Miss Cate

Cate Blanchett talks to Jack White. (Interview)

JW: [both laugh] I wanted to ask you what aspects of the theater company in Sydney you're involved with. Are you interested in the lighting? Let's start there.

CB: Basically, we've programmed 12 one-woman shows based around the various chapters of my life, and for some reason-and I cannot work out why-our audience numbers have been dropping. [laughs] But, no, it's a huge company. For me, I think the bigger something is, the more difficult it is to make it nimble and fleet afoot. So that's kind of been our mission. There's not a long, entrenched tradition of theatergoing in Australia. People love events-they love performances, they love music-and I think Australians are great entertainers. But there's this patina of weariness regarding any theatrical endeavor, so I think our job has been to kind of enhance the event atmosphere, bring excitement around actually coming to the theater. We are on a wharf. We're on the sort of seedy side of the bridge, and we have been having sessions once a month to get some music in the foyer, just to kind of rough it up a bit and create an atmosphere around the shows. Because our people need to see something good. The company has done great work in the past. It used to spill out into the foyer, and now there's nowhere to go and nothing to latch onto-you kind of just go home, and you forget the experience, or it sort of rests in isolation. And theater is all about foyers and conversation and digesting what you've seen. That's a long-winded answer to your question, but it's been mammoth