Backstage with Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton

Far from the madding crowds of Hollywood, the red carpet premieres, the frantic flashes of the paparazzi and the squalid scribblings of scandal rags, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton are squirreled away in their Sydney bunker madly plotting a cultural revolution. Here in their shared office at the Sydney Theatre Company, the trappings of Oscar-ownership are nowhere to be seen. Instead, toys litter the floor and crayon scrawls adorn the walls courtesy of the couple's young sons, Dashiell, Roman and Ignatius.

Above a large desk they loathe hangs a Polly Borland portrait of Queen Elizabeth, the frame slightly askew thanks to a line-up of plastic figurines depicting Blanchett as the dastardly Russian harpy in the latest Indiana Jones caper. "Amazing how much I went up in my kids' estimation when I became a piece of Lego," she says with a cackle.

Upton meanwhile is guffawing at a portrait he's stuck on the door of his glamourpuss missus from a make-up campaign. It now shows her with a hyper-severe Lego haircut. "This should be your new headshot, darl!" he giggles like a schoolboy. Blanchett shoots him a glare but there's love behind it.

Turns out there's love fuelling everything these two do. Love for theatre. Love for Sydney. Love for a challenge. One thing's for sure, as the newly installed artistic directors of the STC for seasons 2009-11, Mr and Mrs Upton have plenty on their plate, but passion aplenty in their kickers. Right now, their biggest challenge is how the hell they're going to go about bottling Sydney's lightning for the stage... and beyond.

"For me personally, what's unfolded these past months has been the challenge of reconnecting the Company back to Sydney," says Blanchett, earthy yet exotic in denims and scuffed shoes. "When I first came to Sydney in 1993 it felt much more alive. Since then we've been strangled by licensing laws and the perception of theatre as a 'polite medium'. But theatre isn't neat and tidy and airy-fairy - it's dirty, messy, elastic, sweaty and, at times, bloody."The couple's first salvo in stripping Sydney theatre back to its gritty core is an Open Day on November 1. The plan? "An eminently practical affair where people see the many varied layers that go into making a piece of theatre and register that this isn't a rarified space, it's an engine room," says Upton, ceasing his chaicking with the stagehands for a moment. "It is engines that make theatre."

The 'engine room' Upton and Blanchett are making privy to Time Out today is a veritable wonderland of props, costumes, factory floors, archive galleries, labyrinthine backlots, loading docks and tradie zones. For them, this is home as much as their eco-friendly family castle in Hunters Hill. Upton lovingly fondles the platter of foam food from Cyrano de Bergerac, his first work here in 2005, while his wife gazes wistfully at old graffiti and traipses down memory lane ("I always use the loos in the paint room so you get to know the sparkies and the welders"). Our tour pauses only when the couple excitedly agree to have a huge set of furry wolf jaws complete with bloody teeth installed in their office. "I have quite gruesome taste," Blanchett confides.

Clearly, combatting the perceived intimidation factor of the theatre is a priority. "Too many people are introduced to theatre by being invited into a room and told to sit down and be quiet as if an exam paper will be handed out the moment the curtain comes down for which there will be a right and wrong response," rails Blanchett. "But theatre is an event, a performance - it's got to have bouyancy even at its most tragic."

Cue Cate and Andrew's dirty dozen - a 2009 programme of old Aussie classics (David Williamson's The Removalists), musicals (Tim Finn's Poor Boy), legendary works (A Streetcar Named Desire starring Blanchett herself), plum flummeries (Tom Stoppard's Travesties), secret projects (an untitled work from none other than Steven Soderbergh), Sydney sonnets (Saturn's Return by Tommy Murphy) and outright oddities (The Wonderful World of Dissocia of which Blanchett says: "if you like Alice in Wonderland but there's not enough sex and violence, Dissocia is for you."

Beyond the work is the mission: getting under Sydney's skin. The STC Open Day - where the public can explore the Company's Walsh Bay Wharf complex ("a place of old power so different from Sydney's often effette architecture", Upton reckons) - is key because, according to Blanchett, "this buzzing space with Bangarra and Sydney Dance downstairs, can spearhead an entire culture precinct." It's a broad vision already underway in the form of the couple's "greening" of the building via new dunnies (donations - monetary only - welcome, folks), the elimination of hardwoods, and a large rainwater harvesting installation on the roof.

"This is a landmark building in a very important part of Sydney," Upton waxes, pawing the working wharf timbers and the convict stone that holds it. "We sit in the shadow of the Bridge on the most famous Harbour in the world. When it's humming with people, like during Writers' Festival and hopefully during Open Day, this space comes alive in the most amazing way. So if we can reignite this area culturally with a diverse and buoyant programme of plays then perhaps, with a little help from Light Rail and Sydney Ferries, we can create a new entertainment hub that can inspire all Sydney and attract all Sydneysiders."

Blanchett beams as her husband trips up with the excitement of it all. They seem an unlikely couple until you witness their alchemy. It's a nitro and glycerine chemistry they hope can detonate through the work. As gunshots echo from the set of The Pig Iron People rehearsing nearby, Upton and Blanchett lead us back through wings and backstage scenes to their inner sanctum where she says "Andrew pounds away on the keyboard while I ferret about from the sofa".

Leaning against a door on which a sticker 'Theatre is bad for you' is jauntily plastered, Blanchett leans in close like a conspirator. "We've had a long year waiting to take the stage, loitering with intent," she purrs. "But it's beginning now and, although our missions are long-reaching, we're impatient to get underway because we know that people who live in Sydney have a curiosity and openness to new ideas and our primary mission in this role is to make sure we speak to as many pockets of Sydney as possible."

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