Days in FitzCarlton

The Australian Performing Group (APG) and its associated theatre space, the Pram Factory, form one of the legends of Australian theatre. And like all legends, the stories that people tell of it inevitably conflate the truth of what it actually was – or wasn’t, as the case may be. Somewhere back in 1969 – or was it 1970? – a group of enthusiastic thespians decided to take on the world (or at least their own preconceptions of it), and shake up the theatrical Establishment. Legend has it that Australian theatre has never been the same since.

It has been interesting to watch over the past year or so as the fortieth anniversaries of various plays and productions associated with the birth of New Wave theatre have been celebrated in Melbourne. There have been parties for La Mama, the tiny theatre in Carlton that maintains its precarious existence against all the odds. There have been revivals of the seminal productions, in particular a whole series of plays by Jack Hibberd, including his first real hit, White with Wire Wheels, as well as his great APG successes, A Stretch of the Imagination and the riotous Dimboola. There have been fond reminiscences about absent friends, especially the charismatic director Lindzee Smith, who died last year, and a gabfest at the University of Melbourne, which celebrated how important and famous everyone was. For certain people, then, the legend is very much alive and kicking.