Sweet Poison for Blonde Belinda

Coral Drouyn interviews Belinda Giblin.

Belinda Giblin became a household name more than 30 years ago when she graced our small screens in a number of soaps - most notoriously as the re-invented Pat The Rat in Sons and Daughters, supposedly after plastic surgery to make her unrecognisable (yes folks, people believed the most outrageous things before the internet). She’d already made four films while still in her twenties, and was a hit in an earlier “SOAP” The Box. For a while she was a sellable commodity… a “star.”

“It wasn’t especially satisfying,” she tells me, “Sometimes - sorry writers - the scripts were full of excruciating dialogue that we somehow had to make sense of. But I’m not ungrateful, those shows gave me a profile and I made a conscious decision to leave NIDA after only a year, and trade the idea of being a serious actor for being a celebrity – and paying some bills.”

For a girl who turned down a scholarship to the Australian Ballet School for the chance to become an actress, the idea that she might have to wait years for the perfect role simply wasn’t on the radar.

“You don’t have a plan when you are that young – and you don’t ever imagine you will be “old”; when you’re in your twenties “old” is 40, but I did always think- hope – that I would always be acting.”

Fast forward nearly 40 years, a marriage, two grown kids, several interesting side careers, and we arrive at Blonde Poison, a story so amazing that you would think it was fiction….except that it really happened.

Stella Goldschlag was a beautiful young Jewish woman arrested by the Gestapo. Offered the chance to go to the death camps with her parents or save them and herself by betraying other Jews, she chose the latter. The vast dimensions of Stella’s character range from tortured victim to cruel killer, from loving daughter and mother to betrayer of friends, from gentle lover to depraved promiscuity. She was given the name ‘Blonde Poison’ by the Gestapo, who revelled in her treachery. Decades after the war Stella agreed to be interviewed by a childhood friend, now a respected journalist - her last chance at redemption. The result was first a book, and now a play.

“Stella is an incredibly complex character and nothing is black and white,” Belinda says. “I suppose I am drawn to her because of that. We are complex beings and we tend to judge each other. I know I have strong feelings for and against her and those can change depending on the audience and where I am at in my life. Humanity isn’t set in stone, it’s fluid, it moves, and so within the play you will love her, hate her, be angry, weep with pity. It’s an astonishing piece.”

But is it for a Jewish audience, or families of those lost in the holocaust? Belinda laughs.

“Good Lord no!” she exclaims. “I wouldn’t be qualified to play her if it were. It’s for everyone who has ever been challenged by life; who has had to make the decision to survive no matter what the cost. It’s for those who have known that what they are doing is wrong, yet have done it anyway and then created a justifiable excuse. It’s for all of us who strive to be better but sometimes fail simply because we’re human, and that means we are all flawed.”

Belinda is quick to proclaim this as “the role of a lifetime” but she almost didn’t get it.

“I got a phone call from a friend who said ‘meet me for coffee’. I agreed but explained I was in tracky daks and looking pretty daggy altogether. He hesitated and then said - ’um….don’t wear your tracky daks.”

The coffee meeting turned out to be a meeting with the show’s producer, Adam Liberman, who had Belinda’s name on a shortlist of actresses.

“Somehow, by the second coffee, it had just been decided that we were doing this show together.”

Jennifer Hagan, a friend of Belinda’s and a fine actress as well as Director, was chosen to direct.

“Gail Louw is such a fine playwright. But she gives no quarter - she goes for absolute truth, except when Stella lies even to herself. I knew Jennifer wouldn’t let me fake it or use “acting” to get through. I knew she would push me to give the performance of my life, and I knew that having three women in those key roles of writer, director, actor would create something special - from a different perspective - but I had no idea what it would become or where it would lead.”

It led to a Best Actress nomination for Belinda after it’s inaugural sold out season in Sydney at The Old Fitz theatre; rave reviews from every critic and theatre lover; a return season, this time at the Sydney Opera House, and to the producer saying publicly…

 “It had Sydney audiences and critics gripped from beginning to end and was a career-defining role for one of Australia’s most talented actresses. Don’t miss your chance to see one of the finest solo performances you’re likely to see.”.

Now the show comes to Melbourne for just 11 shows from 1^st-11^th June.

“It truly has been an enthralling  life-changing experience for me, allowing me to question my own life decisions through Stella’s life. I hope it will be the same for the audience.” Belinda says

With great modern drama scarce, we would be foolish, as theatre lovers, not to find out.

MELBOURNE SEASON

Venue:          Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Season:         1 to 11 June 2016

Tickets:          $47.90 to $64.90

Times:            Tuesday – Saturday evenings 7.30pm; Wednesday matinees 2.00pm; Saturday matinees 1.30pm”Bookings         

Bookings:      Book at Southbank Theatre Box Office, or 8688 0800 or www.Southbanktheatre.com.au”

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