Way Up High

Actress Caroline O’Connor talks with Richard Watts about evoking the spirit of Judy Garland.


Agreeing to play the late Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow, the new play by English writer Peter Quilter, was not a decision that Caroline O’Connor made easily.

"I didn’t immediately say yes when the role was offered to me," she says. "I did consider it for a little while, going ‘Oh my lord, what am I thinking?’ but the script was wonderful and original, and to have the chance to recreate such a glorious individual, such an amazing woman, I just thought it would be a fascinating project to take on."

O’Connor is a veteran of stage and screen whose career encompasses Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and an award-winning role in Joanna Murray-Smith’s one-woman play Bombshells. Despite a successful career spanning two decades and three continents, she admits to being in awe of Garland, the young star of MGM’s 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.

"I’d never sung anything that she did previously; I wouldn’t have had the audacity. You don’t sing anything by Judy Garland!"

At her peak Garland was Hollywood’s brightest star but her lustre had faded significantly by the time of her death in 1969, less than two weeks after her 47th birthday. A critically lauded television series in the early 60’s (which Garland herself co-produced) never rated well, and after it was axed she spiralled further downwards, addicted to pills and drinking heavily. It is during this later, tragic period of her life that Over the Rainbow takes place.

"It’s set in a very specific time, when Judy went to London to do a series of concerts at the Talk of the Town in 1968," Caroline O’Connor explains. "but it’s not one of these shows that’s a downer all evening. We certainly do, I think, tell the truth about what these drug dependencies did to her, but we don’t take away her spirit as a performer, or any of the wonderful qualities that she had."

Although she was already familiar with Garland’s legend before beginning rehearsals, O’Connor felt obligated to do considerable research for the role. As well as listening to the London concerts around which the play is set, she paid particularly close attention to an intimate series of recordings Garland made for a never-completed biography.

"They’re just fascinating, and also devastating to listen to, because you hear this poor woman pouring her heart out," O’Connor explains. "Some of them are alcohol induced obviously, but you hear this woman, probably one of the greatest performers of all time, sitting there lonely, sad, impoverished, and you just think, somehow she still managed to keep her talent and her wit."

O’Connor says that the research process brought her closer to Garland.

"I’ve just totally and utterly fallen in love with her. She was a giver, and I think she just absolutely drained herself dry, whether she was performing, or if she was in a room with company."

Melbourne audiences will have their own chance to renew their acquaintance with Garland, whose death provided the spark for the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the modern gay movement, when Caroline O’Connor evokes her spirit on stage.

"God forbid that anyone should come along hoping that I’m going to bring her back to life. I don’t think that that’s possible," O’Connor says frankly. "I’m not an impersonator, for one. I do try and get the essence of her, so that you’re getting carried away by the story and the moment, but there will never be another Judy Garland."

End of the Rainbow opens Monday 14 November and runs until 17 December at the Arts Centre Playhouse. Bookings on www.mtc.com.au or Ticketmaster: 1300 136 166.