Are we making history?

I am writing this column from a hotel room in Wagga Wagga and this is the closest I am going to get to a city for the next two weeks. I’m seeing the best the Aussie outback has to offer and thus far it has been an interesting journey.

I am writing this column from a hotel room in Wagga Wagga and this is the closest I am going to get to a city for the next two weeks. I’m seeing the best the Aussie outback has to offer and thus far it has been an interesting journey.

In Goulburn, there is confirmation that you can no longer go inside the Big Merino to the lookout – a decision of the local council.

In Jugiong, the old pub closed three years ago. The Hume Highway ensures that motorists bypass this sleepy town, and a pub that was one of the oldest in Australia is gone.

At the Dog on the Tuckerbox, the gift and information shop is closed. Again, it has become the victim of people simply bypassing this important part of Australian history.

It has got me thinking, what memories are we making?

In the above three examples, we have three amazing Australian history talking points. Talking points because over a long period of time, they became incons.

Australian theatre has a history littered with glamour. People talk about productions they saw in the 1960’s and 1970’s and remember them as being groundbreaking in the industry. They talk about venues we knew and loved, and the evolution of commercial theatre here.

What memories are we making for the future?

In cabaret, we see venues come and go – there’s normally not enough time for the paint to dry on the walls let alone for history to be made.

In musicals, we see so many commercial popcorn shows that one wonders if we will remember them in a few years let alone a few decades.

In straight plays, we perhaps have better memories being made than in any other sector of the industry and that comes from the good fortune of having actors like Cate Blanchett on the scene more regularly.

Still, what does theatre have to show for itself this decade?

A few blockbuster shows but nothing all that memorable (perhaps with the exception of Priscilla which will go down as one of the great Australian-created shows), venue closures and many, many flops.

We need, in both Australia and in theatre, keep creating memories. We need to create the inspiration for future generations, or in a few decades we’ll be in a heap of trouble.