Putting the magic back into theatre
Author: RACHEL GIBSON
Date: 06/10/1994
Publication: The Age
 
 
RACHEL GIBSON talks to the producer of a new Sydney-based theatre company about their adaptation of Tim Winton's novel, 
`That Eye The Sky'. 
FEW newly established theatre companies command an international festival audience for their maiden run. 

The Sydney-based company, The Burning House, has only ever performed the one play since forming last year - an adaptation 
of Tim Winton's novel That Eye The Sky - but based on the strength of the script and the players, the company landed a 
premiere at the Festival of Sydney and has been granted a follow-up audience at the Melbourne Festival. 

While some young, innovative local theatre companies are being forced to close their doors because of a lack of funds and 
patronage, the company's producer, Jessica Machin, says that in Sydney the niche theatre market has been ripe for 
exploitation. 

The Burning House was conceived by writer Justin Monjo, and actor Richard Roxburgh, and developed with Machin around the 
notion of putting the theatre back into theatre. 

``So often with film and television, we had to say `Well what is it about theatre that's different? What is the theatrical 
experience?'," Machin says. ``That was one of the main things with the piece; that we brought the magic back to the stage 
and the spirit back into theatre." 

The script was developed from Tim Winton's novel of the same name. It is told through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy, Ort, 
who Winton has said could be either mentally slow or a mystic. In the same way that a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel weaves 
the extraordinary and the ordinary, Winton's story blends the metaphysical with the physical of the Australian bush. 

In a physically demanding innovation, the entire cast remain on stage throughout the play, moving sets, creating effects 
and soundscapes when they are not in character. Ort, played by 28-year-old David Wenham, conveys his thoughts and the 
story's essence to the audience through his conversations with a cloud hovering above him, that he perceives as the eye of 
God. 

``What naturally came out of the piece is the device of the chorus which all the company are part of apart from Ort," says 
Machin. ``The chorus moves the story on. The chorus changes the setting; the chorus creates the magic. The piece, in terms 
of design is also very impressionistic, it's not specific, it's suggestive and it's also quite functional to allow the 
chorus to tell the story." 

In forming the company, the director of The Burning House, Richard Roxburgh, and other company members were particularly 
inspired by the actor-based theatre of the English Theatre De Complicite and motivated by a feeling of disenfranchisement 
with mainstream theatre's constraints. 

``There was a sense that often in mainstream theatre, and this is not a put-down, that it's not actor-based," Machin says 
carefully. ``The actors often don't have a large creative input into what goes on and usually there's not much dialogue. 
What we wanted to do was create an opportunity for actors to have a big hand in the creation of the piece as well as a 
dialogue with the designers and producers so that it becomes very much everybody's piece. 

``So that creates something special, something organic happens in that process and it's everybody's risk then in a sense ...
and it's a lot harder work and badly paid." 

+`That Eye The Sky' will be performed at the Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre, on 13 October at 8.30pm and on 14 and 15 
October at 6pm and 9pm. Bookings at Bass on 11500