The golden girl of Australian stage and screen
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Belinda Giblin. Image: Deep Field Photography
© Mark H Dickson
She established her career in the early 1970s, becoming a favourite on TV, film, and on stage. Now fifty years on, Belinda Giblin is still in high demand and working hard as ever.
“This is my fourth play of the year and I think, well it’s not bad for an old girl,” says Giblin with a smile, referring to the upcoming Venus and Adonis by Sport For Jove, in which she will play Queen Elizabeth I. She has just wrapped up the highly acclaimed, The Weekend, at Belvoir Theatre. Earlier this year she was one of the spritely Venticelli in Amadeus, then Mrs Venable in The Ensemble’s Suddenly, Last Summer.
“There’s a whole new sort of energy in the business,” says Giblin, describing how the theatre landscape has changed in recent years. “There wasn’t a lot of work for older women. Well, that has really changed. Suddenly there are many more roles now for women — and older women — and this is not just in film and television, there’s much more in theatre.”
Not only are there more roles, but those roles are diverse and meaty, they go beyond the token staid grandmother and address topics other than nursing homes and mortality.
“We’re a force to be reckoned with and we have wisdom and still massive energy, and that’s what I’m glad is being celebrated,”says Giblin.
In The Weekend, Giblin’s character is feisty and at one point, does a little dance. In Amadeus, Giblin donned a skin tight, ornately patterned onesie and flitted about the stage. It’s hard not to comment on her surprising fitness, but it makes Giblin bristle.
“I mean, this has always annoyed me, the assumption that after a certain age things happen to slow you up. Well, I would say I’m more energetic now than I was in my 20s and 30s. I’ve got more more vibrancy, more energy…we make an assumption about people of a certain age, that they start to decline. Well, I certainly haven’t experienced that”
Giblin, who was born and grew up in Tamworth, originally showed great promise as a ballet dancer, but at 17, she decided to pursue acting instead and headed to Sydney to study at the elite NIDA.
Her career began in 1971 and by the mid-seventies she had firmly established herself in television and on stage. One of her earliest roles was in the notorious soap series, The Box. From there Giblin had a 12-year run of consistent work with Australian TV powerhouse, Crawford Productions, which produced many of this country’s most iconic shows.
One of Giblin’s most memorable TV roles was as Patricia “Pat the Rat” Hamilton in the immensely popular Sons and Daughters. She replaced Rowena Wallace in the role, with their slight difference in appearance being explained by the character’s having undergone plastic-surgery overseas then assuming a false identity. (Only in soapies!)
Even more bizarre was Giblin’s recent appearance as Martha Stewart on Home and Away. The character had hitherto been presumed to have drowned.
“I’m now going in to play Elizabeth I… the virgin queen,” Giblin says with a cheeky hint of irony.
Venus and Adonis is an original play written and directed by Damien Ryan and based on the Shakespeare poem by the same name. It’s set in the court of Queen Elizabeth I during the Black Plague when towns were in lockdown and theatres were closed. A select group of performers, including Shakespeare’s theatre company, The King’s Men, were allowed to put on shows for royalty within the court.
Ryan wrote the play during the COVID lockdown, in fact, that was his inspiration. He drew together a cast and they made a film version of the play. It was then made available via streaming.
The same cast has been brought together again for this new stage production. The premise might sound dry and solemn, but that’s far from the truth.
“Damien Ryan, who is undoubtedly the best Shakespeare director, I think, in this city, he’s written the most extraordinary play. It’s dirty and funny and witty beyond belief, and very clever,” assures Giblin.
The play is very meta: Venus and Adonis is about a group of actors who are putting on Shakespeare’s play, “Venus and Adonis”. Therein lies much of the humour.
At the centre of the story is Aemilia Lanyer, a female poet who is reputed to have been the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and his mistress.
“But he stole a lot of her work,” says Giblin. “Because, you know, women couldn’t be writers and couldn’t be published at that time.”
Lanyer actually did become the first female writer to be published in England, quite likely because of her connection to the Queen.
Adele Querol plays Lanyer, who in turn plays Venus. Anthony Gooley plays Shakespeare and Jerome Meyer plays Nat Field, an actor who is accustomed to playing female roles (as was the custom) but has now been asked to play Adonis.
“He’s used to playing women and now he has to play a sexy man, and he says ‘I can’t do that!’” laughs Giblin. “So it’s all about gender and appropriateness. I think audiences will absolutely love it because I still watch the film and laugh my head off.”
© Mark H Dickson
Ryan’s wife and two sons are in the play (and Ryan himself was in the film) so his imprint is well and truly on it. And that is far from a bad thing, according to Giblin.
“It’s Damien’s writing that completely wooed me to this play.
I’ve never worked with him before. So when I did the film I was so excited to do it and I wasn’t disappointed. And Damien’s sets are always …he’s a very, very inventive director. And he never stops, he’s kind of organic… he doesn’t stand on the outside saying do this do that, he’s gets right in there, you know. He encourages your imagination. And that’s really exciting to work with.”
