Cast entirely from Tasmania’s rich acting talent and showcasing our historic sites and houses, the film is expected to be a real eye -opener as far as dispelling any connection between Fagin and Ikey Solomon.  I won’t give too much away here, because I hope you will watch the film, but I can tell you it was a fascinating experience to be part of the making of this documentary.

Yes, Chris and I both got parts – I play a convict woman (well I am used to that!) and Chris plays Moses Julian (Ikey Solomon’s father-in-law).  So, if anybody came on Louisa’s Walk recently and neither Chris nor I were performing, that’s probably where we were!

I filmed my part out at Kempton at Dysart House the home of Leo Schofield; it made a brilliant backdrop for our scenes and I couldn’t take my eyes off the herbaceous borders!  Chris  filmed his role at Annie’s Farm at Kempton and the Victorian Gothic stables at Shene (not far from Kempton).   The highlight for him was driving a hackney cab, only a few metres but it involved a “giddy- up”!

Samuel McClellan at Great Expeditions also obtained a part as an extra and you can see images of Chris and Samuel below in their First Fagin costumes.

Getting these other diverse roles is rare but the stimulation it gives us is immense and we return to our first love, Louisa’s Walk, with renewed vigour!

Chris playing Moses Julian in First Fagin

Samuel McClellan in his role in First Fagin

This past week has seen us attain the 100th TripAdvisor review written by our kind visitors and to celebrate we held a party!  We invited anyone who has had a part in helping to get us started or keeping us going. The list is quite long but I would like to pay particular attention to my son Sam Smee who worked so hard in the early years to design our lovely brochures and to build and design our web site.  Sam was unable to be here last night but ……….thank you Sam!!!

Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo so you can’t see us raising a flute to our success but as we say at the beginning of Louisa’s Walk “Can you use your imaginations?”

Most Recent Traveller Reviews:

Last weekend we took the Jones family out on Louisa’s Walk. After our performance is over, when we come out character,  Russell Jones told us that his mother owns an old quilt which has a fascinating history and he has been kind enough to send me some details and a photograph which I reproduce here:

47 Year old Sarah Jackson( nee London), a hard-working widow for 22 odd years, and whose employment was being a ‘Carer’ for a bed-ridden person in Elsternwick, was finally free to visit her siblings, because her patient became deceased in Dec. 1900.  Sarah won the quilt in a raffle at Maldon, Victoria, at the turn of the century. It’s size is 155cm x 155cm.   Sarah’s siblings were all living in Victorian country towns then, but on this occasion when Sarah won the quilt she was visiting brother Robert Walter London who lived and worked in Maldon – he was the proprietor of a Wholesale & Retail Grocery business .

The actual year when Sarah won the quilt is unknown. While crazy quilts were very popular from 1880 to 1910, there was a particular event that may have caused a special quilt showing, and hence a raffle,  and that was when the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) visited Melbourne in May 1901 to open the first Federal Parliament.  Crazy quilts were then exhibited in department stores, including Robertson & Moffats, and it is known that the Duchess did, in fact, view these exhibits .

Contact was made about 9 years ago with the Maldon Historical Society who organized an advertisement in the local paper asking if anyone had any knowledge of a special raffle event at the beginning of the century. There was no response.  However, there were some special ‘family’ events that took place in 1901 and 1902 that may have got Sarah to visit brother Robert. Firstly, as Robert got married in June 1901 to Lillie Jane Mollard, it could have been that occasion that got Sarah to visit, or perhaps, even the engagement.  Also, that couple had their first child in May 1902. Another big occasion might have been to introduce Sarah’s new beau before she finally remarried late in August 1902 to William Perry.

A backing has been put on it by a very reputable firm in the city, plus the edging added to it.  The backing is not actually attached to all of the back, but simply at the edge next to the cording.  It has been kept in a tin truck all of the years with bay leaves scattered inside to deter moths etc..

I am sure that if anyone has any information to add to the history of this quilt, the Jones Family would be fascinated to hear about it.  Please make contact via this web site.

A Crazy Quilt

Yesterday we took Huonville Primary School’s  Grade Five on our Primary School Version of the story.  We woke to heavy drizzle but a quick call to their teacher Lauren Whyatt established that parent helpers, staff and students were all equipped for wet weather wearing the school’s outdoor education red jackets.

