Miranda Otto’s Triumphant Return to the Sydney Stage: A 40-Year Journey
For acclaimed Australian actress Miranda Otto, the hallowed halls of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) have served as more than just a performance venue; they’ve been markers of significant personal and professional milestones. Forty years ago, at the tender age of 18, Otto embarked on her professional acting career with her debut on the STC stage in the intense German psychological drama, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Fast forward to 2002, and it was on the STC stage that she met her now-husband, Peter O’Brien, with whom she shared the roles of a married couple in A Doll’s House. Her 2005 stint in Boy Gets Girl, opposite her father, the legendary Barry Otto, saw her six-month-old daughter, Darcey, brought backstage each night for a feed before Otto took to the stage.
Reflecting on her return, Otto muses from a café near the STC in Walsh Bay, “I walk along here, and I think, ‘Oh, that’s where Pete used to park his bike.’” A nostalgic smile plays on her lips. “A Vespa! There’s definitely ghosts in the building.” She fondly recalls an earlier encounter with O’Brien in 1988, a brief meeting during a guest spot on The Flying Doctors where he played a dashing pilot. “I remember all the make-up ladies fussing over Pete because he was that guy,” she laughs, recalling the buzz around him.
These memories are like personal bookmarks in a life richly lived. Now, four decades after her inaugural performance with STC, and 15 years since her last appearance in the 2011 production of The White Guard, Otto is once again gracing the Sydney stage. Her return was serendipitously sparked by a casual conversation with a fellow Lord of the Rings alumnus.
“I was at an event with David Wenham, and he was talking to [STC artistic director] Mitchell [Butel] on the phone – and I think Mitch was trying to get David to do something [it worked, Wenham is starring in An Iliad], and he was like, ‘Oh, can Miranda do something?’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll do something’,” she recounts.
This spontaneous agreement led to Butel contacting Otto, who was then sent the script for Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed play, The River. “And then Mitch got my number, and then he sent me the play. And then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s been a while since I’ve done it.’ But then, part of me was just like, well, I guess this is the moment. So it was sort of like, ‘OK, let’s go.’”
Unravelling the Enigma of ‘The River’
The play that has enticed Otto back to the theatre is The River, a compelling work by the renowned British playwright Jez Butterworth, known for his contributions to the James Bond film Spectre and the Oscar-winning Ford v Ferrari. The 80-minute production centres on a woman, portrayed by Otto, who mysteriously vanishes during a moonlit night-time fishing expedition for sea trout with a man referred to as “The Man,” played by Ewen Leslie.
Since its debut in 2012, The River has captivated audiences, with tickets often selling out rapidly. Critics have lauded it as “eerie, tense,” and “slightly unfathomable,” qualities that resonated deeply with Otto.
“When I read it, I had to keep going back to it, because it’s haunted me in some kind of way,” Otto admits. “Because it’s a bit of a riddle, and it’s hard sometimes to know exactly what’s going on.
“Because often you’ll read a play – and I think this is what attracted me to it – is often you read a play and you know, OK, there’s the emotional high point, there’s the laugh, there’s the denouement, and with this, it was much more like, ‘Hang on, where is all that?’”
A Young Director’s Vision
Adding another layer of excitement to this production is its director, Margaret Thanos. At just 25 years old, Thanos has already garnered significant critical acclaim for her innovative work with Belvoir and various independent theatre companies.
Otto became an ardent admirer of Thanos’s distinctive directorial style after returning to Sydney permanently, having previously lived on and off in Los Angeles. She missed the familiar “smell of the air, the sound of the birds we have in Sydney.” Thanos’s “edgy and dark” yet “funny and frightening” approach left a lasting impression after Otto witnessed her productions of Furious Mattress at Belvoir’s downstairs theatre 25A and Or Timon of Athens at Sport For Jove. It was this admiration that prompted Otto to suggest Thanos to Butel for The River.
“The way that she walked this line with the tone [in Furious Mattress] was quite incredible,” Otto remarks. “I just thought it’s a play that could so easily go terribly wrong – if you play it too much for laughs, it’ll be awful, if you play it too seriously, then that won’t work – but I was just so impressed by how she walked this line of it.”
Championing Emerging Talent
This commitment to discovering and nurturing emerging talent is a passion Otto is eager to pursue further. Her own career trajectory began with a similar serendipitous discovery, being plucked from the stage for her first film role in Emma’s War in 1987.
“I love going to all these smaller companies and seeing what they’re doing and seeing all, all these people who are coming through,” Otto shares enthusiastically. “I think it’s really encouraging. I mean, I know funding and things like that are terrible, but I feel like the actual state of the arts is quite healthy.
“There’s lots of really interesting things happening, and it’s interesting to work with younger people who have different views on the world to bring a different kind of energy. I’m interested in being a part of that.”
The River is scheduled to run at the Sydney Opera House from March 30 to May 16.
