The Spare Room Opera: Casting Life Experience as the Lead
Helen Garner’s most talked-about novel has been set to opera music, and there are bikes on stage.
Therèsa Borg, a Melbourne-based writer, director and performer, spoke with me about The Spare Room, a new opera based on Helen Garner’s novel. She’s spent a lifetime in theatre, and points out that almost every story on stage ends with a youthful “happy ever after.” She and composer Jane Hammond wanted to write one that didn’t.
I was delighted to find a community of Melbourne artists who are making room for older voices.
The Spare Room has its world premiere at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, from 7 to 10 October, with tickets from $39.
Why The Spare Room
Therèsa didn’t set out to adapt just any Helen Garner novel. The Spare Room was published not long after her own mother died in 2008, and she felt it “land as a mirror to both the grief and deep intimacy that comes with caring.”
Then, just before the Covid pandemic, she watched a couple of friends choose end-of-life paths similar to the character of Nicola’s, including expensive alternative treatments that left her both furious and still, at the same time, giving loving care.
“The Spare Room felt like an opportunity to bring that lived experience, which is such a huge learning curve for so many people, maybe even where most of us learn our biggest lessons, to the stage,” she says.
Third-act stories
Therèsa has spent a lifetime in theatre, and she’s noticed a pattern: almost every story ends with a youthful “happy ever after.” She and Jane wanted something different.
“We wanted to tell a story celebrating third-act learning,” she says.
She’s also watched the roles open to older female performers narrow over time, “to a very few tropey comic roles.”
Writing The Spare Room is her and Jane’s answer to that.
“We are determined to keep writing and learning and making theatre for our own cohort as we all hopefully get older and older together.”
It’s also, she says, part of why they chose this book in particular: it gives them “strong, senior female leads as written by a strong, brilliant Australian female writer.”
Casting with lived experience
Casting Natalie Jones and Antoinette Halloran as Helen and Nicola wasn’t incidental.
“The richer and longer the artists’ lived experience, the more resources the artists have to bring to their performances,” Therèsa says.
“Imagination is key, but the more lived experience, the bigger the trampoline for the imagination to spring from.”
What Sarah Goodes brings
Many of us saw and loved Julia, and its director, Sarah Goodes, is behind this production too.
Therèsa describes her approach: “Sarah has a way of weaving the ordinary with threads of silver, she weaves in glimmers of the liminal, the mystic, the transporting.”
She points to a specific moment in Julia as an example, where Sarah and Justine Clarke worked Julia Gillard’s manner of speaking into a handful of lines before Clarke’s “incredible and total” transformation at the play’s end.
In The Spare Room, she says Sarah’s compassion for Helen and Nicola comes through “woven with hints at the metaphysical and beautiful poetic images.”
And, as Therèsa puts it, Sarah has “managed peak Melbourne” with this one: a Helen Garner opera, with bikes on stage.
The story
If you know the book, you know the story. Helen prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola, who has come to Melbourne for an alternative cancer treatment. Her friend is seriously ill, and Helen becomes her carer, her defender and, at times, her harshest critic.
On stage, the two women are played by sopranos Natalie Jones as Helen and Antoinette Halloran as Nicola.
Therèsa’s description of Helen fits the book well: darkly funny, and willing to put herself through ruthless self-examination. If you’ve been a carer, or been cared for, or been the friend who says the wrong thing at the wrong moment, you’ll recognise her.
If it’s your first opera
Therèsa’s advice for a first-timer: “Expect to have an immersive experience of the book that is a feast for all your senses!”
Here is what she says to expect:
- All the text is sung. Seven singers are on stage, with 14 musicians in the orchestra pit.
- The music is easy to listen to. She describes Jane’s score as “sweet and tangy and swelling in and out of epic”.
- The costumes are worth a look. Her favourite so far is a red flamenco dress “a bit like a geranium”, worn by the child character, Bessie.
- There’s an interval. It’s long enough for a glass of wine and a chat.
- Bring tissues. Therèsa says you’ll need them “for laughing and crying”.
The Playhouse is also a comfortable place to see opera for the first time. Therèsa calls it one of her two favourite theatres in Melbourne because “every seat is a good seat”, whatever you paid.
Find more information on The Spare Room here.
What Therèsa hopes you’ll take away
She hopes audiences leave moved, and that the show honours both Garner’s novel and “our audiences’ collective life experience”.
Watching Helen and Nicola’s imperfections, she says, should feel “relatable and reassuring”.
She also hopes people will think about family, chosen family, love and duty when a crisis hits.
It is heavy subject matter, but the book is funny, and Therèsa says the opera keeps that.
Tickets and session times
- Wednesday 7, Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October: 7:30pm
- Saturday 10 October: 2:00pm and 7:30pm
- Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes, including interval
- Prices: Seniors Card tickets from $39, with the top price at $150
- Groups of 6 or more: from $39
- Book tickets here
Buy only through authorised sellers: Arts Centre Melbourne or Victorian Opera. For phone bookings, call Arts Centre Melbourne on 1300 182 183.
Accessibility at the Playhouse
Wheelchair access: all levels of the Theatres Building are wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair spaces are available at every event, subject to availability, and can be chosen when you book online or by phone.
Free wheelchair loan: book on 1300 182 183, ideally at least 24 hours ahead. The chairs can’t leave the building.
Hearing: an Assistive Hearing system is available in the Playhouse. Neck loops and headphones are free to borrow, and you’ll be asked to leave a driver’s licence or similar ID.
Companion Card: accepted for all ticketed events.
Accessible toilets: on Level 5 at the Playhouse entrance next to the cafe, and on Level 3 opposite the lifts, on the same level as the Playhouse stalls.
Assistance animals: welcome throughout Arts Centre Melbourne.
If you have specific seating needs, phone the box office when you book rather than relying on the online booking alone.
Read our venue guide for Arts Centre Melbourne here.
Getting there
Public transport: Arts Centre Melbourne is a short walk from Flinders Street Station across Princes Bridge. Several tram routes stop out the front at stop 14, Arts Precinct, including 3, 5, 6, 16, 64, 67 and 72.
Driving: the Arts Centre car park is under the Theatres Building, with the entrance at the corner of Sturt and Kavanagh Streets. It’s open 24 hours, has accessible bays on both levels, and has a 1.9 metre height limit. It can fill up early on busy nights, so arrive with time to spare.
Drop-off: there is a drop-off point on St Kilda Road opposite the Theatres Building, and cars entering and leaving the car park within 15 minutes aren’t charged. St Kilda Road is often congested, so check the Arts Centre Melbourne website for current works before you head off.
The Spare Room, Arts Centre Melbourne
100 St Kilda Road, Southbank VIC 3006
For Box Office enquiries, please contact Arts Centre Melbourne on 1300 182 183.
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