Hobart’s beloved venue has lived many lives – state-of-the-art picture theatre, ABC building, church – and survived many near-deaths, including a recent brush with demolition
Kimberley Galceran, music director at DarkLab and Leigh Carmichael, the company’s creative director, in Hobart’s Odeon Theatre. Photograph: Matthew Newton/The Guardian
“The mayor at the time said it was undoubtedly the finest building in Tasmania and probably the finest of its kind in Australasia,” he says. “This is some 15 years after Federation, which probably introduced an element of competition, more so than when we were all separate colonies.” Leigh Carmichael, creative director of DarkLab and former creative director of Dark Mofo, said the Odeon was almost lost.“It had become really central to the festival: we’ve used it every year, and we’ve done hundreds of gigs. So we started to campaign to try and stop it being demolished.
“Into 2022, we were kind of back to 2019 numbers, but they still weren’t the same quality of events that we’d had previously. In the last year, we have had internationals coming back and the numbers have picked up. We’ve already got more than that figure booked for 2024, so it should double next year.”
“It’s a lot easier to feel confident when you’re actually in control,” he said. “I am optimistic about this space. But it is really hard. Without the generosity of David we would have had to bail out years ago: he’s underpinned the Odeon costs and losses every year as we’ve been leasing it …
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