A garden variety of The Tempest

Erin Pearson
ENVIRONMENT meets Shakespeare is what Ballarat theatre group OZACT is all about, according to director Bruce Widdop.
With the company set to bring its latest production, The Tempest to Geelong this weekend, Widdop said he was excited to reinvent William Shakespeare’s plays for the city’s “picturesque” botanical gardens.
“We think the Geelong gardens are one of best in Victoria,” he said.
“The garden particularly suits his play because The Tempest is all about colonisation and shipwrecks. Ships being an important part of Geelong maritime history makes the area particularly suitable for us.”
OZACT will return to Geelong for its fourth consecutive year after its first performance in the city 16 years ago.
“The group’s first performance of Hamlet was in the outdoors at Geelong College and because we enjoyed it so much we wanted to do more,” Widdop said.
“Then by accident a member couldn’t make a performance because he was holidaying down in Port Campbell, so we decided to follow him and headed down to Loch Ard Gorge – that’s when it really took off.”
However, he conceded that the elements sometimes played “havoc” with performances.
“Some days when the wind is blowing the wrong way it blows the words back into the actors’ faces,” he laughed.
“We’ve had planes and helicopters fly over and all sorts of things, so there are all sorts of random things but that only succeeds in making the play more real.”
OZACT will perform in the gardens on Saturday and Sunday.