Keeping It Real

Recently seen on stages alongside Anthony Warlow in Dr Zhivago and as the lead, Lucy Harris, in the Australian international tour of Jekyll & Hyde, Belinda Wollaston is now preparing to walk back onto the same stage she owned this time last year in a Mardi Gras revival of Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens.

Currently in the midst of rehearsals, Wollaston is dusting off her clarinet and preparing for her role as the torch singer (she also moonlights as Laurel) in Harvey Fierstein's semi-autobiographical collection of three plays, Torch Song Trilogy, which, like Elegies… will enjoy a season at Darlinghurst Theatre as part of Sydney's Mardi Gras festival.

“It's a wonderful time of the year for the gay community, and for the theatre community as well,” says Wollaston. “And interesting work gets put on at the Mardi Gras festival, things that are generally taboo or wouldn't be on a main stage like the STC or something like that, you can out that on during the Mardi Gras festival. And they are so supportive of new and old work, you know. Torch Song is coming into its thirtieth anniversary from the last time it was here – it holds a lot of significance.”

The back-to-back festival shows are marks Wollaston's career so far coming full circle; her first professional job as a performer was in Campio Decent's Three Winters Green at the Stables Theatre. Like other productions she has worked on, Decent's script featured strong social commentary in its examination on the effects of AIDS.

“Any show that has a real story and a real message, it's why we do it, it's why we act, and I think people come to theatre to not see us, but to see themselves. So if we can play these stories and bring these characters to life – that are real characters – and these issues are still relevant today; equality, now more than ever we are fighting for equality, and Torch Songs is really about that. It's about equality, not being a second-rate citizen, really being allowed to be gay and feel like it doesn't affect your life; you should be able to adopt, you should be able to get married.”

While her CV reveals she is clearly no stranger to singing on stage, it has been some time since Wollaston has performed her clarinet for an audience, though the charming production of Torch Song Trilogy has given her reason to pull it out from the attic.

“More than half the cast provide all the music for the show playing our own instruments; there's no band hidden anywhere or conductor, it's just us on stage and providing the underscoring,” Wollaston explains. “I started playing clarinet when I was six years old and I used to play in orchestras when I was younger and that sort of stuff in high school. But I haven't played for a while, so it's been quite nice to bring it out and just go, 'Oh yeah, it's just like getting on a bicycle.'”