Actor Sally-Anne Upton loves everything about Christmas but that doesn’t mean the big event is always smooth sailing. It’s just like her character Carol, in a new play of the same name by Perth director, playwright and storytelling coach Andrea Gibbs, presented by Black Swan State Theatre, opening in Perth soon.
“Even if they’ve never been to a theatre before, people should come and experience Carol because she’s in that older age group and dealing with a situation,” Sally-Anne tells Have a Go News between early rehearsals for Carol at Heath Ledger Theatre.
“Something has happened in her family and Carol, at 60, has to deal with that. It has completely turned her world upside down. It’s both funny and heartbreaking, a bit like life really.
“Such events tend to happen to people at different times of their life, but especially in their 60s and 70s. I don’t want to give the plot away but I think people will walk away hopefully having conversations about their own situation.
“Carol is Christmas, she loves everything about it, so I don’t have to act too hard, because so do I. Carol’s even born on Christmas day. I would describe Carol as a lovable, joyful kind of Australian larrikin, she holds the family together and then this crisis happens. It changes her world and she’s got to make some very serious choices about herself so it’s a really important journey.
“Andrea has written a beautiful script as she did for an earlier work, Barracking for the Umpire, that’s where her acclaim came from.
“So to be asked to be in Carol and then to be asked to be the lead. At first, I’m thinking: ‘oh my God’, but then: ‘no, have a go’. So I feel blessed and honoured to be given the opportunity to bring this brand-new piece to life with four other brilliant actors involved – Bruce Denny, Isaac Diamond, Ruby Henaway and Mark Storen.
Melbourne based Sally-Anne is British born but settled in Australia at a young age.
“Wow, that was a moment I will never forget coming out by ship with my family as a ten-pound Pom.
She has acted in stage, film and television and is well known for her roles in Bring Her Back, as Vera Punt in Neighbours and as Lucy Gambaro in prison drama Wentworth.
“I was only six when I sang for the first time and got the spotlight on my face,” Sally-Anne laughs.
“I started nursing at 15 because my mum wanted me to have a profession. But then I also had acting ability at age five and started stage dancing and doing concerts. I was involved in amateur theatre as a teenager so acting has always been in my DNA.”
Sally-Anne became a marriage celebrant in 2007 because, she says, “I got sick of going to weddings as a wedding singer and witnessing really bad celebrants and going to funerals where everybody is in a morbid state about their loved one that’s passed.
“I thought: ‘we’ve got to bring more joy into this’ and so instead of whining about it, that’s when I became a marriage and funeral celebrant. I love doing a celebration of someone’s life and going into people’s personal environment and helping the bereaved at a time when they are devastated and being able to rejoice in the person’s life.”
Sally-Anne says her professions marry together beautifully. “You have to have empathy as a nurse and as an actor and celebrant and it helps me stay away from Centrelink.”
She says marriage equality has made her work as a celebrant more joyful.
“I have just finished my last marriage for this year and we had a little issue with candles setting alight the piano. We had to relocate very quickly and have the ceremony outside while we aired the chapel but all we singed was the piano cover.”
Sally-Anne says she has family and friends in Perth.
“I came across in the 90s doing stand-up comedy and a cabaret show. In 2000 I was here with Cameron Mackintosh’s Oliver as widow Corney and in 2012 as Mrs Brill in Mary Poppins.
“We are really hoping that people will love Carol as much as we do and that it has legs and will go to other states and be picked up by other venues.
“Next year, I will be taking Wentworth Con (meet and greet the fans) to the US – Chicago and New Jersey, which I have also done in Melbourne and Britain. There’s also a lot of Wentworth fans in Canada and Japan and places like that so it’s wonderful meeting them.”
Sally-Anne says she’s really looking forward to seeing Perth audiences at Carol.
“I hope people will visit the stage door afterwards and meet and greet the cast, especially those who have never been to the theatre before. It’s always so nice to say hi and hear what people thought of the show.”
Sally-Anne will be back home in Melbourne in mid-December to join in her own special Christmas with family and friends.
Carol, by Andrea Gibbs and presented by Black Swan State Theatre, will play at the Heath Ledger Theatre from November 22 to December 14. For tickets, visit www.blackswantheatre.com.au.
