Cell Block Theatre - Macbeth

Alright, so there will only be pretend murderers, but Wildfire Theatre Company's new production of Macbeth will mark - in fittingly sinister fashion - the first time in decades that this historic Sydney venue has hosted professional theatre, and opens up a whole new avenue/dark alleyway for Sydney's independent drama scene. Talk about a captive audience...

Artistic greats including John Bell, Peter Sculthorpe and Ravi Shankar have served their time at the Cell Block Theatre, but after high-profile beginnings - the theatre restoration project was officially announced in 1955 by Robert Helpmann and Katharine Hepburn - the venue's noble theatrical history all but petered out.

Preserving its colourful history in more than just name, the Cell Block Theatre is a chillingly vivid reminder of Sydney's dubious origins. With its original sandstone walls and barred windows still in place, the building today stands within the grounds of the National Art School in Darlinghurst, and since the 1980s has served primarily as a venue for the college's formal gatherings, as well as the legendarily lavish art students' balls.

Originally built in 1836 as a prison block for female inmates, the ‘D Wing' cell block formed part of the huge Darlinghurst Gaol complex, whose history lives on in the courthouse that still stands on Oxford Street. Designed initially to accommodate around 420 prisoners, the Gaol eventually housed over 700, leading to conditions so appalling that many took their own lives rather than endure them.

Historian Deborah Beck whose book Hope In Hell charts the Gaol's history, explains: "Conditions were primitive, with no water supply and no toilets. The prisoners slept with two blankets on thin straw mattresses, and were allowed a minimum of light during the day through small barred slits in the walls." An official enquiry of the 1850s reported that "the cells...were swarming with bugs...in masses of an inch or more in diameter."

While many of those incarcerated in the Gaol were there for petty crimes, not all were the innocent victims of circumstance. Asked for her pick of the notorious figure most associated with the prison, Beck plumps for Louisa Collins, the only woman to be hanged in the 73 years that the gaol functioned. Convicted of poisoning not only her husband and lover, but also her own child, Collins faced the noose in 1889.

Closed in 1914, the prison stood empty for over 30 years. When the land was bought by East Sydney Technical College (the first incarnation of the National Art School), Beck explains: "Daring students would sneak in and explore the cells." The building itself, however, fell into greater disrepair until only a roofless shell remained.

It was in the 1950s that Bill Crisp, the principal of ESTC, pushed for the building's conversion to a theatre. His
cause gained significant momentum in 1955 when Hepburn and Helpmann agreed to visit the Cell Block to announce the project. According to guests at the event, Hepburn made a speech noting how appropriate it was "...that a member of the second oldest profession in the world should open a building which had housed women from the oldest profession."

The venue flourished as a home to avant-garde arts, hosting events as diverse as the Australian premiere of John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Piano, concerts by sitar legend Shankar, and performances from a university student by the name of John Bell.

While practical issues put paid to the Cell Block's first theatrical incarnation, Wildfire is hoping to prove with Macbeth that it can yet be restored as the home of innovative and exciting performing art in Sydney - that a new and living tradition can grow out of this place of death and despair.

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