Concrete Playground

In 1948, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh bet a bunch of local actors in a Sydney pub that they could recite Australian poetry as good as any local. To prove it they went to a radio station and recorded Banjo Patterson’s Last Week and Clancy of the Overflow. The recording was marked ‘not for broadcast’ and has, until now, sat in the National Film and Sound Archive gathering dust.

On Wednesday evening the dust is coming off and legendary Australian actor Jack Thompson is taking on the Oliviers in a bout of Banjo balladeering in the Mitchell wing of the State Library. This is a serious clash of past and present – kind of momentous I reckon.

It’s also the launch of Kathy Leahy’s new book Lords and Larrikins: The Actor’s Role in the Making of Australia. Leahy and Thompson will be on hand to chat about the book, and discuss such topics as why in Australia we still call for control of the public artist.