By arrival time at 10.30 however, the rain had just about stopped and everyone looked very bright under the grey skies.  It was another good show with our novel way of giving a history lesson grabbing the student’s attention.  Huonville Primary’s Grade Five made a wonderful, attentive audience and they asked many thoughtful questions during our question and answer time after the Show was over.

This is probably our last school show for the year unless there are some late comers out there looking for an end-of-year outing?  It has been heartening to take so many schools on Louisa’s Walk this year but how about booking The Old School for a special school anniversary? See our Schools Page for details.

Huonville Primary's Grade Five with Louisa and William

Huonville Primary School ask some good questions.

There is something for everyone on Louisa’s Walk, fun and light heartedness, a bit of exercise, fantastic storytelling of course, pathos, sadness and plenty of photo opportunities!  It’s theatre, it’s educational it’s entertaining, it’s history come alive.  But given the Strolling Theatre nature of Louisa’s Walk there is also an element of whatever the environment throws up.   In my last post I talked about the bumble bees and the black rabbits – we saw the ducklings again yesterday.

However, something that is there all the time and often really engages the men, is the flood mitigation device at the bottom of the Cascade Gardens.  On the way down we are very much engaged in Louisa’s story and this bridge, over the device, becomes the prison hulk The Warrior – it  is not the time to explain the structure.  But on the way back when Louisa’s Walk morphs into a semi tour rather than a play and questions are often answered, there is time to explain it.  Basically it is the place where the Hobart Rivulet (the reason for the siting of Hobart by David Collins in 1804) is contained as it comes down off Mount Wellington.  The structure catches and traps the boulders and branches that would otherwise threaten to dam the rivulet further downstream and flood the Cascades Female Factory and indeed Hobart.

In the Crime Yard on Louisa’s Walk, Louisa explains that it is the lowest part of the Female Factory and that when  the Hobart Rivulet floods in winter and in spring then so does the Crime Yard and the women were often wading around in icy, cold, freezing water.  That wouldn’t happen these days because the flood mitigation device is very effective.

If you visit the bottom end of Collins Street in Hobart nearest the River Derwent, you can see some images, mounted on plaques, of the area known as Wapping, under water, early on in the 20th century.  The flood device built sometime in the middle of the 20th century, saved the town from such disasters.

Saving Hobart from Flooding

Recently too, there have been some New Zealand bumble bees causing a fair bit of distraction in the Orlop Deck!  This deck is where, on our imaginary journey out to Van Diemens Land, we crowd down to the lowest deck of our transportation ship where convicts are housed.  In reality we come down some steps in the lovely Cascade Gardens and crowd into a narrow passage which just happens to be, at this time of year, blooming with yellow azalea flowers.  These flowers are attracting the bumble bees (I am told they have arrived from New Zealand but if I am wrong please correct me!)  Our audience members seem fascinated by these large, furry insects and today I deliberately turned Louisa around so I would keep their attention!

As we finish Louisa’s Walk at the top of the Cascade Gardens there are some more lovely azaleas, starting to lose their vibrant colours now.  Today, we saw lurking amongst them, one of the many black rabbits that inhabit both the Cascade Gardens and the adjacent Cascade Visitor Centre    Gardens.  A delightful distraction!

Bumble Bees distract us on Louisa's Walk

Today we took Spreyton Primary School on the primary school version of Louisa’s Walk and they were a lovely audience; attentive and with some insightful questions afterwards.  See the photos of the students as they question Chris once we have come out of character and our Show is over.

I also took a couple of photographs of the Iris flowers just starting to come out at the bottom of the Cascade Gardens.  The gardens are lovely at any time of the year but Spring is surely their time to show off their best glory.  The rhododendrons and blossoms are really beautiful and set against the backdrop of the mountain and the iconic Cascade Brewery there can be no more beautiful scene.  A great photo opportunity as Louisa’s Walk returns on our homeward journey!

Iris and Echium in the Cascade Gardens

Spreyton School Primary Students on Louisa's Walk

Christina is the Artist-in-Residence at the Cascades Female Factory.  She also writes a weekly column for our local newspaper, The Mercury telling the tale of a  different convict women each week.  A few years ago she started a major project called Roses From The Heart(R).

