Adelaide Festival Center to Unveil New Exhibit The Maj 100

To coincide with the launch of Her Majesty's Theatre Building Fund, The Performing Arts Collection and Adelaide Festival Centre have meticulously looked through 100 years of history to create The Maj 100 - an exhibition 100 years in the making. One significant image, (be it a photograph, poster or event) from each of the years Her Majesty's Theatre has been in operation has been selected to bring this breathtaking exhibition to life. The Maj 100 will highlight the importance of Her Majesty's Theatre to Adelaide's history and the many ways in which it has shaped our city.

The only remaining Tivoli theatre in Australia, Her Majesty's Theatre has played host to a cavalcade of stars. From the famous to the infamous, movie stars, opera singers, dancers, musician, magicians, VC winners, the Queen Mother and vaudevillians - Her Majesty's has seen it all. In a building where everyone from WC Fields to Pavarotti has performed, the task of selecting just one image of significance from each year was not an easy one and Performing Arts Collection Exhibition Coordinator Jo Peoples and Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Douglas Gautier were disciplined in their approach.

Performing Arts Collection Exhibition Coordinator Jo Peoples said of the exhibition, "What have Andy Thomas, Lauren Bacall, and Jimmy Little got in common? They have all appeared on the stage of this beautiful theatre. This is an amazing collection of people (if only the walls could talk!) and most of the images come from our Performing Arts Collection."

Featuring extremely rare images of everyone who has ever been anyone from Adelaide, Australia and around the world, exhibition-goers will be amazed and possibly learn a thing or two about this iconic building's history.

Just some of the images on show include:

· Elder statesman of the famous Redgrave acting dynasty, Roy Redgrave - father of Sir Michael Redgrave and grandfather of Vanessa, Lynn and Corin Redgrave, appeared in The Silver King by Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman while Her Majesty's Theatre was still known as The Tivoli in 1916.

· Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) and Slim Dusty in a very special photograph that Barry is personally working on hand colouring for the exhibition.

· A 20 year old John Bannon, who would go on to become Premier of South Australia, appearing in his first professional acting role - the pull of the Law proved stronger than that of the stage.

· Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, who starred in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, a steamy study of the agonies of ageing which was not well received in Adelaide in 1986!

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Douglas Gautier said of the exhibition, "This wonderful selection of one item from each of the Maj's 100 years tells the extraordinary story of one of Australia's most important historical buildings, the people who performed in it and the community around it."

Her Majesty's Theatre has been loved since opening in 1913 and as well as Barry Humphries, counts Sir Ian McKellen among its fans, who said of the theatre, "Old theatres of this vintage are jewels which we should treasure and in which the community should invest."

While The Maj 100 celebrates the stories from Her Majesty's past, the launch of Her Majesty's Theatre Building Fund will ensure her future and has been launched alongside the exhibition to enable renewal and expanded capacity of this landmark theatre that was last upgraded in the 1970s. An investment of $2 million would enable Adelaide Festival Centre to purchase land on the western side of the theatre to enable expansion and would reduce the costs involved in renovation by approximately $35 million. It would ensure Her Majesty's continues to serve South Australians in style.

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