Old Nick Company

The Old Nick Company, established in 1948, is the main student theatre company at the University of Tasmania. It stages a popular annual revue and other smaller productions. Past members include actor Essie Davis, Charles Wooley from the Australian 60 Minutes, journalist Helene Chung Martin, and theatre director Roger Hodgman.

Old Nick was created in unison with the first of its uni revues, Smokin’ Hot, in 1948, in an attempt to harness the student exuberance which had seen the annual Commemoration Days of several previous years degenerate into public chaos. The Student Representative Council (SRC) had previously approached the Professorial Board with a request to stage a revue but had been denied, but the Board relented after “Commem parades” associated with the annual degree presentation ceremonies brought public condemnation because of student behaviour.

To demonstrate that a student revue would be tasteful and would not cause further public outrage, a professional director and producer, Keith Jarvis, was approached to take on the task. Keith directed the first twelve revues before students took on the production side of the Company as well as the committee and performing duties. The name Old Nick Company satirised the highly memorable Australian tour by the Old Vic Company starring Laurence Olivier and Vivienne Leigh, with luminaries such as Peter Cushing in the ensemble. The devil was adopted as the logo, as “Old Nick” has for centuries been a colloquial reference to Satan.

The company was originally based on campus, with limited and primitive office and wardrobe facilities. After it amassed some capital, the company acquired some workshop and storage premises in an old pie factory in South Hobart. Today it has grown to the point that it now operates out of an extensive wardrobe/workshop/rehearsal/administration facility in North Hobart, which is also used by other theatre companies for set-building, rehearsal and wardrobe purposes. The earliest revues were staged at either the Playhouse or the Theatre Royal for two or three-night seasons; these days a revue has a 14-night season at the Theatre Royal followed by a five-night season at Launceston’s Princess Theatre. Just one revue since it began did not play at the Royal. In 1984, a disastrous fire almost ruined the Theatre Royal, just after the revue season that year. While the theatre was under repair, the company took their 1985 revue - Graybusters - to another theatre that has long since gone - the Princes (not to be confused with the Princess in Launceston).

Annual activities originally involved a revue, several lunchtime play readings at uni, and an entry in the national Festival of University Drama. Since then the company has grown to stage up to six major productions a year, in venues throughout Hobart and at festivals throughout the State. In many cases these productions have been Tasmanian or world premieres, such as the 2003 production of When A Man Knows, two of its 2008 productions, Brassed Off! and Hollow Ground, and the successful Who Knows in February 2009.

Highlights over the years will vary according to an individual member’s perception, but certainly the Golden Anniversary dinner ten years ago and 2008’s Diamond Anniversary dinner were wonderful occasions which brought lots of old friends together. Several members of the original 1948 revue – Smokin’ Hot – attended the company’s Diamond Anniversary dinner on July 5, 2008 – Barbara Hamilton, Betty Rockliff, Vona Beiers, Bob O’Conor and Bill Howroyd. It is highly unlikely that those students who first donned drag and kicked up their heels in 1948 could have imagined that they were part of what would become a Tasmanian institution. The Uni Revue is infamous – but it is also the financial backbone of the Company which enables other theatre to be produced. A conservatively estimated 600,000 people have sat in audiences to see Old Nick shows since 1948 and there are many, many thousands who have been a part of the Company at some stage in their lives.

There are many people around Australia, if not the world, who credit a little bit of debauchery to their time with the Old Nick Company.