John Strehlow

John Strehlow (born 1946) is an Australian stage director, playwright, biographer, and set designer. He is best known for The Tale of Frieda Keysser, a two-volume biography about his grandparents,^[1][2] Carl and Frieda Strehlow, who served as Lutheran missionaries at the Hermannsburg Mission in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Strehlow studied Classics at the University of Adelaide from 1964 to 1966. He switched to Modern European and Asian History in 1967 and graduated with Honours in 1969. His thesis analysed Mahatma Gandhi’s use of tradition to further the Indian independence movement. In 1989, he received a diploma in the History of the Fine and Decorative Arts from The Study Centre in London (V&A). He attended lectures and seminars run by the London-based Institute for Cultural Research from 1983 until it went defunct. He speaks fluent German as well as some French and Dutch.

From his early training in music, Strehlow developed an interest in theatre, partly due to the Adelaide Festival of Arts. After spending some years in business in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, he started teaching drama in Darwin schools and writing plays for children in 1974. He began researching The Tale of Frieda Keysser in 1994, publishing the first volume in 2011^[1] and the second volume in 2019^[2]. He also wrote the 2022 play Eliza! Eliza! The Doolittle Sequel, which provides an alternative to George Bernard Shaw’s version of what happened to Eliza Doolittle after Pygmalion.^[3]

Since 1978, Strehlow has permanently resided in London^[4], producing innovative productions of William Shakespeare’s plays and established modern British classics for general public audiences. By 2012, he had directed and toured over 50 professional productions (including four of the plays he had written and directed himself) to more than 300 theatres in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland as part of their scheduled programs, as well as to festivals in Italy (Cuneo, Asti, Florence and Rome).

Strehlow was born in Adelaide, South Australia into a family closely involved with Aboriginal people for three generations. He is the second son of TGH Strehlow and his first wife Bertha née James.^[5] He was educated at Adelaide Boys High School from 1958–63. While at school, he studied the piano and the clarinet, later switching to the organ, winning the Organ Music Society of Adelaide’s competition in 1967. At university, he reviewed theatre and film for the student newspaper On Dit. In 1967, he ran the student Film Society with a friend, screening films by Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut and Jean Renoir. The Society founded the magazine Cinesa to stimulate interest in film. It also hosted the first film of the Australian cinematic revival, Time in Summer,^[6] which was booked for Cannes in 1969.

In 1969, Strehlow spent four months in India, meeting Satyajit Ray, Sarbari Roy Chaudhuri, Subhas Mukherjee, Ram Kinka in Calcutta, Amrit Rai in Allahabad, and others from that intellectual circle. He then spent two months travelling through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. After briefly visiting Hong Kong, he returned to Australia, where he spent two years teaching in state schools in South Australia before moving to Alice Springs in mid-1972.

Strehlow earned BA Honours in History from the University of Adelaide in 1969. His thesis “Gandhi and Tradition in Gujarat” investigated the link between Gandhi’s ideas on non-violence derived from Leo Tolstoy and ancient traditions of non-violence in western India. In early 1971, he undertook a course in the Aboriginal language Pitjantjatjara, part of the Western Deserts language group, at Adelaide University under instruction by Rev. Bill Edwards. The first work on this language was done by John’s grandfather Rev. Carl Strehlow, from around 1900 to 1909, but it was not published due to the death of Carl’s sponsor in Germany, Baron Moritz von Leonhardi, in 1910^[7]. In 1988–9, Strehlow took the London Study Centre’s diploma course on the History of the Fine and Decorative Arts. Also in London, he attended lectures at the Institute for Cultural Research from 1983 until it went defunct. In recent years, he has taken up the study of hypnotherapy through Uncommon Knowledge.

Strehlow taught at Daws Road High School in 1970 and Elizabeth West High School in 1972, running drama workshops. In 1970, he directed a student production of Fernando Arrabal’s The Two Executioners. At the same time, he pursued his interest in the Aboriginal people by establishing contact with people from the Flinders Ranges. In 1971, he toured eastern and northern Australia, making contact with urban aboriginal groups in New South Wales (Sydney, Taree, Wauchope and Woodenbong), Queensland (Brisbane and Townsville), and Alice Springs. While in the Northern Territory from mid-1972 to 1975. he ran a clothing business in Alice Springs. He also spent some of that period living in close contact with fringe dwellers at the Mt. Nancy camp just outside Alice Springs.

In 1974, Strehlow taught drama in at Larrakeya Primary School, Jingili Primary School, Berrimah Primary School, and Casuarina High School in Darwin. He wrote four plays during this time—Alloway, an original story written for children (performed by children at Berrimah Primary School and Brown's Mart); a treatment of Don Quixote suitable for adolescents (never performed); Maaruf the Cobbler of Cairo (performed by students at Casuarina High School); and Aladdin, the latter two plays based on the stories in The Thousand and One Nights.

