STAGES with Peter Eyers Peter Eyers

Dillie Keane is one-third of iconic Cabaret trio Fascinating Aida. She is presently in Australia for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, where alongside her partners in song, Liza Pulman and Adèle Anderson, Fascinating Aida will present a 40th anniversary show.

Since their first performance together in 1983, the trio have racked-up millions of internet followers, performed in the world’s most prestigious venues and have been showered with awards and plaudits galore.

Proving they’re still in their glorious prime, these mistresses of their craft ring in this four-decade milestone with their trademark diamond-sharp satire, lyrical wit and belligerent sass. 

The bare bones of Dillie’s life are these. Born Portsmouth 1952. Father a GP. Three much older, very nice siblings who have done nothing but grace the name of Keane and distinguish themselves in every way. Family despaired of Dillie ever conforming. 

Educated at Portsmouth High School (very happy) and then at successive Convents of the Sacred Heart (first Hove, where she was miserable but learned remedial curtseying and sang all the time, then Woldingham where she was utterly and completely miserable and still sang all the time). “She’ll come to no good, that girl!” opined one of the nuns as her parents took her away after she was expelled. 

Safely at university, she drank and shagged and partied like a girl released from a convent and became a leading light of the drama society and ended her first year being elected Miss Elegance, hahaha! After three years of this divinely crazed existence, her mortal frame nearly gave out. A spell in hospital exposed her complete unfitness for the life of a musicologist. As her parents took her away – she was too ill to take her Part 2 and couldn’t face doing 5 years of a 4 year degree – her Professor suggested that a career in Stage Management might suit. 

Finally, she took control of her life. A spell as secretary to the Deputy MD of a leading advertising firm in London gave her financial independence, and she secretly auditioned for LAMDA. The day she got her acceptance letter was the best day of her life. Having flunked out of university, her parents were reluctant to fork out for 3 more years of further education, so she wrote to anyone she could think of who might help. Eventually, the fabled Jim Slater of Slater Walker stepped in with a scholarship and paid her tuition fees. Her defeated parents agreed to give her £100 per term towards living costs, and she was able to accept her place on the course. 

Those three years were a thrilling ride. LAMDA was everything she hoped for and more, though trying to keep body and soul together was wonderfully crazy. She had a stall in the Portobello Road every Saturday, where she and a friend sold handmade shopping bags, aprons and second-hand clothes they’d collected from friends and strangers. She temped in the evenings and throughout the holidays, became an artist’s model, did bar work, biked everywhere in London and hitched everywhere else. She also played piano in various hotels, nightclubs and restaurants, and looking back she thinks she must have cut an odd figure with her homemade clothes and Cole Porter songs. Two summer months in Sweden playing piano in a Stockholm nightclub hardened her for the life to come. 

Acting jobs followed. Then the songs started popping out. And with the acting jobs, new friends who also sang and were willing to sing her songs. And with all that came the gigs and the birth of Fascinating Aïda. 

The Adelaide Festival Centre presents FASCINATING AÏDA - THE 40th ANNIVERSARY SHOW! Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, Friday June 7th, Saturday June 8th and Sunday June 9th.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and faceb

Extensive experience throughout Australia in theatre, film, radio and television, over several decades, established Robert van Mackelenberg as one of our leading actors.Studying in New Zealand, Robert’s journey through the theatre was as a stage manager first but he soon found his true place was in assuming the great roles in classical and contemporary theatre.He has worked with many companies throughout Australia and New Zealand in over 150 productions, including leading roles in such modern classics as The Elephant Man, Amadeus, Equus, Chinchilla, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, and Break of Noon.His formidable list of leading roles in the great classics of world theatre include Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, The Country Wife, The Recruiting Officer, and Romeo and Juliet.Modern Australian classics include Emerald City, Sons of Cain, Away, and The Man from Muckinupin. The list of musicals to his credit include Hello Dolly, Pal Joey, Company, Cole, and Happy End.Television and film work includes Carson’s Law, Cop Shop and Haydaze.It is a career that has gifted much anecdote and wisdom. These are elements that will enthral in this compelling episode of the STAGES podcast.The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

The STAGES podcast is now in its Seventh year. Over that time we’ve garnered a vast number of insightful and glorious conversations with a broad range of artists.Some of these have recorded fascinating histories with the elders from various disciplines - theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, television - the list goes on.We’ve also been able to record reflection and story from various younger talents, commencing careers in an industry that can often be precarious.One of the delightful opportunities in entering our seventh season is catching up again with some of those emerging creatives and performers …. A re-cord record STAGES intends to pursue in coming seasons.This could be considered STAGES ‘7-up’ series of discussions. A unique chance to check in with young artists at 5 -year intervals perhaps?In 2019, STAGES recorded with Lighting Designer and Director, Alexander Berlage. He was in rehearsal for the musical - AMERICAN PSYCHO. We also spoke to Music Theatre performer Todd Jacobsson, who was about to commence a tour of West Side Story, playing the iconic role of Tony.And of course, in 2019, we had no idea that a pandemic was looming - set to strangle the Globe.So how have these artists navigated the past 5 years? What was the impact of Covid for THEM? Has anything changed. Where have the respective careers of Alex and Todd taken them? What are they doing now?It was my great privilege to catch up with these artists again, and record a new instalment of their creative journey. Enjoy this ‘5-UP’ episode of the STAGES podcast!

