A short history…
The Old Nick Company is one of Australia's oldest dramatic societies and annually presents one of the world’s longest running University Revues. Based in Hobart, Tasmania and established in 1948, the name of the Company was chosen to parody the Old Vic Company which had toured Hobart the previous year. The Uni Revue plays to capacity houses and over a three-week season it has performed in years where audiences have reached 14,000! Risqué, clever and always funny, the show traditionally pokes fun at politics, current affairs, television - in fact, just about anything.
Prior to World War 2 there had been occasional student Revues produced by the University Student Representative Council. It was in 1948 that 'The Uni Revue' as it is still known today and The Old Nick Company had their combined advent.
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. Many participants were in fact de-registered Army Corp.
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.
While the company was originally based on campus, with limited and primitive office and wardrobe facilities, 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 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 four-night season at Launceston’s Princess Theatre.
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 some cases these productions have been Tasmanian or world premieres. New works by Tasmanian and Australian writers have regularly been presented, along with everything from Shakespeare to Panto to musicals.
Highlights over the years will vary according to an individual member’s perception, but certainly the golden anniversary dinner in 1998 and the 2008 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.
Along with our annual Uni Revue, for the last seventeen years, we have been producing our annual Summer School. This project combines the knowledge of trained teachers with those wanting to learn skills, not only on stage, but backstage and in production as well.
Students aged 14 to 20 from many colleges and high schools in Hobart come together to put on an amazing show every year since 2005!
