Barry Hill OAM

Stage Whispers readers outside South Australia will mainly know Barry Hill as a reviewer, occasionally also reviewed for his direction, or for his stage performances. A stalwart of Adelaide theatre, we congratulate Barry, who was honoured with the Order of Australia Medal on Australia Day, thanking him for his lengthy, passionate ‘service to the Performing Arts’. We asked Barry to share some of his theatrical highlights.

In my 54 years of theatre in Adelaide, there have been many memorable moments. They tend to fall into two categories – memorable for the right reasons and for the wrong reasons.

I have been fortunate in my life to work/train with some wonderful people. In the 1980s I worked with Betty Quin who, with her husband Don, began the Q Theatre in Adelaide, dedicated to the performance of Australian works. Betty was also a script writer for a number of TV series.

In the 1990s I co-directed and choregraphed the late, great June Bronhill in La Vie Parisienne. It was the start of a friendship, lasting many years, which necessitated my flying regularly to Sydney. I would stay with June in Kings Cross and be treated to a private concert every night!

I also directed SA luminaries John Edmund, Marjorie Irving and Russell Starkey OAM in The Kingfisher and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof respectively. The wonderful thing about working with masters of their craft is that not only the play benefits immensely, but everybody benefits from their knowledge and insight into the text.

The magic moments I have had as an actor occur when you are in the follow spot and everything else disappears. It is a sacred time. This has happened many times but the most memorable are playing the Dame in pantomimes, Norman in The Dresser, Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore, Roger DeBris in The Producers and Noël Coward in Noël and Gertie.

Of course, there are the other memorable moments – missing props, forgotten lines, characters not appearing on stage, characters leaving early, costume malfunctions, and in Les Misérables I went on in the wrong scene. Fortunately, I knew the lyrics so sang along until I could gradually creep off!

I believe the sum of these experiences, good and not so good, has made me a better actor/director and I have enjoyed every minute of it!