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

www.stagespodcast.com.au

As one of our finest actors, Keith Robinson carved a career on stages around the country. As a  wit and treasured talisman, he kept us informed and in stitches with his regular postings on social media.Keith’s repertoire of characters included the great clowns of Shakespeare. He was admired for his tremendous physicality in realising these endearing fools and jesters …. and for his dependability in affecting an audience.As a member of the ensemble at Belvoir Theatre, he contributed to the success of milestone productions such as Hamlet, The Tempest, The Alchemist, Night On Bald Mountain and Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Keith’s extensive theatre credits also included the Dickensian epic Nicholas Nickleby with the Sydney Theatre Company ……  and ventures into musical theatre with the premiere Australian production of Les Miserables. As performer and playwright -  Keith co-authored (with Tony Taylor) the silly, comic romp The Popular Mechanicals - a fond valentine to the determined amateur acting troupe of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2006 his life upon the boards looked like being snatched away when he was diagnosed with a neurological condition, called Guillain-Barre syndrome. His personal expression as an actor became compromised with limited mobility and the necessity of a wheelchair. But Keith was a determined thespian …. and in 2016 he returned to the Belvoir stage as a wise and moving Feste …. in a production of Twelfth Night. As well as a phenomenal talent, Keith was immensely entertaining and terrific company. Passionate, funny and tremendously informed, Keith traversed an eventful life on and off the stage. His legacy of compelling screen performances are fortunately preserved in television productions such as the anthology series Summer Love, season 2 of The Twelve and in a much discussed TVC for Australia post, where we may still be able to find him at various point of sale.This conversation, recorded for the STAGES podcast, took place in May 2021 when Keith was preparing to play Leonid Gayev in The Cherry Orchard at the Belvoir street theatre. It was to be the final time we would see Keith light up a stage. I hope this return episode brings you some comfort - and joy - relishing in Keith’s wonderful anecdote, insightful wisdom - and that enormous laugh that instantly embraced it’s listener.Vale Keith Robinson - you will be greatly missed.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Entertainer Doug Lucas has been delighting audiences around the country for several decades as a comic, a creative and much loved drag performer. Chiefly his performance stage has been found in various Melbourne venues. Doug is a pioneer of these establishments, commencing Melbourne's first gay disco in 1975 and the legendary show evening, Pokeys, in 1977.

“It was only going to be a little Sunday night show but it grew and grew”, Lucas recalls. “We started without any sets or props, then started doing little simple sets”. As its popularity grew, those simple sets became increasingly elaborate, as did the costumes and staging. “We used to do a massive, massive show. They were the biggest drag shows Melbourne has seen.”

Doug has been performing and running events ever since. Most recently with the very popular Broadside entertainments.He is a legend of the Melbourne scene and a most charismatic fellow. You’ll quickly discover in this terrific conversation with the fabulous Doug Lucas.The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Iain Sinclair is one of Australia’s finest, award winning theatre directors specialising in new writing and contemporary international work.

Iain established the critically acclaimed theatre company Elbow Theatre in Canberra, where he received four Critics Circle Awards. He received a Sydney Theatre Award for his production of The Seed by Kate Mulvaney and is also an AWGIE Award nominated director.

He has directed a number of highly praised main stage productions in Sydney including Our Town  by Thornton Wilder for The Sydney Theatre Company, which was described as “a triumph”. His production of Arthur Miller’s, All my Sons was described as “A rock solid production of a play that makes you shake your head in wonderment”. 

Iain has also directed for The Melbourne Theatre Company, The Ensemble, The Queensland Theatre Company, Belvoir and Sport for Jove with celebrated productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? By Edward Albee, The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller, Mojo by Jez Butterworth, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca (translation by Sinclair), The Beast by Eddie Perfect, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and Berlin by Joanna Murray Smith.

Iain graduated with distinction from the RADA Masters Program and Kings College, London. He is the associate artist and resident dramaturge for Playwriting Australia and has been assistant director to Cate Blanchett and Max Stafford Clark. Iain was invited by Max Stafford Clark to tour the UK as a member of his company “Out of Joint” teaching principles of new play making and Max Stafford Clark’s legendary process based on actioning.

Iain continues his work as a dramaturge and has worked with the following companies; ASK Los Angeles, New Dramatists New York, The Traverse Scotland, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Court and The National Theatre England.Iain Sinclair is presently the Head of Acting at 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne, where he nurtures a new generation of actors and continues to practice and refine his magnificent craft.The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au