A work by renowned Mount Kembla playwright Wendy Richardson is being brought to life again but not without its hurdles.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Phoenix Theatre company will present the period drama Slacky Flat at the Bridge Street Theatre in Coniston from September 8, a production two years in the making.
The play is set in Bulli where Slacky Flat became the site of a camp of temporary homes during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
It was written in 1988 for Wollongong’s Theatre South (former occupants of the Bridge Street Theatre) and toured around South Eastern NSW.
Richardson said she was thrilled it was being resurrected and found it “heartening”.
People are marvellous in wanting to tell you their stories.
- Wendy Richardson
“I don’t think there’s anything terribly remarkable about me, but I think the stories are remarkable,” she said.
Richardson’s research for the play included wandering around the area known as Slacky Flat in Bulli and talked to people about their experiences.
“This idea of not talking to strangers that never occurred to me,” she said.
“People are marvellous in wanting to tell you their stories.”
Read More: Illawarra theatre productions set for 2017
Phoenix director Steen said it had taken some time for Richardson to release the script as it literally had to be put back together.
“The only version we had was an old Theatre South script and the actor had taken the scenes they weren’t in out,” Steen said.
“So we had to go and find a whole heap of different versions of it … put them altogether and we came up with the final script.”
Steen remembered helping paint the set with “a small army” for the original debut of the work in Wollongong nearly 30 years ago.
There are still people living in strange and awkward places and still struggling against the odds.
- Wendy Richardson
“As one of Wendy’s plays it’s one of my favourites,” he said.
“I loved the story and the storyline is happening again.”
Tent cities, people not having enough money to pay rent or eat are all depicted in the play and also relevant in today’s society.
“There are still people living in strange and awkward places and still struggling against the odds,” Richardson said.
“But they don’t give up, that’s the thing to celebrate.”
Richardson, a former school teacher, she “blundered” into playwrighting when studying as a mature age student at the University of Wollongong.
“While I was there I was asked to help write a play about the mine disaster of 1902 ... in the end I was the one left writing the play,” she said of Windy Gully, the predecessor to Slacky Flat.
She then went on to write more than a dozen plays and monologues, all performed but many not published.
“The stories really belong to the people and the place,” Richardson said.
Richardson was also awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 20015 for her services to the arts and to the community.
The Phoenix Theatre presents Slacky Flat, Bridge Street Theatre in Coniston, September 8 to 23 (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays).