Call them Ishmael.
Ishmael is a club made up of, among others, Norman Lindsay, Will Dyson, Ruby Lind and Mrs. Maggia.
Norman Lindsay, famous artist, sex addict and major misogynist, Dyson, staunch socialist and satirist, Lind, Norman’s sister and an accomplished artist in her own right, and Maggia, licensee and chief cook and bottle washer of this Melbourne based Bohemian alliance.
Lindsay wanted it to be an all bloke affair, claiming women incapable of high art, but Dyson was head over heels with Ruby and Maggia had a stove, so the sheilas were admitted much to Norman’s annoyance.
While Maggia stayed at home, the others tried their talents in England, where Will and Ruby prospered and Norman sulked petulantly, precipitating his return to Australia.
THE ISHMAEL CLUB is a script sculptured by Bill Garner and Sue Gore, a rather didactic piece of research writing, presented by Bakehouse Theatre as part of the late night programme at the Old Fitzroy Hotel.
It’s a rather tame affair, lacking any real Boho brio, no rollicking bollocking, or robust rabble rousing.
Subdued indeed for a play with a character who espouses ‘art has no moral purpose”.
It is certainly an attack on Norman Lindsey’s elitist idea of art and his belief that females were incapable of creating great art, and it makes socialist Dyson and suffragette Lind, the hero and heroine of the piece.
Richard Hilliar as Dyson fits the hero role well. He’s got the best character and the best lines and he gives it a red hot go. Amy Scott-Smith amply fleshes out the feisty Lind, while Katrina Rautenberg does what she can with the lightly sketched Maggia.
Relegated to a vaudevillian villain, Jasper Garner Gore is suitably weak, wretched and weasel like as the put upon Norman Lindsay.
This production of THE ISHMAEL CLUB at least excites interest in the life and work of Will Dyson and Ruby Lind, a pair that should occupy a higher place in the Australian cultural pantheon.
A Bakehouse Theatre Company production directed by Suzanne Millar, THE ISHMAEL CLUB is playing the Old Fitzroy theatre, 129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo until July. Performance times Tuesday to Saturday 9pm, Sunday at 7pm.