW connections and production records.<\/p>\n<h2>Selected sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Forsyth, James. <em>Tyrone Guthrie: a Biography<\/em>. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976.<\/li>\n<li>Jones, Deborah. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theaustralian.com.au\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/newscorpau-theaustralian\/templates\/static\/50th-birthday\/statements-on-stage-50-years-of-australian-theatre-dance-and-opera\/story-fnlk0fie-1226959761195\">&#8216;Statements on stage: 50 years of Australian Theatre, dance and opera&#8217;<\/a> (The Australian, 16 May 2014)<\/li>\n<li>Knight, Tony.<strong> \u2018<\/strong>Michael Billington\u2019s The 101 Greatest Plays, #2 \u2013 Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus Rex\u2019 in <em>All the Pleasures of the Garden&nbsp;<\/em>[Website] <a href=\"https:\/\/allthepleasuresofthegarden.com\/category\/oedipus-rex\/\">https:\/\/allthepleasuresofthegarden.com\/category\/oedipus-rex\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Kippax, HG.<strong> \u2018<\/strong>Disappointing \u2013 but See Oedipus\u2019 in <em>A Leader of His Craft: Theatre Reviews of HG Kippax<\/em>. Strawberry Hills: Currency House, 2004.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Marinos. Lex. <em>The Jobbing Actor: Rules of Engagement<\/em>. Platform Papers no 53, November 2017. Strawberry Hills, NSW: Currency House.<\/li>\n<li><em>Oedipus Rex. <\/em>Canadian Stratford Festival production by Sir Tyrone Guthrie, 1957. YouTube <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TonLOAkc1OY\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TonLOAkc1OY<\/a>. IMDB https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0050792\/<\/li>\n<li>Wherrett, Richard. The Floor of Heaven: My Life in Theatre. Sydney: Hodder Headline, 2000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Author<\/h2>\n<p>Paul Bentley is assisting the Performance Memories Project to improve the accessibility of the Wolanski collection in the UNSW Library. He saw the production in the Sir John Clancy Auditorium, looked after some of the masks and costumes from 1973 to 1997, and performed the role of Teiresias for the WEA Studio Theatre, Newcastle, in 1967.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Work on the Wolanski collection has underscored the vital role UNSW has played \u2013 and continues to play &#8211; in Australian cultural life. It has illustrated the value of bringing photographs, objects, oral history interviews and other production material together to gain a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101494,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56791,57170,56133,56520,32],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-king-oedipus","tag-old-tote-theatre-company","tag-sir-john-clancy-auditorium","tag-sir-tyrone-guthrie","tag-unsw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/performance-memories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}