At the end of 1974, Strehlow was awarded a grant from the Australian Schools Commission to tour live theatre and run workshops in Northern Territory towns.^[8] His direction of Aladdin drew from Polish director Jerzy Grotowski's ideas on a "poor theatre"—which placed the emphasis actor's body and its relation with the spectator, largely doing away with costumes, sets and music—that he saw in Polish productions through the Adelaide Festival of Arts. Using simple costumes, Aladdin relied almost entirely upon dialogue, collage and carefully choreographed movement. It was performed in Darwin, Alice Springs, Batchelor, Nhulunbuy, Katherine and Tennant Creek. Additionally, Strehlow toured a variety show, which included Punch and Judy as a shadow play with actors instead of puppets, at twelve Aboriginal settlements—Amoonguna, Areyonga, Santa Teresa, Papunya, Yuendemu, Warrabri, Roper River, Yirrkala, Rose River, Bamyili, Alyangula and Angurugu—to all age groups under a wide range of conditions. The tour lasted for six months and ended with an open air production of Macbeth at Darwin High School. The project report was at one time considered for publication.

In 1976, Strehlow travelled widely in New Guinea and Europe, writing Revolution’s Sons, a play about the anti-Vietnam War protest movement, while living in Paris.

After returning to Adelaide, Strehlow established a theatre company in 1977 as an ensemble under the name Triad Stage Alliance. Some of the ensemble members had studied classical mime at Flinders University under Zora Šemberová, who had herself studied under Marcel Marceau in Paris.

After a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream^[9], the Triad toured Aladdin to South Australian schools to a total of 55,000 primary school students. In 1978, Strehlow wrote two plays—Ali Baba (toured South Australia, receiving a little support from the South Australian Arts Development Unit and reaching 60,000 children); and The Slaying of the Dragon King, a play based on the Chinese political fable by Wang T’ieh. Even though it was selected for a season of new writing in Adelaide, The Slaying of the Dragon King was not performed there. Additionally, John staged Twelfth Night for the 1978 Adelaide Festival of Arts, followed by Revolution’s Sons later that year. The Elusive Reality, a poetry dramatisation, was toured to secondary schools to promote the appreciation of poetry.

The Triad made its international debut at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with its highly acclaimed, movement-based An Arabian Nights Spectacular, comprising Aladdin and Ali Baba. The production received critical acclaim. In his review of Aladdin and Ali Baba, Sandy Neilson of the Brunton Theatre wrote in The Scotsman that they employed “some of the most controlled and imaginative ensemble work it has ever been my pleasure to witness… Even one empty seat during this extraordinary piece of theatre constitutes a criminal waste.”^[10] This success was in part due to the instruction in mime from Šemberová. The Elusive Reality was also performed and received positive reviews.

The first Australian company to perform on the Edinburgh Fringe, the Triad won a Fringe First^[11] and received critical acclaim from the Scottish and international press, with segments of the production broadcast on ITV and BBC radio and television. Aladdin and Ali Baba were subsequently toured through Europe^[12] and the United Kingdom for the 1979 Year of the Child, with a week at festivals in Wales^[13], Belgium and Germany. It also ran for two weeks at the Roundhouse Downstairs in London. In 1979-80, each play was booked for a week by the Unicorn Children’s Theatre based at London’s Arts Theatre.

In 1979, John wrote Seven Faces of Sindbad, a dramatisation of the Thousand and One Nights story, intended to appeal to equally children and adults. Each of Sindbad’s seven voyages was given a different stylistic treatment. There was no scenery, lighting effects, or recorded sound. The actors were only dressed in tights, plus a top for the one actress. The only props were six wooden sticks, one for each actor, and five low platforms which were moved around during the performance. Using these few props and some basic chanting, the actors created the violent storms, shipwrecks, whales, man-eating pythons, and primate attacks of the original story.

With financial assistance from the South Australian Arts Development Unit, the Triad rehearsed Seven Faces of Sindbad in Perugia, Italy. The production premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, where it won Strehlow a second Fringe First. Relying heavily on classical mime and choreographed movement in addition to the dialogue, the production was given high praise by the critics. For example, Sally Magnusson wrote in The Scotsman that “Seven Faces of Sindbad is a triumph of imaginative conception and execution – an enthralling spectacle for both adults and children.”^[14] The production ran for four years, touring extensively in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Belgium. It received critical acclaim from Rotterdams Nieuwsblad (“crême de la crême”) and Soir Bruxelles (“two hours of pure magic”). Sindbad also toured around Britain to ecstatic reviews. The Guardian described it as a “a magical show, played with energetic and assured expertise. . . Triad deserve a salute.”^[15] It was performed at London’s Arts Theatre for a week in 1981, and at Jacksons Lane in 1982.

Despite its immense critical success, the production was plagued by ill luck. Because one of its Edinburgh venues was known by a different name to the locals, many audiences were unable to find it. For this reason, even though nine separate observers recommended it for the Best of the Fringe at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, Sindbad was rejected by Brian Rix for the Shaftesbury season without him seeing it. The play was also considered for production by BBC Television, but it was rejected because it was concluded it would require too many expensive costumes and sets. A tour scheduled by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust for South Australia was also cancelled for unknown reasons shortly before the Triad was due to return to Adelaide.

