Review: CULTURAL CRUSH DELIVERS LITERARY LOVE-IN at The Art Gallery Of NSW

If you could interview one living person in the litany of Australian creative gems, who would you choose?

For two iconic contemporary journalists, this opportunity offered them the chance to bring celebrity playwright and humanitarian Kate Mulvany and award-winning author Frank Moorhouse to the stage for what turned out to be remarkable insights into what life is really like behind the veil of artistic celebrity.

So after spending forty minutes in their audience, here's what you need to know about them if you didn't already:

KATE MULVANY

• Having dealt with horrors at the hands of hereditary transmission of Agent Orange, Mulvany is more than a role model for young Australians everywhere.
• Mulvany now works with MiVac and Agent Orange Justice to have victims recognised and protected from ongoing effects from the Vietnam War.
• Mulvany has an incredibly powerful way of sharing, speaking of keeping former partner Mark Priestley in her heart.
• Mulvany's play The Seed premiered to over 30 Vietnam vets who drove to Downstairs at Belvoir Theatre from all over Australia in their caravans.
• Mulvany's parents were the only audience members on opening night to abstain from standing ovation, citing jelly-legs.
• Mulvany's stage debut was under the hand of Debra Oswald, the wife of Richard Glover who interviewed her.

FRANK MOORHOUSE

• The crush is mutual between Moorhouse and his interviewer Annabel Crabb whose career he had been following, commending her work as a satirist.
• The crush might be due to Annabel Crabb providing the fixings for a martini to kick the evening off. it was estimated martinis only retain their perfection for 45 seconds.
• Moorhouse placed his pip in his glass.
• Moorhouse does ponder whether his books are reflections of his familial relationships: The Electrical Experience 256 pages for his father, his mother garnishing 2112 in the Edith Trilogy.
• The main character of Edith Campbell-Berry in the trilogy was based on Canadian League of Nations pioneer Mary McGeachy who Moorhouse tracked down after years researching her impact only to discover her family hadn't even known. She was the last living person to receive a pension from United Nations for her work with the League.

The event was a wonderful exercise in imagining what stories are available to be told, and SpectrumNow offers a great many opportunities for your artistic and cultural self to flourish, encouraged by just how much talent we have right here in our own backyards. Be sure to check out events before the festival closes.

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