Nearly Beloved – the ‘movie’
Conceptualised/ choreographed by Graeme Murphy, directed and filmed by Philippe Charluet, NEARLY BELOVED, The Movie is a spoof gangster movie that was projected within this Sydney Dance Company’s show, which premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 1986 (restaged in 1991-92 & also toured in Paris). It was screened in the first Act. The set is a Coronation Hall in a country town in Australia in 1954. People are arriving for the screening of an American B-Grade film called Nearly Beloved. The stars in the movie are cast by the dancers, the ‘audience’ on the stage twatching it. The movie keeps breaking up, allowing the ‘audience’ to interact whilst waiting for the movie to come back. At the end of the film, as boy gets girl on-screen, the young man, the hero, presents his girl with an engagement ring. Everyone is thrilled.
The second Act has also a film projection but a more abstract and dreamlike quality. It is three decades later. Our hero is watching late television and Mr Movie, Bill Collins, is introducing an old movie which is no other than Nearly Beloved. That triggers memories of the girl the hero never married, the same girl who was watching the movie with him in the Coronation Hall years earlier.
In the third Act, the curtain rises on the now decaying Coronation Hall and a group of ghostly wedding guests. The groom, the Hero, arrives. As he is years late, the guests and Hall are covered in cobwebs and dust. They slowly come to life around him and there follows a sad enactment of the happiness that might have been…
“Playing with time and memory has always been a favourite pastime of mine. In Nearly Beloved, the present arrives some twenty years late to find the past still patiently waiting. What might have been becomes inextricably linked with what was and paths that might have entwined meet fleetingly only to be forever parted.”
Graeme Murphy AO
Choreography
GRAEME MURPHY
Creative Associate
JANET VERNON
Music
GRAEME KOEHNE
Music Director
BOB INGRAM
Set Design
STEPHEN CURTIS
Costume Design
ANTHONY JONES
Film Components
PHILIPPE CHARLUET
Lighting Design
RODERICK VAN GELDER
1991 Cast
ACT 1
Scene 1 - At the Pictures - 1954
The Manager
DALE PENGELLY
Usherette
LEA FRANCIS
Projectionist
DAVID PRUDHAM
Icescream seller
GREG TREDINNICK
The Audience
The Lovers
JANET VERNON & ROSS PHILIP
His Mate
GIDEON OBARZANEK
Old Lady
BILL PENGELLY
Sisters
GEORGIA SHEPPERD, CATHERINE GOSS
Quiet Boy
STEPHEN PAGE
Plain Girl
KATHRYN DUNN
New Australian
BRETT MORGAN
Teenagers
NIKKI O'SHEA, ALFRED WILLIAMS
ADRIAN BATCHELOR, CARL PLAISTED
Flirts
JAN PIKERTON, CYNTHIA LOCHARD,
LOUISE DELEUR
Scene 2 - The Night Before the Wedding - 1955
FULL COMPANY
ACT 2
Sydney Apartment - 1986
The Wife
JAN PINKERTON
The Husband
ROSS PHILIP
His Past
JANET VERNON
Guess Artist
BILL COLLINS
ACT 3
The Coronation Hall revisited
The Bride
JANET VERNON
The Groom
ROSS PHILIP
THe Best Man
GIDEON OBARZANEK
Father of the Bride
BILL PENGELLY
Hostess
LEA FRANCIS
Bridesmaids
GEORGIA SHEPPERD, CATHERINE GOSS
Groomsman
STEPHEN PAGE
Minister
STEVEN SUGGIT
Emcee
DALE PENGELLY
Photographer
DAVID PRUDHAM
Teenagers
NIKKI O'SHEA, ALFRED WILLIAMS
ADRIAN BATCHELOR, CARL PLAISTED
Flirts
JAN PIKERTON, CYNTHIA LOCHARD
LOUISE DELEUR
The Floor Show
KATHRYN DUNN, BRETT MORGAN
The Band
BOB INGRAM 1st Violin
GORDON BENNETT 2nd Violin
BARBARA WOOLLEY Cello
ANDRA ULRICHS Violia
MAX LAMBERT Piano
The 'Ganster Movie' (1986 Cast)
Lighthouse Keeper
ROSS PHILIP
Lana Lucious
JANET VERNON
'Godfather'
KIM WALKER
Bodyguards
ADRIAN BATCHELOR, KIM WILLIAMS
Bouncer
BILL PENGELLY
Cigarettes' Seller
LOUISE DOWLING
Emcee
MICHAEL HENNESSY
The Broken Hearts
TONIA KELLY, NINNA VERETENNIKOVA
The Sirens
SHANE CARROLL, LOUISE DOWLING
TONIA KELLY, JAN PINKERTON
VICTORIA TAYLOR, ANDREA TOY
NINNA VERETENNIKOVA
Club Hostess
FRANÇOISE PHILIPBERT
Sailors
STEPHEN PAGE, DARREN SPOTWARD
Extras
CAROLYN BOWRA, SAVVAS PANAS
JOE O'DYER, GLENDA HUGHES
PAMELA SMITTH, TANIA REES
DON HAYES, JOANNE HAINES
TERRY TETAI, MOIRA McCONNELL
KALO COCKER, STEPHANIE CHARLES
JENNY NEIL, DAVID YOUNG
ROBERT HUDSON, ANNA CROSSAM
SONIA BAUMANN
Musical Director
WILLIAM MOTZING
Lana Song sung by KRISTAN KEAN
Director
PHILIPPE CHARLUET
Assistant Director
LOUISE MEEK
Producer
LYNN RALPH
Screen Writer
DAVID R. YOUNG
Lighting
WAYNE TAYLOR
Cinematography
PHILIPPE CHARLUET
Camera Assistant
MICHAEL KELLY
Sound Recordist
LEO SULLIVAN
Sound Mixer
GEORGE HEART
Editor
DUNCAN SINCLAIR
Props
JEFF BROADFIELD, ANGUS DENTON
JOHN MONTGOMERY
Wardrobe
ROGER MONK, JENNIFER IRWIN
Continuity
PAUL MERCURIO
Grip
PAUL THOMPSON, TERRY JACKLIN
Gaffer
DOUGLAS WOOD
Follow Spot
BRIAN JONES
Prod. Assistants
CLAIRE KIPEN, RIVKA ASHKENAZI
PENRYN MADDRELL
Special Thanks
MARITIME MUSEUM
JAMIESON STREET CABARET
SYDNEY CITY COUNCIL