Prior to Roses from the Heart(R) Christina conceived Departures and Arrivals(R) ….   this art installation symbolises the babies born to convict women at the Cascades Female Factory who died in their infancy.  She displayed 900 christening bonnets in the shape of a cross. The work was initially displayed in Yard One at the Cascades Female Factory. The work has travelled extensively.

Roses From the Heart(R) is an even more ambitious project: to make twenty five thousand five hundred and sixty six adult bonnets.  This represents the number of women who were sent out to the Colonies, many thousands of whom came through the Cascades Female Factory.  When Christina has this number donated to the project she will mount installations in various parts of Australia and, ultimately, will take the bonnets back to the United Kingdom.  She is calling this part of the project Bringing the Girls Back Home.

Our Louisa’s Walk visitors are doing their bit and many have taken a pattern promising to send the finished article to Christina.  As our visitors come from all over the world, I imagine Christina is receiving some very interesting postage stamps!  When I contacted her a few days ago she had only five thousand bonnets to go and says that bonnets arrive every day.

Last summer a Louisa’s Walk visitor who also happens to be a friend of Christina decided to make Louisa a bonnet so that I could show visitors a finished product.  It is a beautifully sewn item but, the bonnets don’t have to be a work of fine needlecraft.  Two years ago Christina held an exhibition of the some, fifteen thousand she had received to date, in the Mawson Pavilion down on the wharf in Hobart.  Many of the bonnets were like mine, delicate and lacy but others had been produced by school children, indeed many teachers take a pattern intending to encourage their classes to make bonnets.  Why not have a go?  For more information, visit Christina’s site at www.christinahenri.com.au and play your part in this visionary and evocative project.

The photograph below shows my bonnet being modelled by Gabrielle.

Gabrielle Wears a Convict Bonnet

I found myself comparing it to what we do on Louisa’s Walk – Chris plays multiple characters as they did.  We use simple effects including mime as they did.  The result is very engaging in both Love and Louisa’s Walk.  The message is very memorable.  Finnegan Kruckemeyer (the author of Love) is a very talented writer.

Our application to join the SmART Map produced by Arts Tasmania was recently rejected because it was felt we were not really theatre but more “Animated Storytelling”.  In my opinion the very best theatre is exactly that – animated storytelling.

And now to swallows (don’t you love this modern tendency to break the rules and start sentences – even paragraphs – with “and”?)  I was once told by a farmer’s wife, who knows about these things, that our lovely Welcome Swallows return in the first week of September.  I was delighted to see them flitting around near my home at Blackmans Bay beach last week and then, on the same day, at the Cascades Female Factory.  Whenever I see the appliqued birds on the Rajah Quilt I think of swallows though I am not sure if this is what they are meant to be.  Welcome Swallows - aptly named.

So to Spring.  Is it your favourite season?  Apart from the wind I think it is probably mine.  I can’t wait to get out to the garden after the winter slumber and get my hands really dirty.  I plant things much too early and have to replace them a bit further down the track after the soil has properly warmed up but I don’t care!  The Cascades Gardens through which we wander on Louisa’s Walk is particularly beautiful in this season; magnolias, azaleas, rhododendrons, blossom, it’s all there for your eyes to feast upon.  Come on Louisa’s Walk, bring your camera and enjoy.

Spring is a Beautiful Time in the Cascade Gardens

Students enthusiastically pulled on ropes and set sail.  They blew the good ship The Rajah along and they worked industriously at their patchwork as we made the voyage to Van Diemens Land (they are told to bring along their imaginations!).  The anchor party really put their backs into it and we arrived in Hobart Town.  You could hear a pin drop when Louisa’s quilt was taken from her in Yard One of the Cascades Female Factory – it’s the moment when everyone realises that life in the prison was not a barrel of laughs.

Question time after the performance finishes in the Nursery Yard is always a telling time.  Have they absorbed the story, do they have a handle on how harsh the conditions were for those brave women of long ago?  Well if the questions that the students from Sheffield District High were anything to go by – yes they had:  “When we were at Port Arthur we were told that if a male convict looked at a woman, he was punished.  Was it the same with the female convicts here?”  Hmm …… not only had they absorbed the Port Arthur story but they were transcribing it to the female situation.

See “question time” below.

Thank you for coming Sheffield, we look forward to meeting next year’s Grade Six’s.

Question Time for Sheffield District High School