By Bill
Stephens
With the
passing of Brian Sudding last week, the Canberra theatre community lost a
passionate creative artist who devoted a lifetime to the art of creating stage
magic, and who throughout his career designed no fewer than 77 stage
productions.
Born in
Southern Rhodesia in 1939, Sudding's design career started as a display artist.
His interest in theatre was piqued by his involvement with the Bulawayo
Children’s Theatre and a production of a Christmas pantomime, “Alice in
Wonderland”. Little did he know that he would repeat this show in Canberra many
years later (1971) with a production of “Alice on the Lake” produced by Stage
on Springbank Island.
Sudding migrated
to Australia in 1957 to pursue a career as a sea cadet, but it wasn’t long
before the opportunity to join the ABC as a Designer’s Assistant provided him
with the pathway to follow his passion for design.
As a Design
Assistant he worked on many notable ABC television series including “The Lorrae
Desmond Show”, “Australian Playhouse” and the historical drama, “The Hungry
Ones”.
However it
was as a Producer/Director that he shone, and during his ABC career Sudding produced
several influential ABC productions, among them, “A Big Country”, “Four
Corners”, “Nationwide”, “Statewide” and “The Carlton/Walsh Report”.
Sudding
always regarded theatre design as his hobby and his opportunity to express
himself on a “large canvas” in a more relaxed atmosphere. The opportunity to
indulge this hobby came in 1968, with an invitation from the Canberra Repertory
Society to design its production of “East Lynn” for presentation in the new
Canberra Theatre Centre playhouse.
So
successful were his designs for this production, that he was tasked with designing
Rep’s productions of “Childermas” (1969), and “Hotel Paradiso” (1972), both for
The Playhouse. Later when Rep moved into Theatre 3, Sudding designed its
production of “How Does Your Garden Grow (1977.
In 1969 Sudding
accepted an offer from The Canberra Philharmonic Society to design its
production of “Calamity Jane”, also for presentation in the Canberra Theatre
Playhouse. This commenced a long association with the Canberra Philharmonic
Society which saw Sudding provide a
succession of distinctive settings for Philo’s productions in the much larger
Canberra Theatre, and over the years he designed productions of “Brigadoon”
(1970, “Rose Marie” (1970), “Kismet” (1971), “Oklahoma” (1980), “The
Sentimental Bloke” (1984), “Mack and Mabel” (1986), “Show Boat” (1987),
“Ruddigore” (1988) and “Oliver” (1989).
After
retiring from the ABC, Brian set up his own set-building business, “Sudset” in
Queanbeyan, and became the go-to designer not only for theatre productions, but
for exhibitions, displays and events such as Floriade, Candles by Candlelight
and The Folk Festival.
This tribute first published in the digital edition CITY NEWS on Saturday 6th November 2021.
