Stella Wilkie 2004
Members of the Canberra Critics’ Circle are today mourning the passing of one of its most dedicated longtime members.
Estella “Stella Wilkie”, who passed away on
January 30, aged 88, was one of the great ladies of Canberra
Born in England
Wilkie in "Song of Norway", c. 1950 in England
Once in Australia with her civil engineer husband John, Willkie spent a few challenging years in
Condobolin, NSW, before moving to Canberra
In Canberra she had already joined Repertory and was in a number of plays at the old "Riverside Theatre". It was during one of these plays that John died. She then had to go to work, and while she was working at Mount Stromlo Observatory she met Malcolm Miller, who became her partner for 37 years.
In Canberra she had already joined Repertory and was in a number of plays at the old "Riverside Theatre". It was during one of these plays that John died. She then had to go to work, and while she was working at Mount Stromlo Observatory she met Malcolm Miller, who became her partner for 37 years.
In the ACT she rapidly became a noted stage
performer, continuing in demanding roles, sometimes professionally, with Eureka
Theatre and the Canberra Theatre Company and other groups well into her later years,
when ill health and several orthopaedic operations began to take their toll.
All the while, Willkie assumed an important
role as a theatre critic for publications like Muse and Artook magazines. With
Miller, she was a long time member of the Canberra Critics’
Circle and Canberra Repertory Society.
A dedicated subscriber to the Canberra Theatre’s
seasons, she hated missing anything new and exciting. As well, as a generous patron of Free
Rain Theatre, she and Miller awarded and supported young, emerging theatre artists.
In recent years she also acted as a
dramaturg to playwright/director Tessa Bremner, who swore by her judgment.
Wilkie was into everything. Far more
computer-savvy than most of her contemporaries, she learnt a desktop publishing
program (which she then taught to this writer) and laid out community
newsletters for arts organisations and even a cycling club.
A committed member of the Society of
Friends (the Quaker movement), she was known for her high standards of personal
ethics and her detestation of cant, claptrap and hypocrisy.
Though always praised as a gracious
individual, those who knew Willkie more intimately were constantly delighted by
her love of a gin and tonic, her sharp wit, her wicked sense of humour and her
acute observations on the society she found around her.
She last participated in the Canberra
Critics' Circle deliberations in November 2012 and was, quite coincidentally,
honoured in absentia with a Peer Group recognition award by the Media,
Entertainment and Arts (MEAA) Association at the 2012 Arts Awards held in the Canberra Museum
She is survived by Miller, a grieving family of children and grandchildren,
among the latter her grandson Kenji, who, she was proud to boast, now studies
ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance.
Helen Musa 30 January 2013.
Stella Wilkie aged about 20
