"Lyrebird - Tales Of Helpmann"

An excellent theatrical exploration of the life and times of Robert Helpmann, who overcame great odds to help establish ballet in Australia.

Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia about Helpmann:

Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer. Born Robert Murray Helpman, he added the extra 'n' to avoid his name having 13 letters, at the suggestion of Anna Pavlova, who was a devotee of numerology. He was born in Mount Gambier and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, South Australia.

...From childhood, Helpmann had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s.

...The young Helpmann enjoyed dressing up in his mother's clothing, and disliked his days at school. The pursuit of acting and performance took priority for him, rather than conventional education. His parents encouraged their son, who saw that Helpmann had such a confidence and drive in him to do so.

...In 1926 he joined the touring dance company of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Helpmann later recalled that the introduction came via his father, who was on a business trip to Melbourne where he met Pavlova who was dancing there.

...In 1933 he went to London and joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (which later became Sadler's Wells) and later the Royal Ballet. He was principal dancer from 1933 to 1950. ... Here he formed his great professional partnership with Margot Fonteyn. Together they created many roles in ballets choreographed by Frederick Ashton, including a comical pantomime-style ballet of Cinderella with Ashton and Helpmann creating the roles of the ugly stepsisters for the ballet.

...He also appeared in many films, including the two Powell and Pressburger ballet films The Red Shoes (1948), for which he choreographed the opening sequence, and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). ... He co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev and played the title role in the ballet-film Don Quixote (1973) which was produced in Melbourne. One of his most recognized screen roles was that of the sinister Child Catcher in the family classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), his performance in the film rating in Empire magazine as among the 100 most frightening ever filmed.

...In 1965 Helpmann returned to Australia to become co-director of the Australian Ballet. Since he was gay and flamboyant, his arrival in what was at that time a very conservative country caused some consternation. Australians were proud of his international fame, but not sure what to make of him personally. He did not endear himself with the comment: "I don't despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn't one here to despair about."

...The avant-garde nature and sexual overtones of much of his work unsettled many Australians. His most controversial work was The Display (1964), with music by Malcolm Williamson. ... The Display used the courtship dance of the lyrebird as a metaphor for Australian male attitudes. Helpmann dedicated the ballet to his friend American actress Katharine Hepburn, who wanted to see a male lyrebird dancing during her visit to Australia in 1955.

...According to the novel based upon the life of Margot Fonteyn, Helpmann is characterized as being a very hard man, but also a very kind one. Fonteyn said herself that out of all her partners, Helpmann was her favourite. He was also extremely confident and always pushed Fonteyn to her highest potential.

Two years ago, I remember visiting Roma, Queensland, a kind of raw place that reminded me of Wyoming in some ways, and suddenly being extremely conscious of the DMTC musical theater T-shirt I was wearing. That wouldn't do in the town that billed itself "Gateway To The Outback"! Or, at least that's what I felt, whether or not it was a rational feeling, or made any sense. Away from the welcoming coast, deep in the boonies, the sense of macho oppression suddenly seemed suffocating.

How much more oppressive that sense would have been in South Australia in the 1920's, when Helpmann was in his teens! No defense. To find his way, he had to go to England.

Nevertheless, Helpmann eventually returned. An innate Australian identity, and the help of friends like Audrey Hepburn, led him home again.

Helpmann was approximately of the age of the Ballets Russes. That generation of artists founded ballet companies all over the world. Indeed, his contact with Anna Pavlova, who eventually joined the Ballet Russe, was critical to his career. Interestingly, he never joined it (maybe he felt secure enough at the Royal Ballet not to want to jump???)

For me, the most touching part of the play was the story of how a talented young man with dance potential was once assigned as Helpmann's orderly and how Helpmann later overheard the young man mock him, and his Lyrebird dance. Hurt, and vengeful, Helpmann mocked the young man's ambition and destroyed his self-confidence, sending him fleeing into the hospitality trades. The story encapsulated the way the insecure old cripple the presumptuous young, and emphasized how one must be as strong and independent as possible in art, and rely on one's own opinion, alone, if need be. Not everyone can be strong, of course. Helpmann went to England, after all, to escape universal opprobrium. This experience made him hard, though - hard enough to survive. The young man was not as strong, though, and disappeared from the arts.

Left: Tyler Coppin in a scene from "LyreBird: Tales of Helpmann," which he also wrote. The one-man play tells of the life and times of Australian dancer and actor Sir Robert Helpmann. Coppin's own life has included growing up in Sacramento before moving to Australia to pursue an acting career. (State Theatre Company of South Australia, via SacBee.com)


The Sac Bee interviewed actor Tyler Coppin:

Coppin left Sacramento as a teenager with the vague notion of becoming an actor. The 52-year-old performer returns more than 30 years later as an accomplished stage and screen presence in his adopted homeland of Australia. Coppin brings his award-winning, one-man play "LyreBird: Tales of Helpmann" to the 24th Street Theatre this week.

Coppin, who grew up in Carmichael, graduating from Rio Americano High School and attending California State University, Sacramento, is a far cry from Helpmann, the flamboyant, larger-than-life ballet dancer turned actor. But both have been driven by a passion for theater, which is how their careers ultimately intersected.

"I knew I wanted to be an actor for a long time but I didn't know how to go about it," Coppin says.

"When I was 13, my parents saw that the great Gerry Larson was putting on free acting classes downtown at St. Paul's Church. They asked me if I wanted to go and I said 'yeah,' " Coppin adds in his very Australian twang.

Though Coppin was the youngest in the mostly adult class, Larson greatly encouraged him.

"Gerry said, 'Yeah, you can do this.' I fell in love with acting through him."

Coppin subsequently went to Australia as an 18-year-old with his parents when his father received a one-year job assignment there. Coppin had been studying theater at CSUS again with Larson but left school and was by his own admission "drifting."

"While I was down there I saw that the national Institute of Dramatic Art was having auditions. I got in and was offered a scholarship," Coppin said. The school has trained numerous professional actors including Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Mel Gibson. Coppin sensed the opportunity and told his mother he planned to stay and join the program.

"She asked 'How long's the course?' and I said,'Three years.' I saw her gulp – I'll never forget it."

But it's all worked out rather well for Coppin, who's forged a solid performing career in Australia with an impressive and extensive range of credits.

"I made Australia my home and I work in movies, TV and theater. Theater is what I love."

He's performed with all the major theater companies in Australia, with numerous appearances for the Sydney Theater Company and at the world- famous Sydney Opera House.

One of his more high- profile jobs was playing Puck in the Opera Australia's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" directed by Baz Luhrmann (most recently director of the film "Australia").

"We did eight seasons of it and also took it to the Edinburgh Festival. It was a very lush production set in the British Raj, so I played Puck as Krishna," Coppin said.

"Luhrmann is extraordinary. I think of him as the P.T. Barnum of Australia. He just grabs it and pushes it out."

After the show, there was an interesting documentary about Helpmann running in the 24th Street Theater lobby. Take a look!

A very interesting show - very funny, and very touching. See it now, while it's in town!