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described the play as "a tender uproarious nocturne to a King's Cross forever dying and forever reborn", giving the "myth-starved metropolis" at long last an urban mythology. He lauded Hewett as "La Hewett, who is in no way inferior to
Shakespeare in her breadth of vision, her verbal facility and her
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The stage direction begins, "the scene opens on the night skyline of the Cross. High in the flies Sydney is falling, the developers are in and the sound of demolition is deafening. Suspended in blackness like an actor in the Prague Black
Theatre the ancient Goose in verdigris coat-tails sits at his
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The action centres on a motley collection of the area's residents who are trying to prevent their homes being destroyed by progress. Their attempts to revive the "Old Cross" through a
Village Festival come to nothing. The stripper Primavera, who "knows too much" is murdered offstage. The residents
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The play is Hewett's paean to the city of Sydney and to Kings Cross, "Sydney's notorious square mile at the top of
William Street" - the edgy red light district she lived in or near for 20 years. It concerns the threat to what is valuable in Australia by the destructive march of progress, and the
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referred to the play as "dramatically inert" and disliked the script, but actually enjoyed the performance and went to see it twice, saying, "Everyone In the show has a stunning scene." Ken Healy described it as "a performance which is only a tiny fraction of the sum of its considerable parts".
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While the general impression was that the season was short and the box office takings were inadequate, in fact the play ran through the whole of July, the longest season for any Hewett play, and takings considerably exceeded that of the following Louis Nowra play. After the Paris
Theatre season
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honky-tonk piano. As he sings, the panorama of the Cross unrolls behind him, faster and faster, so that by an optical illusion he appears to be a whirling maestro of the sky signs. Up and down the moving staircase the characters enter and move like ghosts, like waxwork figures."
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To support the new theatre, the cast agreed to forgo salary during rehearsals. The set was very ambitious and very expensive for the time - Arthur Dignam said, "we pretended to be a very rich theatre when we were a very poor theatre."
332:, plus the independent With a Little Help from my Friends (John Lennon) in 1980. The Pandora's Cross poster features a voluptuous, naked female figure in yellow and red surrounded by a heart-shaped cascade of musical notes.
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The public impression was that the play had "destroyed the Paris venture" while being shown on its home ground with a top cast and after high expectations had been established. It has never been performed again.
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The set is divided into upstairs and downstairs sections, with an elevated platform for the Goose's honky-tonk piano. The backdrop is a panoramic, moveable King's Cross skyline that lights up at night.
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saw the performance and was "knocked out by it. The play was so lively and raucous, and so much more alive than the theatre in
England at that time."
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are dispersed across the "wasteland" of the western suburbs of Sydney. However the 'Cross lives on in the imaginative life of the residents.
358:, with its "unabashed theatricality", lacking the conventional signals of plot and character development. The Sydney Morning Herald critic
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Ethel Malley's room containing a straight-backed kitchen chair and an Early Kooka gas stove... The Goose's piano and stool on a platform.
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The original building was designed by Walter Burley
Griffin and opened as the Australian Picture Palace in 1916. It was renamed the
234:- featuring a stellar cast of some of Sydney's top theatre performers. Original music was composed by Ralph Tyrrell, with sets by
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thought the modest strip scene was "anti-feminist". The Jewish Times described Hewett as, "Australia's most overrated playwright."
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a streetlight far left, a fountain playing, a sycamore tree backstage left of centre, and Prim's bar, neon lit with bar and stools.
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Protest in March 1978, and in late May, just prior to
Pandora's Cross, it hosted Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian movie festival.
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The negative reaction extended to the audience. A puzzled Hewett explained, "they hated it...they hissed as I went past."
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produced three posters for events at the Paris theatre between 1978 and 1980. These promoted the 1978 productions of
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The Goose, Pandora, Mac Greene, Frangipanni
Waterfall, Sergeant Tinkerbell, Primavera, Rudi, Ethel Malley, Ern Malley
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was formed in March 1978, supported by leading members of the Sydney theatre scene, including author and playwright
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The characters are misfits, but all except Ern are relative innocents in an encroaching world of development.
