IN GOOD COMPANY AT THE BURNING HOUSE By BOB EVANS Sydney Morning Herald IN theatre, timing is everything. The storm that swept across Sydney on Tuesday night broke over Darlinghurst just as actor Richard Roxburgh stepped up to launch a new theatre company. Called The Burning House, the company will be headed by him, along with Justin Monjo and Jessica Machin. Pending a development application, its home for the first production will be the sandstone church on the corner of Palmer and Stanley streets in Darlinghurst. The Burning House's first production will be a dramatisation of That Eye, The Sky, the novel written by the West Australian author Tim Winton, as part of the 1994 Festival of Sydney. It will premiere on January 6. The endorsement by the Festival of Sydney is as much a tribute to the salesmanship of Monjo and Machin as it is an investment in a new company formed around highly regarded actors such as Hugo Weaving, Rachel Szalay, David Wenham and Roxburgh, and emerging talents such as Celia Ireland, Susan Prior and Andrew Gilbert. The Burning House is a project conceived by Monjo and Roxburgh, which, Roxburgh confided at the top of his voice during the height of the storm, was like "a New Year's resolution that accidentally came true". In fact, he and Monjo have been working on it all year, picking up Machin along the way as their producer. "We have spent thousands of hours talking to people who are paid good money to say: 'No |' to people like us," Roxburgh quipped, adding that he had turned down all offers of work this year so he could devote himself to establishing the company. The aim of The Burning House, Monjo said, is to produce theatre that is more than "talking heads". He said the company wanted "to bring back magic and spirituality with a small s to theatre where actors, directors, designers and writers would work in unison to bring the show together". Roxburgh elaborated: "The members of The Burning House are not just people who can't get a gig with the mainstream companies. They are people who are choosing to take a diversion in their careers because as an artist your resources are used more when you're out there on your own, trying to get the kind of story up that you want to tell. "And The Burning House does have a particular emphasis in story-telling. "There is a kind of story that we want to tell about life, its mysteries and its magic, the spirituality of it, the bizarre and exciting elements as well." He and Monjo are committed to a style of theatre that is more visual and physical. While careful not to denigrate the work of mainstream companies(with which he will be appearing next year) Roxburgh said he was finding it hard to get enthusiastic about a lot of the stories that were being told in theatre at present. HE wants a theatre that dispels the "suspension of disbelief", to go back to the theatre of theatre. "I am interested in going back to a much more primitive relationship between the audience and the actors, where any of that sort of stuff is openly acknowledged as theatrical," he said. "To say there is magic in life and to write that into a piece in the theatre is probably one of the most radical things you could do in Sydney theatre today. Part of the idea of The Burning House is to give over the power of story-telling to the actors, stringing a lot of the actors' good ideas to make a necklace," Roxburgh said. Neither of the co-founders is daunted by the possible cynicism that might greet the formation of their company. Roxburgh said he had encountered surprisingly little of it. "The thing that has amazed me and driven me all this year is that people believe that this is possible and a good thing to do." Asked if the company would be one of those seated at the Performing Arts Board's round-table deliberations with their hands out for a grant next year, Roxburgh said yes, although both he and Monjo agree that, whatever enthusiasm may have kept The Burning House alight during its formation, the company would stand or fall on the quality of its work.