{"id":864530,"date":"2026-08-22T16:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864530\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:10:15","slug":"fire-destroyed-belvoir-theatres-precious-library-of-things-now-it-is-rising-from-the-ashes-australian-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864530\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire destroyed Belvoir theatre\u2019s precious \u2018library of things\u2019. Now it is rising from the ashes | Australian theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Neil Armfield heard that Belvoir, the Sydney<\/a> theatre company he helmed for 17 years, had lost its storage warehouse in a fire, the first thing he thought of was his washing basket, which had recently been borrowed by artistic director Eamon Flack for a show. It\u2019s strange where the mind goes in moments of shock, and he laughs now at the ridiculousness of this thought. Having made scores of shows at Belvoir during his tenure and in the 15 years since \u2013 including acclaimed productions like Cloudstreet \u2013 it felt like \u201cmy work had been erased,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like your house burning down.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sense of history and nostalgia has brought an extra poignancy to his latest project: a remount of his acclaimed 2010 production The Book of Everything<\/a>, created in collaboration with Kim Carpenter, his co-artistic director at Belvoir\u2019s predecessor, Nimrod, in the early 80s, and a frequent collaborator through his pioneering visual storytelling company Theatre of Image. The show also stars many of Armfield\u2019s Belvoir stalwarts, including Peter Carroll, Rebecca Massey and Julie Forsyth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of history, and it\u2019s all sort of woven into [this show],\u201d he reflects, during a rehearsal break in early August.<\/p>\n

\u2018The beauty and the spirit of child\u2019s play in this production can really be found in the pages of the book,\u2019 says Kenward, pictured in the foreground. Photograph: Teagan Glenane\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Thankfully, none of Belvoir\u2019s workshop staff were hurt during the fire, which broke out in the storage and production facility in Marrickville on the afternoon of 22 June, from causes unknown. But the company\u2019s tools, equipment, sets, costumes and props were destroyed, including most of the set materials for The Jungle and the Sea<\/a>, scheduled to open three weeks later.<\/p>\n

Lost to the flames was a disparate collection of chairs originally scavenged from Armfield\u2019s back yard, for use in The Seagull (starring a young Cate Blanchett) which featured in many Belvoir shows, and his plastic-coated wire washing basket.<\/p>\n

A washing basket is just a washing basket, but it exemplifies the inventive, junkyard aesthetic and scavenging spirit that has come to characterise Belvoir; what Flack calls \u201crough magic\u201d, and Belvoir\u2019s production manager, Ren Kenward, calls \u201ctricks from the bin\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of times in a design and rehearsal process where one of us will go, \u2018Oh, we can just grab that thing [from the warehouse]\u2019 or \u2018What about the chair from that show?\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s such a big part of how we work,\u201d says Flack. \u201cIt was a library of things that we would draw on to make our shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June a fire destroyed Belvoir\u2019s production and storage workshop in Marrickville in June. Photograph: supplied by Belvoir St Theatre<\/p>\n

Flack was in rehearsals for The Jungle and the Sea when the fire occurred. In the days after, he recalls, \u201cI kept finding myself saying, \u2018Oh, we could just grab\u2019 \u2013 and then realising no, it\u2019s all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armfield is feeling the loss of his door bell \u2013 another item scavenged from home, for use in the original production of The Book of Everything. It was cheap and plastic, but it had a distinctive sound that he had his heart set on. \u201cThey don\u2019t make them any more,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one small problem in a plethora facing Kenward and the production department in the after the fire. The first hurdle was re-sourcing the materials and creating the sets for The Jungle and the Sea in just 11 days \u2013 accomplished by working around the clock in a makeshift workshop set up in a former furniture shop beneath Belvoir\u2019s Surry Hills HQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t miss even an hour of rehearsals because of how quickly the production team adjusted and pulled together,\u201d Flack says, still incredulous. \u201cIt was one of those moments where something horrible brings out something wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Book of Everything presented a different kind of challenge. The sets, designed by Carpenter, were not casualties of the fire. The difficulty was reproducing Carpenter\u2019s designs with no workshop and a tight budget.<\/p>\n

Belvoir \u201cruns pretty close to the wire financially\u201d, the executive director, Aaron Beach, says \u2013 now so more than ever, with declining arts funding and soaring production and materials costs. What money the company does have, it \u201clikes to invest in people rather than things,\u201d Kenward says.<\/p>\n

But The Book of Everything has a large cast, and an elaborate and complex set, including a giant illustrated book with pop-outs and pages that turn, modelled after the wondrous book created by the story\u2019s nine-year-old protagonist Thomas Klopper: a big hearted boy with an even bigger imagination, living in a strict Christian household in postwar Amsterdam, and trying to find joy and magic in the aftermath of Nazi occupation and the shadow of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty and the spirit of child\u2019s play in this production can really be found in the pages of the book,\u201d says Kenward.<\/p>\n

Production technician Steve Crossley installing the set of The Book of Everything, Belvoir\u2019s second show to be staged since the fire. Photograph: Teagan Glenane\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In Belvoir\u2019s temporary workshop, gorgeous recreations of Carpenter\u2019s illustrations, hand-painted on canvas by acclaimed scenic artist Russell Carey, are lying and hanging in the mezzanine space. \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful way to do it,\u201d Kenward says.<\/p>\n

The company had planned to make the rest of the set in-house, to save money, but the loss of the workshop forced them to outsource to more expensive specialists.<\/p>\n

Belvoir will be making these kinds of adjustments and financial recalculations for years to come, says Beach. The company has an ethos of \u201crecycle, repurpose, reuse\u201d, and its collection \u2013 ranging from small props to an in-the-round seating bank \u2013 was built up over \u201cmany, many years\u201d; replacing it is a long term project.<\/p>\n

In the short term, the company has been amazed and heartened by the outpouring of help from their colleagues in the sector, including offers of space and tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a shit time for Australian theatre<\/a>, in terms of funding and policy and everyone is struggling just to keep their company alive, let alone provide any sense of possibility or hope to our artists and our audiences,\u201d Flack says. \u201cSo to see all of those companies instantly step out of their own ongoing crises and offer help was so moving. It really does make a difference. It takes the edge off the pain and shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this context, The Book of Everything is the perfect show to be remounting, Armfield says, \u201cbecause it\u2019s so much a work about healing, and how through your connection with your family, and yourself, and your community, you can achieve a kind of grace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Neil Armfield heard that Belvoir, the Sydney theatre company he helmed for 17 years, had lost its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-864530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}