The Johnstone Gallery Archive  >  Home  >  The Johnstone Gallery  >  Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night Theatre 

When the newly constructed Twelfth Night Theatre opened next door to the Johnstone Gallery in 1971, it was the realisation of an ambition actively promoted by Brian and Marjorie Johnstone.

In 1966, they had sold, at low cost, the block of land adjacent to their gallery (originally the site of Marjorie's family home "Wyandra") to the Twelfth Night Theatre. Funds for the purchase were raised by the theatre, the Johnstones and the Myer family (Sweeney, B. (1986). Sweeney on Sweeney. ACT: Clouston and Hall. Page 94) after traffic changes forced the demolition of Twelfth Night's existing theatre at Wickham Terrace. The siting of the new theatre next door to the Johnstone Gallery was part of an attempt to create a cultural enclave embracing both performing and visual arts for Brisbane, and reflected, perhaps, Marjorie's theatrical background and ongoing interests in theatre.

These theatrical interests had been exercised in a small way by productions hosted in the Johnstone Gallery garden. A particularly beautiful example was Aristophanes' "Lysistrata", held between 24 and 27 April, 1962, with décor and costumes designed by Quentin Hole. 

The 1967 forward programme for the gallery included news of a "modern theatre", which was to be linked to the gallery by gardens. The Johnstones anticipated a joint audience, and enclosed a card suggesting that gallery clients become members of the theatre. An appeal for the new Twelfth Night Theatre was launched in the early part of 1968 and a committee formed to plan the fund-raising campaign for the new theatre, the target of $100,000 "to enable building to start as soon as possible this year... The site of the theatre, to seat 450 at standard auditorium, open stage or in-the-round productions is adjacent to the Johnstone Gallery". (Hatcher, "Little Theatre...", The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1968: RBHARC 7/1/10, p.14)

Brian was on the fund-raising committee and an early event was a novel dinner party, which included drinks in The Johnstone Gallery gardens followed by dinner in the "tent theatre" with a theatrical presentation of "The Fantasticks". ("Novel dinner...", The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1968: RBHARC 7/1/10, p.14)

The first sod was turned at the new site on 14 November 1969, and in 1970, Johnstone Gallery openings were changed from the traditional Sundays to Friday evenings, a result of "the expected completion of the adjacent Twelfth Night Theatre this year". (The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1970: RBHARC 7/1/13, p.34) This was, presumably, to allow clients to attend the Johnstone Gallery openings (between 5 and 7.30 pm) before going to the theatre, however it did not open until February 1971. The Johnstones were delighted, as Brian wrote to Sidney Nolan

...with the new half-million dollar theatre next door, the establishment is now nicely rounded off, so perhaps one of these days Marjorie and I will be able to play ladies and gentlemen of the art world!

(Letter from Brian Johnstone to Sidney Nolan, 24 March 1971: The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Sidney Nolan Correspondence File: RBHARC 7/3/69)

The Twelfth Night Theatre Club made headlines when it opened just before the theatre (12 February 1951). It was noted that the Theatre Club's "12 to 12 licence was the first granted under provisions written into the liquor acts in a review last March". ("Up to midnight club drinking", The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1971: RBHARC 7/1/14, p.22) There was also significance for women in these new provisions, as suggested in "Sylvia's Woman to Woman" column:

The official opening of the Twelfth Night Theatre Club on Tuesday night was the most exciting event of the week. It's cosy and intimate and snugly positioned in the basement of the soon-to-be completed Twelfth Night Theatre complex at Bowen Hills... It's a club where women share equal status with men (at least we've made it in one field, girls) and it's the first place I've been in where I've been able to front up to the bar, order a drink from Barman Eddy, pay for it myself and still feel feminine...

(The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1970: RBHARC 7/1/13, p.148)

The Johnstones had loaned "magnificent pictures and sculptures" (Letter to Brian Johnstone from T.C. Bray, 26 January 1971: The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Scrapbook 1971: RBHARC 7/1/14, p.26) to the Club premises, yet another indication of their support.

In June 1972, however, Marjorie's fragile health forced her resignation from the Twelfth Night Theatre Committee. She remained a driving force, though, as indicated by a theatrical tribute published after her death in 1993. Gail Wiltshire (owner of the Twelfth Night Theatre from 1977) produced a memorial program for the theatre's production of "Picnic at Hanging Rock", in which she wrote:

When I moved into Twelfth Night Theatre in 1977, the challenges were enormous, almost impossible - a debt of $1.3 million, a vandalised theatre. I kept thinking of the women in my past - the long sea journey, the dray, the babies buried in small wooden coffins, the house with a mud floor. Nothing was too difficult. But then I had an immediate source of inspiration - Marjorie Johnstone. How I loved that amazing woman. She gave me courage. She pulled no punches about human nature. There are the good ones and the duds. Sometimes illegitimate childs. She was right.

(Wiltshire, 1994)

The Twelfth Night Theatre remains on the Cintra Road site - the last evidence of the Johnstones' ambitions for a cultural enclave following the demolition of the gallery after Marjorie's death.