North Heritage Leaflet 11

INDEPENDENT THEATRE North Sydney’s is the oldest continuously run ‘live’ theatre in Sydney and a much-loved local landmark that provides a tangible link to this area’s rich history of popular entertainment stretching back to the days of vaudeville in the early 1900s.

Tram Depot 1886-1909

The site where the Independent Theatre now stands was originally a tram depot. The Ridge Street tram line to Milsons Point was opened on 22nd May, 1886. The trams left the depot in Miller Street.

In 1893 the line was extended to Crows Nest with the first electric trams were introduced soon after. Power for the line was generated at the cable winding station in Ridge Street. The original electric car fleet was also stabled at the cable car depot in Ridge Street. Operating at its maximum level, the depot had up to 12 roads each connecting to running lines in the street. There was a siding area next to the depot. However, rapid expansion of the network on the North Shore proved too much for the Ridge Street site and larger premises was constructed in Military Road, west of Neutral Bay Junction. This new depot opened in 1909 and the Ridge Street depot closed at the end the following year.

Coliseum Theatres 1911– 1939

North Sydney Council Rate Books indicate that North Sydney Coliseum Ltd bought the site in 1911-13. The use of classical, or Italian, names such as Tivoli, Lido and Coliseum for entertainment venues was commonplace in the English-speaking world. North Sydney Coliseum Ltd built two separate auditoriums. The one on the south side, for motion pictures, was called the Coliseum Picture Theatre. The one on the northern end was used for live entertainment and was, somewhat confusingly, called the Coliseum Picture Hall. This is the structure that became the Independent Theatre.

The company engaged architect JA Kethel to construct the new premises, although elements of the old sheds may well have been incorporated within the new structure. Kethel chose an elaborate, if somewhat outdated, style for his façade. The Victorian Second Empire idiom was derived from mid-19th century Parisian buildings erected during the reign of Napoleon III. It is characterised most particularly by a sloping ‘mansard’ roof. Because of its exuberance and flourish, this style was particularly popular in grand public buildings such as the Sydney Town Hall, and theatre architecture. Sydney’s Tivoli, Her Majesty’s, and the Gaiety theatre (all now demolished) were examples of this.

The truncated appearance of the Independent Theatre’s surviving façade is a result of the redevelopment of the southern picture theatre. That premises had been damaged by fire in 1944 and the exterior stripped and interior gutted in the 1950s to house a motor garage and then a post office transport depot. It was redeveloped again as flats in the 1990s. The letters ‘NSC’ for North Sydney Coliseum might still be seen on an awning strut at the northern end of the Independent.

The live venue Picture Hall had an initial seating capacity of 778, while the cinema next door could seat up to 2,282. The Hall had a proscenium arch separating stage and auditorium and could accommodate a live orchestra in front of the first row. Popular shows in the early decades must have been very crowded for the present seating allows for only 303 people. Between 1913 the larger cinema had changed roles, to become an ice skating rink.

The original license for the Hall specified general entertainment and, from 1913-1930, dramatic performances. Vaudeville shows were probably most common. It is likely that Roy ‘Mo’ Rene performed there. Harry Clay’s vaudeville group retained the venue from 1918 and its name changed to Clay’s Theatre or Clay’s Coliseum Theatre.

The NSW National Trust Register entry for the Independent Theatre site, compiled in the 1970s/80s, makes mention of the venue being used as a munitions factory during World War One. This is repeated in oral accounts. However, there is no known evidence of this in Council records. Rate and Valuation books list North Sydney Coliseum Ltd as the owner throughout the war years (1914-1918), with AR Keeling recorded as the resident ‘Amusement Proprietor’ from 1914-1916 and Thomas Freeman as resident confectioner. From 1917-1919, with the company still in ownership, the site was occupied by a fruiterer, confectioner, bootmaker and chemist – with no mention of entertainment. Interestingly, Sands Directory lists a ‘Military Area’ office for the 18th Battalion within, or alongside, the complex from 1915.

