Newspaper Article

Out, and flourishing at the centre

Altman, Dennis

2008

Overview

\"[Robert Helpmann]'s life was the theatre,\" [Anna Bemrose] writes, \"and nothing, not even his `dismissal' from the Australian Ballet, could destroy his passion for the arts.\" Is anyone's life really only defined by their public appearances? Even Elizabeth Salter's 1978 authorised biography managed to tell us more about Helpmann the man than Bemrose does. Salter wrote about Helpmann's long relationship with Michael Benthall, with whom he shared a home until Benthall's death in 1974. In Bemrose's book, written long after Helpmann's death and with no restraints of authorisation, Benthall is identified only as a stage director. (He directed Helpmann and Katharine Hepburn in their 1955 tour of Australia.) One cannot, of course, compare biography with autobiography, but [Jim Sharman]'s discussion of his life should be read as a guide to how we may think about the relationship between sexuality and creativity. Indeed, Sharman's reflections on growing up gay in the '50s could help decode Helpmann's concerns in The Display. Sharman recounts a reference to his wearing \"red shoes\" by someone who clearly saw them as equivalent to Wilde's green carnation: Helpmann had appeared in the famous film of that name.

• Publisher: News Limited
• Subject: Bemrose, Anna / Benthall, Michael / Helpmann, Robert / Kosky, Barrie / Sharman, Jim