Tamworth theatre piece to explore founding of gallery

This will be explored in a piece of unconventional theatre at Tamworth Regional Gallery - the cultural asset in question - next Saturday: The View From 1919.

A four-person cast will tell the story of donor John Salvana, and the people and society of the time, 100 years to the day from the gallery's establishment.

His dream was "to provide a rural centre with an art gallery, so that young children and those with an interest in art might be encouraged to study it and learn from viewing original artworks".

To that end, he donated more than 100 items - paintings, drawings and even unfinished works, so students could see the artistic process.

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Cast member and pianist Bill Gleeson said it was "a little history lesson with music and the truth".

"History can be very dull, [but] this is an intriguing story," Mr Gleeson said.

"How the hell did this bloke, with no connection to Tamworth whatever, come to give this to the town?"

Mr Gleeson, Peter Ross, Natacha Curnow and Gabriela McDonald each play a number of roles.

Mr Ross, Tamworth's entertainment venues manager, wrote the script and said it was full of "vignettes of little moments in history".

Mr Gleeson said even the style of the "parlour show" harked back to the period.

"There's no stage, the audience is sitting around a piano, it's really intimate and music is an integral part of that, with songs of the era."

Mr Ross wrote the script, researching gallery records, digitised newspapers, and even genealogy websites.

He said it had been fascinating to glimpse the era's social milieu - and "amazing how things go in cycles".

"In 1919, the council was debating building a public swimming baths, and 100 years later we're talking about the aquatic centre," Mr Ross said.

"In 1919, there was a concert organised by women for women, actually called The Leading Ladies of Tamworth [as there was this year]. There was also a big drought in late 1919 that broke in 1920 - so here's hoping."