The Bijou Theatre

Image Source: The Bijou Theatre Website

In 1896 Edward James McCarthy built the Bijou Theatre on behalf of the Esperance Land Company.  The Theatre became a popular venue for the busy, growing town’s community events.  Everything from the agricultural show, travelling musical entertainments, dances, roller skating, and spirited public meetings were held in the venue.  However, the opening of 2 drive-in movie theatres in the late 1960s saw the lights of the Bijou Theatre go out for the first time in 70 years.

In 1971 the Esperance Theatre Guild purchased the then derelict theatre as its permanent home. They set about restoring the “little gem” plus adding an extended stage, scene dock, tiered seating and installing light and sound equipment into the former dress circle.  Since then, 3 or 4 shows a year have been performed on the Bijou stage to an appreciative local audience.

Thanks to a State Government program known as The Stars (Short Term Artist in Residence) program, professional directors were employed to live in the town for an extended period to direct and teach the skills required to produce quality theatre.  This program left a profound legacy with some memorable performances, beautiful sets and a professional standard achieved. 

The skills left by visiting artists cannot be over-estimated.  Jenny Davis, for example, came to Esperance in 2010 to develop “Captive Wives” a play telling the story of the women who pioneered the Grass Patch area north of Esperance.  Jenny was again employed by Esperance Community Arts to run a series of workshops on writing monologues.  “Memorials” resulted from that visit.  Again, in early 2021 Jenny came here, during the Readers and Writers Festival and it was her workshop on radio plays that whetted my appetite and lead to the recording of the works on this website.  

A very wise person told me many years ago to “always aim to learn from the best”.  That was sage advice, as is the adage that “one is never too old to learn”.