Dramatic return of quarantine station
BY MEGAN PALIN
Bondi actor Lucy Miller has scored three roles in the new production Defiance, opening on May 14 at the revamped Q Station at North Head.
Miller says she is excited about playing the three female roles because the characters are beautifully rounded and deep. There’s Nurse Amie Kelly; Sarah Wilson, a feisty 30-year-old working-class mother of six married to John Wilson and born in East London, and Mrs Carpenter, an overweight 60-year-old widow who lives with her cat in a run-down tenement in the Rocks.
‘The women I’m playing are fun. They have depth and there is so much to them,’ she said. ‘The most rewarding thing about playing these characters is being able to breathe life into these women 100 years later and give them heart and soul. The most challenging is not losing any of the accents. I’ve done a lot of Shakespeare recently. I’m lucky I get to play these fabulous women as female characters aren’t as well developed a lot of the time and any actress would tell you that.’
According to Miller, her greatest career achievement to date was when she toured schools performing as Lady MacBeth. ‘If I can perform Lady MacBeth to Year nine boys at nine o’clock on a Monday morning, and keep them in the palm of my hand while doing so, then I can do anything,’ she said.
Defiance is a theatrical production written, produced and directed for Q Station (formerly Quarantine Station), by Carlton Lamb Productions. The play is staged at two locations on the heritage site, drawing on a mix of dramatic portrayals and visual and special effects.
Creative Director Carlton Lamb said the goal of the production was to produce a new Australian theatrical work that was based on the extraordinary real stories of people who worked at the Quarantine station or were interned there. ‘And then to bring these stories to life in a compelling way using the site as inspiration,’ he said.
Defiance will play from May 14 until late October at Q Station, North Head Scenic Drive, Manly. Book on 9976 6220.
