The History of The Independent Theatre, North Sydney

re in 1939 when actor director Doris Fitton took the lease for her 10-year-old Independent Theatre group. As Artistic Director she created a little art theatre that became well-known for training and promoting local talent in all aspects of theatre. For 38 years she regularly presented a varied artistic programme that promoted plays by local writers, the classics, and contemporary plays that couldn’t be seen anywhere else in Sydney. She organised acting classes, suburban, regional and interstate tours, and visiting companies including foreign language performances and dance. The Independent participated in community Drama Festivals, performances for schools, hosted Benefit nights, featured a Children’s Theatre and Independent Theatre actors received many awards. Doris Fitton had run her own company, using a range of city venues, since 1930. She was initially reluctant to 'cross the Bridge' to the out-of- town location of North Sydney, but generous lease conditions finally persuaded her to accept the offer. The theatre that Fitton's company leased was a rectangular space at the end of a long, downward-sloping corridor leading from the street front. At the end a staircase led to small rooms used as offices and storerooms and one large 'studio' area in which the Independent's acting classes were conducted. The theatre itself, on the entry level, was of a simple design derived from its Georgian ancestry. There was a large stalls area and a very small dress circle, or perhaps gallery, with the whole area painted a dusky pink, which grew progressively duskier with age. The proscenium-arched stage was narrow but deep, with only marginal wing space and no flying capacity. There were two dressing rooms at the rear of the stage and a dark, close area under the stage, known as the crypt, which served both as wardrobe room and overflow accommodation for extras and students appearing in the shows. There was a minimal staging dock at one side, a tiny construction area, and an inadequate lean-to 'granny flat' residence occupied by Ivan Ratcliffe, a devoted supporter of Fitton, who acted as caretaker, theatre technician and who built the sets for her productions until the end of his life. The Independent Theatre opened with a production of Terence Rattigan's French without Tears on 3 September 1939, one day prior to the British and Australian declaration of war on Germany over the invasion of Poland. The theatre continued to operate as the lessee of North Sydney Coliseum Ltd throughout World War II and until 1948 but its tenure was never secure, and there were constant problems with the building, including a fire in 1946. Finally in 1948, after attempts by the owners to convert the site into a furniture warehouse, Theatre Freeholds Ltd, a company formed by supporters of the Independent Theatre, purchased the building for £7000. In 1948, Doris Fitton invited the Oliviers’ Old Vic Theatre
Touring Company to a performance of the Independent’s Mourning Becomes Electra production in which she played the villainous Christine Mannon and, later the same year, she directed the premiere of Sumner Locke Elliott’s Rusty Bugles, the first serious post-war Australian play to use identifiable local characters, idioms and raw language. This controversial production, which ignited a vigorous debate on censorship, toured the country to great acclaim. After decades of vibrant theatrical activity in which over 400 plays were presented, the Independent Theatre closed in 1977. The building had deteriorated and the company had lost its annual grant from the Australia Council. Throughout her career Miss Fitton received a number of awards for her dedicated work at the Independent Theatre. In 1982, in recognition of her outstanding half-century contribution to Australian theatre, a high honour was conferred upon her when Dame Doris Fitton became a Dame Commander (DBE) of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 1978, John Howitt whose cabaret entertainment in Killara had been so popular, leased the Theatre, undertook renovations and briefly renamed the building the 269 Playhouse. From 1983 to 1988, the theatre was leased to Hayes Gordon's Ensemble Studios Acting School and Repertory Company. It was the largest private acting school in Sydney, and presented weekly public performances. In 1988 the theatre was purchased by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust whose ambitious plans excluded Hayes Gordon, and the Ensemble Studios Acting School moved to premises in Newtown in 1991. However, when the Trust foundered financially, the Independent was saved by theatre benefactor Dr Rodney Seaborn, who bought it in the name of his Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation, a charitable trust to assist the performing arts. Dr Seaborn had previously established his Foundation in 1983, when he bought and rescued the distressed Stables Theatre for the Griffin Theatre Company. The SB&W Foundation established the Friends of the Independent Theatre in 1994, and a major restoration of the old heritage theatre commenced, with a considerable amount of volunteer assistance from the community and the Council. The Theatre re-opened in 1998 as the SBW Independent Theatre, and the restoration was completed in 2000 when the Ensemble Theatre leased the building for a year. The SB&W Foundation's Theatre Restoration Project received the 2001 National Trust Heritage Award for community participation in preserving "an important piece of Australian theatre history.”

The AETT returned in 2001 as a lessee and then, in 2004, bought the Independent from the Dr Seaborn’s Foundation. In 2013 after extensive repainting and structural alteration of the front foyer and stage area, the AETT sold the Independent Theatre to Wenona, the adjacent private girls’ school that had always maintained a close relationship with the Theatre and had used its facilities over the decades. The School promised to make the Independent available to the community and the performing arts and continues to do so. Thanks to the invaluable contributions of Dame Doris Fitton, Dr Rodney Seaborn AO OBE and many others, the Independent Theatre remains an integral part of the cultural life of Sydney.