Book Review by Bill Stephens
By the time he died on 10th November, 2005, New
Zealand born, Australian stage designer, Kristian Fredrickson, had become one
of Australia’s most experienced and sought after designers. His design skills
ranged over drama, opera, ballet, contemporary dance, musical theatre, film and
television, and his work was much admired for its sumptuous, jewel-like
quality, and its sensuous level of detail.
Notoriously private but prodigiously productive, Fredrikson
was working on three separate major productions at the time of his death. “I
was willing to die for my work” Fredrikson once said, and he did. He never got
to see his fifth and final iteration of “Swan Lake” which he was designing for
Houston Ballet at the time of his death.
Having been inspired by a long interview she recorded with Fredrikson
in 1993, for the Esso Performing Arts and Oral History Program at the National
Library of Australia, dance critic, writer, curator and historian, Michelle
Potter, spent a further nine years researching Fredrikson’s life and work, travelling widely to interview friends and
associates and spending hours trawling through reviews and newspaper articles.
The result is a compelling, meticulously researched, and very readable, account
of Fredrikson’s career, and a fascinating insight into the inspiration and
process which drove this extraordinarily creative individual.
Examining his life, from his birth in Wellington, New
Zealand, in 1940, where he was born Frederick John Sams, Potter, with surgical
precision, traces the genealogy of his
family, to debunk the popular myth that Fredrikson was descended from a Danish
seaman. She reveals how, over time, Fred Sams morphed into Kristian Fredrikson,
and how, after commencing his career as a journalist, and theatre and music critic, Fredrikson soon
began channelling his talents into becoming a pre-eminent designer.
With authority and insight, Potter explores the influence of
his mentors and collaborators, the first being New Zealand Director, Harry
Baker. Baker offered Fredrikson his first design commission, at age 22; to
design around 100 costumes for a production of “A Night in Venice” for a
Wellington based amateur company which brought him into contact with the young,
Allan Lees, who would also become a significant designer.
Although Baker provided Fredrikson with a series of
challenging commissions which allowed him to develop his already impressive
design talent, they were not enough to sustain Fredrikson, who quickly recognised that he would need to move
to Australia if he were to satisfy his ambition of become a full-time designer.
In Australia he flourished, securing work with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust, where
his talent was quickly recognised by Dame Peggy van Praag, at that time,
Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, who offered him his first
significant Australian commission, the opportunity to design a production of Aurora’s Wedding for the Australian
Ballet.
Other important collaborations followed. Potter charts each in
fascinating detail, particularly those with George Ogilvie and the Melbourne
Theatre Company, for which Fredrikson designed forty works between 1965 and
1977, and with Graeme Murphy and the fledgling Sydney Dance Company. Throughout,
she allows Fredrikson to speak for himself, including numerous quotations from
her own interview with him, as well as his interviews with others, and from his
own previously unpublished writings.
Kristian Fredrikson design for "Tivoli" choreographed by Graeme Murphy
Photo: Jeff Busby
Lavishly illustrated, the book is awash with gorgeous
images. Designs, some complete with swatches and Fredrickson’s scrawled
instructions still visible, and stunning production images, all fastidiously chosen
and carefully notated by Potter, drawn from the archives of the National
Library of Australia, the Performing Arts collection of the Arts Centre
Melbourne, the Australian Ballet, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Houston Ballet,
Opera Australia, The Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies, and the Sydney
Dance Company among them. It’s a pity though, that some of these are spread
across two pages resulting in some tantalising loss of detail.
Although he is best known for his theatre work, Fredrikson
also designed extensively for film, and Potter devotes a whole chapter to his
work in this area. Fredrikson was obsessed with the ballet “Swan Lake” which he
described in a letter as “not only one of the greatest ballets but also a
designer’s pinnacle”. Potter devotes the final chapter to exploring this
obsession, and analysing each of the five productions he designed.
Substantial, carefully numbered research notes support the
writing, and a complete list of every production on which Fredrikson worked, as
well as an index, complete this handsome, definitive publication which is
destined to become an essential inclusion in the library of anyone interested
in Australian theatre history, and particularly, Australian theatre design.
KRISTIAN FREDRIKSON Designer
by Michelle Potter. Foreword by Maina Gielgud AO. Published by Melbourne Books.
(www.melbournebooks.com.au) RRP: AUD $59.95.
This review first published in CITY NEWS on 12th August 2020