Flying with the Birds.

Coral Drouyn talks to Director Robert Coates about the 30 year anniversary of The Victorian Youth Theatre and their special commemorative production of Conference of the Birds.

It seems impossible that it’s 30 years since Patrick Conlon started Stage School Australia, which now incorporates The Victorian Youth Theatre, The Young Australian Broadway Chorus, and several other important training grounds for young performers. They will mark their 30^th anniversary with the fantasmagorical Conference of the Birds – a marvellous allegorical story full of drama, music and movement – and lots of  “feathers”.

Adapted for the stage by Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carrière in 1979, Farid ud-Din Attar’s 4,500-line poem describes the journey undertaken by the birds of the world to seek their King, the mythical Simorgh—a beautiful and benevolent bird of Persian myth.  To find him, the birds must travel over a vast stretch of deserts and valleys. In this journey the birds explore deep spiritual questions, reflecting the individual’s search for enlightenment. Spurred on in their quest, the birds are constantly tempted from their flight plan by weaknesses and fragility.  

Director Robert Coates created the production 3 years ago but thought it perfect for an encore to mark the Anniversary.

“It’s a wonderful story, first and foremost,” he says, “and it works on different levels for all ages. But beyond that, it gives us a chance to use all age groups. The younger students get to play smaller birds like sparrows and starlings, the intermediates are parrots and the like, and the seniors play the largest of the birds. It’s all encompassing.”

Robert knows the Victorian Youth Theatre better than anyone, since he first became a member as a teenager in 1995. “I come from a very musical family  - lots of musicians – my brother Andy is a well known musical director – and I got hooked on musicals at a young age and started as a student at Stage School. But it wasn’t long before I realised I wanted to direct, and The Victorian Youth Theatre provided fantastic opportunities for me.”

In the past 15 years or so, Robert has directed a marvellous slate of musicals, including Oliver!, Rags, Godspell, Man of La Mancha, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat  (which had a sellout season last year at Cooper’s Malthouse), plus several world premieres and overseas tours. So, isn’t he a little bit tempted to direct for the professional Main Stage? “Well I would never say never, but I just love working with young talent, watching them grow and improve with experience. Many go into the profession, others become drama or music teachers and use their talents to foster the next generation. Plus they, and I, have been able to travel overseas and show Australian talent to the rest of the world. I don’t feel I have really missed anything.”

Conference of the Birds opens at Chapel off Chapel on Oct 1^st and, as Robert says, it is “Truly a show for everyone …cast and audience alike.”