![]() ![]() “I haven’t been home for longer than two weeks at a stretch, for probably eight or nine years. In Tasmania, and especially with pandemic restrictions, her life has become more family intensive. And it’s always a nice night too, that’s my job.” ![]() “I’m very interested in reaching people that aren’t necessarily expecting to be reached, they just want a nice night out. “That’s my hell – when I walk out of the theatre and I hear someone say, ‘Are we picking up the dog tomorrow or is it staying another night at the kennel?’ My heart breaks,” she says. It’s her way of connecting with the wider community, and ensuring the important messages are still heard after the lights are turned up again. In her self-appointed role as “cultural agitator,” Dusseldorp has commissioned artist Amanda Davies to create an artistic response to the play’s themes, and her six works will be on display in the Theatre Royal’s foyer and in The Bett Gallery. It’s the steps towards the violence we need to acknowledge, educate police and legislation around it so it can be stopped before it turns into bruises.” The play’s program even contains a list of outreach numbers and contacts. “We’ve all just been through it in some way – there’s been a moment where we’ve felt lost, alone, challenged, violated… It’s about domestic violence, and we know there’s been a peak of domestic abuse and coercive behaviour and that is what we need to be talking about right now. ![]() The Bleeding Tree has been called a “powerful, visceral, funny but challenging piece” Dusseldorp says that, in this pandemic era, audiences will see parallels in their own lives. “What we want to add to what is out there are stories that have social taboos and impact strategies around them,” she says. Its first play, The Bleeding Tree, written by playwright Angus Cerini, premieres this week at Hobart’s Theatre Royal, with Dusseldorp as its star. In fact she’s busier than ever, having started stage and screen company Archipelago Productions with her husband. Just because she’s moved from hustly-bustly Sydney to the retro comforts of Hobart with her family (actor-director husband Ben Winspear and daughters Grace and Maggie) doesn’t mean she’s slowed down. At first, her deliberate, mannered speech dupes you into thinking you’re going slowly then all of a sudden you’re at the top of the ride and your head is spinning with the dizzying pace of her thoughts. Welcome to the Dusseldorp conversational rollercoaster. , you’re still made to feel like you’re lucky and that it’s a good deal… and then later on you find out it wasn’t. One could almost say that’s historical, right? No one can really talk about what they get paid – it seems rude, and it’s a way to keep people silent you don’t know what the other person is getting. On the discrepancy between female versus male wages in her industry: “It’s still not equal. And I shudder at the thought, because it’s now this shared world landscape and there needs to be room for everyone.” Magazines shutting down, all these people losing their jobs everywhere – if we don’t have a platform for our voice, it is possible we will lose our culture. It sounds silly, but we are in jeopardy of losing that. On cuts being made to both acting and journalism during the pandemic: “We’re trying to create a world that we think is liveable, and in all of this we need to stay kind to each other and fight for us as Australians. So am I now going to have to transition to grandmother roles – but just have heaps of energy?” You only have to look at how women choose to journey through their ageing process. Example: On ageing, as a female, in the entertainment industry: “I think it is still problematic, 100 per cent. You raise your weapon, she shoots back quickly, refires, then shoots again. Marta Dusseldorp, currently on Wentworth and best known for TV series Janet King, Jack Irish and A Place to Call Home, falls into neither of those camps. Others don’t seem keen to talk to the press at all. There are some actors who seem to have a crib sheet of What They Want To Talk About hidden in their cuff sleeves, so if you ask them about, say, their thoughts on sexism or politics or diversity, they will deftly turn it around to a conversation about their latest project.
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