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The play is an atmospheric, expressionist musical and a nostalgic celebration rather than a sustained drama.
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The Goose - Ancient ex-Philharmonic conductor, jazz pianist, porn pedlar, Grand Master of the coven.
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Primavera (Prim) - Ex-stripper and club proprietor, a well-proportioned blonde in her late thirties.
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The script was published in two acts in 1978 in
Theatre Australia, and also in Hungary in 1979.
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insights into character", urging audiences to "beat a path through broken bottles to its door".
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Downstairs: There is a staircase which can convert to an escalator. This leads into the Village
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in 1954 and was thereafter operated by the Hoyts group until 1977. It was the site of an
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Centre is Mac's room, a cheap table, chairs, battered typewriter, reading lamp and booze.
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Pandora (Pan) - King's Cross witch and artist, black-haired, sensual, in her forties.
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744:"Australian Live Performance Database (AusStage) | Australian Memory of the World"
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Hewett, Dorothy (1979). "Pandora's Cross" (Document). Centre hongrois de l'I.I.T.
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Healy, Ken (9 July 1978). "Giants of old Kings Cross don't quite come back".
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Mac Greene - ex-poet, classical scholar, alcoholic bum in his late thirties.
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cushions, a sword, two large candlesticks, drapes, masks, strange paintings.
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with original music by Ralph Tyrrell, set in Sydney's red light district
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place of the artist in creating and preserving the essential Australia.
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Ethel Malley - Ern's sister, withdrawn eccentric, in her late thirties.
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Sergeant Tinkerbell (Tink) - Still handsome policeman and drag queen.
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Davidson, Jim (September 1979). "Interview with Dorothy Hewett".
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Unravelling the Code: The Coads and Coodes of Cornwall and Devon
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Kippax, Harry (19 July 1978). "Pandora's Cross revisited".
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Frangipanni Waterfall (Fran) - Prostitute, a teenager from
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but closed after one week because of audience hostility.
514:"Pandora's Cross | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories"
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Flood, Joe (2013). "Dorothy Hewett and her forbears".
294:. However, the company folded after two productions -
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Some critics were still unable to come to terms with
702:Neville, Jill (3 July 1978). "Cross hard to bear".
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622:Yacker: Australian authors talk about their work
437:. Melbourne: Deluge. pp. 362–369, 668–671.
290:. It aimed to take up the mantle of the fading
169:Ern Malley - Romantic poet, forever twenty-five.
188:Rudi - The Cross cowboy working for Mr Big.
408:Dorothy Hewett: The Feminine as Subversion
270:concluded, the production was carried to
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410:. Sydney: Currency. pp. 81–91.
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768:Hewett, Dorothy (September 1978).
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591:"Review Pandora's Cross"
565:"Paris, Pandora's Cross"
543:The Dictionary of Sydney
292:Old Tote Theatre company
860:Plays by Dorothy Hewett
722:Australian Jewish Times
619:Baker, Candida (1986).
272:the Sydney Opera House
225:Jesus Christ Superstar
704:Sydney Morning Herald
674:Sydney Morning Herald
478:Sydney Morning Herald
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356:expressionist theatre
231:The Rocky Horror Show
131:Upstairs: Pan's loft
99:is a rock musical by
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242:. The cast included
855:Expressionist plays
718:""Pandora's cross""
480:. 25 February 1979.
246:, Jennifer Claire,
801:Theatre Australia
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179:on mandies.
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834:Categories
386:References
244:John Gaden
158:Characters
39:Characters
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344:Bob Ellis
336:Reception
177:Blacktown
652:Tharunka
208:Premiere
111:Synopsis
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518:Austlit
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87:Sydney
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