A Classic Stage

Barry Otto has the luminous watchful eyes of a born actor. He has enchanted Australian audiences on screen in Cosi and Strictly Ballroom, in the Ray Lawrence film of Peter Careys Bliss and on stage in everything under the sun. He played the great actor in Barrymore under Judy Davis direction a few years ago in Sydney, he was in the Barrie Kosky production of both parts of Goethes Faust for the MTC and he was D. H. Lawrence in Neil Armfields maiden production, Upside Down at the End of the World. Now he is the gullible father of the family, Orgon, in the new Malthouse production of Molieres Tartuffe.

Its a face that radiates wonder and enthusiasm as his tongue goes tripping off into the expression of some thought; a face that retains a child-like delicacy even though Barry Otto is in his mid-60s.

He adores the idea of appearing in this very black comedy in which Marcus Graham co-stars as the hypocrite Tartuffe.

"Its marvellous to be doing this great French stuff. I did Beaumarchais Marriage of Figaro years ago with Jean-Pierre Mignon, but Ive never done Moliere.

"Its extraordinary, wonderful writing. Its very grand and verbose writing and utterly challenging. Its so black and funny and great. Sometimes, I think, in the theatre, were inclined to let things get a bit small, whereas Moliere has a tremendous theatricality and energy. And what hes showing us about society is that its still the same."

Otto thinks Australian actors can rise to the challenge of classical theatre because the idea of the stage is still important to them.

"Every actor is inclined to prefer the stage. And the Australian actors who have made it big in film have made it on stage. They have something, theres a kind of facility in the Australian actor, which is different from what you get in the American or English actor, however wonderful they are. And I think one thing that you do get even in the highest paid Australian actors is that deep desire to conquer the stage."

He stays with the idea like an abiding credo thats suddenly blazed back into sight.

"The thing about the theatre is that when its good its great. Im not saying that film cant take a lot of energy. I think sometimes it can take more energy than people realise.

"But theatre is where you do it and do it and do it. Its about listening and reacting and reaching down to where you are."

Otto had his stint of television with the Kennedy/Miller organisation doing Vietnam (with the young Nicole Kidman) and he is full of admiration for the depth of rehearsal that show had as well as regret for the relative lack of incentive for Australian TV drama.

On the other hand, its the great classics of the theatre that he puts his money on.

"Chekhov is my favourite playwright. I love the humour he gets and the comedy he can see in the midst of extraordinary and awful situations, because there is something funny in the midst of sadness. And he gets that balance in the way peoples lives are played out. I dont find Chekhov solemn and heaving.

"Ive seen everyone do Chekhov. The English, the Americans, the Russians - theres something wonderful about Russian acting because it can seem so risky and extreme - and, of course, Australians. And theyre all slightly different.

"I think Chekhov can be related to the history of this country too. Theres something so very sensitive and delicate about him and his approach that applies to so many human situations. After all, when Woody Allen did Hannah and Her Sisters, it was his script, but the essence of it was Three Sisters."

Otto is preoccupied with his own attempt to get Chekhov, with an Australian accent and emphasis, on the screen. He has written a script, The Whiteleghorn Lunch, with a setting in 1930s rural Australia, which he wants to direct. Actors for the project include his daughter Miranda Otto, her husband, Peter OBrien, and Colin Friels.

Its an attempt at a free adaptation of Uncle Vanya, the Chekhov play in which Otto had the title role of the provincial sensitive soul who stays at home to slave for others.

"I wrote it originally with the idea of playing it myself, but I want to direct it with Colin Friels (as Vanya)."

The difficulty with so much cultural endeavour in this country, Otto thinks, is with the funding bodies.

"You try going to the Australian Film Commission and say you want to do something about a transsexual, a man in a little black dress. Ill never forget the man who said to me, What makes you think you can put Chekhov on screen?"

He contrasts this with the audacity and dedication that allowed New Line (the producers) to do the three parts of Peter Jacksons film of Lord of the Rings in New Zealand - a film in which Miranda had a leading role.

"They did the three parts from the start and they had a number of Australian and New Zealand actors in leading roles as well as a great director who was burning to put this classic work on screen."

