FAIRFIELD AMPHITHEATRE. HERITAGE PROTECTED.
We did it.
On 19 January 2021, the Heritage Council determined Fairfield Amphitheatre has “STATE LEVEL CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE” and awarded it heritage protection. This stunning decision recognises the phenomenal attributes of Fairfield Amphitheatre, its Dressing Rooms (known as the River pavilion) and Ticket booth. We developed the Amphitheatre from 1983 as part of our bilingual Epidavros Summer Festival. We are thrilled it is now protected for future generations. Stay tuned for celebration details!
Our stunning Fairfield Amphitheatre at dawn, 14th March 2021
WHY HERITAGE PROTECTION?
Our precious Fairfield Amphitheatre:
• is Victoria’s ONLY professional outdoor theatre venue (with 480 seats, 11 tiers), and it pioneered outdoor theatre in Australia, and
• is Victoria’s ONLY Ancient Greek amphitheatre (comprising a stone auditorium, with a particular ratio between the specific ratio of the rake (slope) of the seating rows to the circumference, giving rise to the acoustic phenomenon)
• it has an extraordinary acoustic phenomenon in which a person whispering on stage can be heard through to the very back row, and
• a remarkable bilingual and theatrical cultural history which inspired later cultural institutions across Melbourne.
You can see pictures and clips of the creation of Fairfield Amphitheatre HERE!
We acknowledge the Amphitheatre is on unceded land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and we pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
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Eloise Mignon. Dushan Philips. Sigrid Thornton. Paul English. Helen Morse.
Geraldine Cook. Tanya Gerstle. Jack Charles.
Jane Montgomery Griffiths. Matt Furlani.
A Thousand Thanks…
A most magical day celebrating our artists and audiences together again. A thousand thanks to our brilliant performers and our crew, your efforts were herculean. A sell-out show! More pics and clips soon.
“A Triumph!” by Neos Kosmos. 19.3.21
“4 stars****” by Kate Herbert. Theatre blogger, Herald Sun reviewer. 15.3.21
CAN HOMER SURVIVE THE 21ST CENTURY? Listen to Jane Montgomery Griffiths on Philip Adams, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National. 10.3.21
Peter Craven promo in The Spectator 27.2.21
Triple RRR interviews our star performer Sigrid Thornton. 11.3.21
TA NEA Greek newspaper promo for the show. 11.3.21
1150BC. Troy, on the coast of Turkey.
The Siege of Troy is now in its tenth year, a few months before the end of the war. Agamemnon, Achilles and the Greek Armada of 1000 warships are camped on the shores. They remain locked in battle to crush the city and win back Helen, ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’. Helen, tormented by Aphrodite, hides behind the castle walls with Paris, her Trojan prince. They are protected by the hero Hector, King Priam and Queen Hecuba. The Gods watch from above, stirring the action for their favourite players, as “the will of Zeus was moving towards its end…”
It is extraordinary that in this ancient battle epic, the poet Homer gives the last lines to women. Incredibly, the very last word is Helen’s, the adulteress and the loneliest woman at Troy! Join us to experience these ground-breaking humanist revelations, written thousands of years ago.
A stunning Amphitheatre by the river
10 starring actors and performers
8 hours of gods, heroes and lovers at war
3 Japanese drummers
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An 8-hour Performance Reading extravaganza.
Fairfield Amphitheatre. Fairfield Park Drive, Fairfield Park
Sunday 14th March 2014. 11am to 7pm
Each performer read from a key chapter of THE ILIAD for approximately 30 minutes.
Directed by Alex Madden.
Stork Theatre began in 1983 with an idea for a Fairfield Amphitheatre.
In 2021, we returned home.
SESSIONS: This event is in three sessions. Each session is approximately two hours (maximum 2 1/2 hours), with a 45-minute meal break between each of them. So you can book for one, two OR all three sessions.
COVID: This is an open-air, outdoor event. Current Covid regulations are no social distancing and no masks are required. 75% capacity. If the event is cancelled due to Covid, tickets will be refunded.
Session 1: 11am
Book 1. A plague devastates the Greek Armada. Agamemnon takes Achilles’ girl Briseis. Achilles storms back to his crew, the Myrmidons, swearing to fight no more.
Book 3. Helen, standing on the castle walls, reveals the Greek heroes to King Priam. Aphrodite intervenes, warning Helen. The god Apollo rescues Paris from the battle.
Book 6. Hector accuses his brother of cowardice, as Paris hides in the bedroom with Helen. Paris says he “will fight”, tomorrow.
Book 9. Odysseus leads an embassy with Nestor and Phoenix offering treasures to persuade Achilles to return to the battle. Achilles questions the virtue of glory in war.
Session 2: 2:15pm
Book16 part 1. Achilles prays to Zeus seeking courage for Patroclus. Patroclus heads into battle in Achilles’ armour.
Book 16 part 2. Hera, Queen of the Gods, challenges Zeus’ moral right to intervene in the affairs of mortals. As Apollo enters the fray, Hector slays Patroclus.
Book 18. Achilles is mad with grief. Thetis, his goddess mother, arrives with her sea nymphs and compels him to remember fate. Achilles faces his earlier choice.
Book 21. Achilles fights the River Scamander as it bursts into flames. The goddesses Athena, Aphrodite and Hera clash, vying for the victory promised by Paris many years before.
Session 3: 5pm
Book 22. Hector questions whether the prize is worth the war. Achilles is already upon him. Achilles drags the body behind his chariot back to his encampment.
Book 24. Priam crosses no-mans-land to ransom Hector’s body. Priam kisses the hand of the man who killed his son. Helen has the last word.
Fairfield Amphitheatre Summer Series 2017
THE TREE OF MAN by PATRICK WHITE.
Performance Readings
Dear Stork Friends
Thank you audiences for attending our sell-out performances of this extraordinary and momentous novel. See stunning highlights of our Performance Readings, featuring Naomi Rukavina here
“The greatest novel by Australia’s greatest writer.”
Peter Craven
THE TREE OF MAN extracts. 2019
August 6th, Parts 1-2. August 13th, Parts 2-3. August 27th, Part 4
The Australian epic in which the journey is the birth of the creative spirit itself. After being expelled from the ‘garden of Eden’, mankind becomes human through art.
Stan and Amy Parker carve out a life in the bush 20km from Sydney in the 1920s. Their simple lives are made epic, intense and profound when seen through the elemental landscape which seeps into their psyches. They are Adam and Eve before the Fall. By the end of the novel the city of Sydney has reached their farm, buying up their ‘garden of Eden’. Throughout their lives, searing moments of illumination offer them insights into the meaning of life, the possibility of beauty and of art being compensation for Eden lost.
“Patrick White has rewritten the Book of Genesis.”
The New York Times, 1955
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• All Sessions 6.30pm – 8.30pm
• Old Treasury Building (Margaret Craig Room, Victorian Marriage Registry)
• 20 Spring st. Top of Collins st. Up the main steps and door to the left.
