FEATURE
Interview: Stephanie Williams Left image: Ross Coffey Having graced Australian stages and screens for thirty years, Marta Dusseldorp is set to star in The Bleeding Tree by Angus Cerini at Hobart’s historic Theatre Royal. The Bleeding Tree, was put on hold because of COVID. How have you navigated the return? Thomas Rimes, director of music at St. David’s Cathedral reached out to us and said he was planning a ‘first signs’ series of concerts. Would we be interested? Ben came up with Venus and Adonis. Being a husband and wife team where our kitchen table is our creative table, we just read it aloud to each other. I was completely taken by the text and the story. It made me think about all the people who can’t be with the people that they love. Ben did a bit more research into it and realised Shakespeare wrote it during the Plague in London. Fortuitously, The Bleeding Tree is more poignant now than it ever has been. It’s a story of three women who have been living trapped. They’ve found a way out of that but at great cost. A lot of people are going through that right now and are scared and frustrated. We believe the audience are ready and they’re starving. There’s a bust out drink at Institut Polaire every night to talk about the play too. I’ll be there with the cast, because we think this is a play that may need talking about afterwards. What can audiences expect, in this COVID climate? The social distanced seating will be really interesting. We’ve been quite rigorous to allow people space but also allow people to sit together if they’ve come together. Don’t be afraid of single seats. You’re working with a number of interesting people, such as Katanya Maynard who is making her acting debut. Katanya went to the Conservatorium of Music and she’s an amazing singer. And she’s writing now. I think she can do anything! This is a chance for us to work with her. We’ve got Glen Richards from Augie March doing the music. And of course, Jane Johnson who I think is one of the greatest actresses this state is lucky enough to have. It’s a real pleasure to work with her. The Bleeding Tree was written by a man (Angus Cerini) so it has an interesting perspective. Totally. And he’s not afraid to point at man. This play has won all the awards, the Griffin, the Helpmann, the AWGIE. Angus’ next major work just opened at the Sydney Theatre Company and he’s being talked about as a great new voice. I’ve never seen The Bleeding Tree, which is really helpful because I don’t think it helps to have seen something and then do it. Especially when it’s Cate Blanchett playing the lead! 28
Are you scared of that comparison? I’m not scared, she’s a very good friend of mine. I learn a lot from her but I’m also like ‘nobody touch that for the next 20 years!’ She’s a master. You’re working with Liminal Spaces, what role are they playing? They’re doing the set, which has beautiful synergy in that they designed the Hedburg. It was so easy to genuinely connect to Peta and Elvio from Liminal. We’d become friends with them, as you do here. We just knew they were the right people. Of course, everything shut down and now we’ve asked them to go really quickly with five weeks notice. We’re building a really beautiful set. Something that really matches the epicness of the Theatre Royal. You moved to Tasmania a couple of years ago. Was it something you mulled over for years or was a quick decision? It was a huge mull. Ben said it to me the day I met him. We came down here a lot for his work and then, we’d take off and go exploring and be like, “Wow, this is beautiful. Let’s go home. It’s cold.” We’d all had enough of Sydney. The kids were stressed. I had worked for seven years back to back. And he wanted to show the girls what it’s like to live closer to nature. And I get it. So we came and had a look. It was really hard to get a place. It’s been such an amazing place to come to through the pandemic. I know we all feel that. What would it take to have an adequately funded arts sector and how? Firstly we have to stop thinking about it as the ‘arts’. We have to think about it as ‘culture’. It’s a redefining of what is culture to community. If you don’t have a strong cultural policy, you have a weaker civilisation. For your citizens to live to the best of their abilities, there must be culture in their life. Being told I’m not an essential worker as a professional of 30 years experience is disappointing and personally quite hurtful but that’s not important. What’s important is that governments understand the dilution of their citizens that comes from that. It should be funded adequately. The beauty of it down here is, for me, it’s totally linked to tourism. I feel like I’m a cheese or a wine or a gin distiller, I’m all of those things as well.