Otto is one of those actors who expresses, almost rhapsodically, his sense of the whole picture.

"The thing governments dont realise - and this is particularly true of the previous government who reserved all their enthusiasm for sport - is that films are the great ambassadors of this country. Governments just dont realise this and therefore cant see how important it is that more money should be invested and how high, in cultural terms, the returns are."

Otto is intensely proud of his other daughter Gracie who has graduated from film school, produced three short films and is on to her first feature.

"Its in the blood of course," he says cheerfully. "But shes learned so much at film school."

Theres an implicit and recurring pride too in his (much better known) daughter Mirandas achievements, though he is also careful to emphasise that he has a son who played second-grade cricket for Petersham and did a degree in education.

When Otto did Cosi, part of the backing came from Harvey Weinstein and the Americans of Miramax took him to some Broadway shows.

One of these was Barrymore, with Christopher Plummer, which happened to be one of their properties, and Otto thought to himself, "I should do this". And so he did.

He took it to Judy Davis because he knew she had always wanted to direct.

"Shes such an interesting actress and shes a woman of such sensibility. Ive always had the greatest respect for Judys natural instincts. Shes very natural, as an artist."

And so he was directed in Barrymore by the woman who played Judy Garland and Miles Franklin. "We had a great season with it."

There are performers who spit the world out of their mouths and there are actors who savour its tastes and sweetnesses. Otto is someone who comes across as liking the taste of the world.

He talks about his gratitude for having done Patrick Whites Night on Bald Mountain and his voice is full of feeling as he assumes Whites voice to imitate that old rager during the stage when he was campaigning to save Sydneys Belvoir Street Theatre. "I got a royalty today," he says in a cracked old voice. "And I thought I should buy a couple more shares."

He talks about how he had to adapt the walk and find a bag (a "port" as Queenslanders call them) that would replicate the one of the patient at Callan Park mental hospital, on whom he based some aspect of his character in Cosi.

He talks too about how good he thinks the reign of Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton might be at the Sydney Theatre Company.

"I dont think Hollywood has seduced Cate. The two of them have dedicated themselves to this thing by signing up. Theyre passionate about it and clearly they want to make their home and their childrens home in Australia."

He remembers doing The Tempest with Blanchett for Neil Armfield.

"Its such a beautiful play and its Shakespeares farewell to the stage. And, you know, it was extraordinary because my daughters name is Miranda and Cate was playing my daughter in the play. And, well theyre nothing like each other as actors, but it was a marvellous experience. We did it on sand. And theres such softness, such loveliness in Cate."

Otto is one of those actors who dreams his way through the world of the theatre.

He says he must do Lear before he dies because every father knows what a bully he can be. "Im not daunted by the role. I know the tyranny of the father. There is this man with daughters. And they stand up to him."

Hes wide-eyed, like the fool on the heath, contemplating the spectacle of an anger that seems a million miles from him. His tone softens even more and he adds, "and it has one of the great reconciliation scenes".

You feel talking to Otto that this man, whose father was a Queensland butcher, and who originally thought he might design clothes, has managed to mingle innocence and experience in his chosen profession of actor.

He smiles in his pensive way. You can tell theres an inner music in the show business caper for Otto. It will be interesting to see him in the midst of the pomp and circumstance, the sound and fury and classic comedy of Tartuffe. Otto is an unpredictable actor, an actor who can bring an introspective depth to his most inventive and out there performances.

And Orgon is the central part in Tartuffe, the part Moliere himself played because Orgon, this apparently sane and reasonable chap, is the floor Tartuffe trails his slime across. Everything in a production of this play - arguably the greatest play ever written about the dark comedy of human duplicity and the will to deceive - depends on the actor who plays Orgon showing how he could be taken in by Tartuffes black magic. Orgon is the Othello of classic comedy. The Malthouse must be pleased that their Orgon is an actor of Ottos stature.

Tartuffe previews at the Malthouse from February 15 and opens on February 20.

Bookings: Malthouse Box Office 9685 5111 or www.malthousetheatre.com.au

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