It is perhaps this military presence, along with the possible storage of ammunition in the adjoining picture theatre during the 1940s, which gave rise to the belief that the site also housed a munitions factory.

By the end of the 1920s, when Clay’s use of the Hall ended, the premises were in disrepair. There followed a decade of economic hardship and fluctuating uses for the venue. Vaudeville had difficulty competing with movies and the radio. Still owned by North Sydney Coliseum Ltd, the theatre hosted dancing, vaudeville and singing by various groups until being turned over to boxing in 1934. Two years later the ring was declared unsafe and, in 1937, live performances were resumed by Les Shipp. Seating capacity was reduced and, in 1938, the venue was renamed the Criterion Theatre and operated by Richard White and Harald Bowden who had an association with JC Williamson Ltd. That year Scott Alexander took over the site and renamed it, yet again, the New Kursaal Theatre. He died shortly after and the place reverted to the Criterion Theatre. In the meantime, the adjoining cinema was acquired by Union Theatres, refurbished, and reopened in 1921 as the Union Deluxe. It became the Hoyts Deluxe in 1932 and operated as such until 1941.

The birth of the Independent 1939 – 1977

The Independent Theatre company came to the Criterion in the summer of 1939 and played there for one season, staging two plays. The Company was founded in 1930 by who had worked for a short time with the Turret Theatre established in 1928 in the turreted former East St Leonards Town Hall in Alfred Street, Milsons Point (now demolished). After Fitton organised a lease for the Company at the Criterion in 1939, the building became known as the Independent Theatre. The first performance opened on the eve of World War Two – 2nd September 1939. Ironically it was Terrence Rattigan’s ‘French without Tears’. The Company’s wartime performances attracted small audiences. However, the 1948 production of ’s ground breaking Australian work – set during the war caught the attention of Government censors because of its ‘obscene’ language. It was the first production of this work and the Independent played to full houses for a month. The publicity was beneficial and following productions were well-patronised. Future screen stars such as Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Rod Taylor, June Salter and John Mellion performed at the Independent in their early careers. In the 1960s the Company staged works by Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett and the Swiss playwright Friedrich Dűrrenmatt. The North Sydney Heritage Centre holds a collection of programmes from this period. In 1957 the Independent briefly hosted acting classes by the American-born director Hayes Gordon, who had just moved to a nearby street. Gordon would establish the shortly afterward – first above a cake shop in Berry Street and then in a converted boatshed at Careening Cove. In 1957 Doris Fitton was awarded an OBE. For a decade more her Theatre employed amateur actors many drawn from the local area and semi-professional performers. The Theatre became fully professional in 1967. This arrangement lasted a decade until competition for funding and rising costs forced the Theatre to close in 1977. Doris Fitton became a Dame of the British Empire in 1982. A refit and new life as a cabaret venue called Playhouse 269 lasted for a year until 1979. In the following decade, Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust plans to redevelop the site failed but a restoration with the assistance of was initiated. In 1993 the site was bought by the Seaborn, Broughton Waldorf Foundation (SBW) which had earlier purchased the Stables Theatre in Darlinghurst. In North Sydney the SBW launched a community fundraising campaign as it had done in Darlinghurst and the augmentation of Council grants permitted extensive restoration. The present façade colour scheme replaced a white exterior at this stage. This coincided with the redevelopment of the adjoining ‘cinema’ site as apartments. The building was reopened in 1998 as the SBW Independent Theatre. It was leased to the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 2001.

See also Carolyn Lowry, The Independent Theatre: A Brief History, 2001; Ailsa McPherson, A Dream of Passion: Theatre Activity in North Sydney, 1993

North Sydney Heritage Centre

1st Floor Stanton Library 234 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060

Phone: 02 99368400 Fax: 02 99368440

Email:[email protected] www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au