The bad luck continued for its Heidelberg appearance. The day before, the first ferry strike in sixty years was announced, meaning the set was sent ahead of the cast. Meanwhile, the cast were booked on to a plane which broke down in Belfast. Although they managed to find seats on a British Airways flight, they arrived in Frankfurt at the time they were due to appear on stage in Heidelberg almost 90 kms away. The performance started almost an hour late after a 100 mph dash by taxi along the motorway, after half of the audience had already left.

Despite the setbacks, the performance received high critical acclaim. In its review, the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung described it as “ . . . completely magical and brilliant theatre. Power, quickness, abundance in language and storytelling, mime and absorbed exactitude, precision in dance and movement, the ability to transform themselves with a gesture, faultless brilliance in performance. Acting artistry of rare brightness. A touch of the high-wire; what the seven members of this group so rightly winning many international awards brought to fulfilment was theatre without speculation, without ‘ifs and buts.’”^[16]

The worst luck for Sindbad came in 1982. Staged at Festival of Rome in a tent theater, the play was interrupted when a thunderstorm accompanied by torrential rain knocked out the power for the whole suburb. With an emergency generator roaring outside, the cast had to carry on as if all was normal, even though the audience was barely able to hear a word.

The production never recovered its costs. In 1983, after a successful week’s tour in the Netherlands, the play was given its last performance at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury to another rapturous reception. Afterwards, the ensemble was disbanded.

The ensemble was replaced by a traditional company that performed well-known classics of English theatre in innovative productions. The impetus for this was a successful production of Macbeth, premiered in Edinburgh in 1980. Mounted partly in response to financial difficulties, it won wide critical acclaim. Allen Wright, the leading drama critic for The Scotsman, wrote:

…the main interest lies in the interpretation of Macbeth himself. He is played by David Clisby as a darkly elegant and studious figure, more obsessed with witchcraft than passionately enamoured of his wife.”^[17]

The Festival Times, Edinburgh (“This is an excellent production")^[18] and the Times Educational Supplement (“John Strehlow’s Triad has rare style. Its intelligent interpretation of Macbeth brought out new dimensions in Shakespeare’s inexhaustible text”)^[19] agreed. German critics were equally enthusiastic. Darmstädter Echo wrote that "Macbeth . . . auf die Füße gestellt."^[20] Similarly, the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung wrote in its review:

Ausdruckskraft kam aus der Vitalität der Darsteller, sowie aus der sprachlichen Präzision, mit der die Blankverse an die Zuhörer kamen....^[21]

Unlike Sindbad, Macbeth had many sold-out performances in an extensive tour of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. This enabled the ensemble to continue operating. It was revived in 1982 and toured the United Kingdom and continental Europe for six months to audiences totaling tens of thousands, both general public as well as students (adolescents or of mature age) learning English as a foreign language.

In 1981, The Slaying of the Dragon King was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival after rehearsing in Florence, Italy. With colourful costumes, Chinese gongs, stylised ensemble movement and tight dialogue, it told the story of how the Chinese Communist Revolution came to a remote village controlled by corrupt Confucian headman Zodiac Mah and his assistant Inky Nob. When the crops failed due to drought, Zodiac urged the villagers to pray for rain instead of irrigating. The production received excellent reviews,

In its review, The Scotsman wrote:

With much bashing of gongs and a minimum of props, Triad present a delightful parable of life in a post-revolutionary Chinese village, the backwater of Mah’s Bend.^[22]

In another positive review, The Glasgow Herald wrote:

The tale itself is so strong because it is so basic—old traditions versus new ideology. But even as the old ways are rejected, they are also celebrated. The production reverberates with movement and colour. Tai chi-style gestures are cleverly choreographed into dances (performed with swagger and precision), gongs tinkle and boom dramatically while the cast switch, at the drop of a coolie hat, from one role to another. Damyn Lodge’s whipper-snapper selling peanuts, her garrulous old peasant and her snivelling young wife are full of pithy character, while David Clisby’s scheming, greedy mandarin is every inch the wily oriental gentleman.^[23]

The production played to full houses during the Festival and won Strehlow a third Fringe First. It was listed in ‘6 of the Best’ on the Fringe. Unlike Australia, where intelligent interest in China was already considerable and growing, interest in the play was slight outside the Festival. Therefore, it only toured to a handful of venues in the United Kingdom—Canterbury (Marlowe), Rotherham (Studio), Dundee (Bonar Hall), Glasgow (The Third Eye), Torrington (Plough Theatre), Washington (Arts Centre), and London (Jacksons Lane and Cockpit Theatre). In continental Europe, it appeared in Rotterdam (Theater Zuidplein), Amsterdam (de Meervaart), Haarlem (Stadsschouwburg), Arnhem (Schouwburg), Utrecht (de Blauwe Zaal), Groningen (Schouwburg), Heidelberg (Städtische Bühnen), Stuttgart (Städtische Bühnen), and Florence (Teatro Tenda). It was not revived after completing its touring commitments.

After winning his third Fringe First for The Slaying of the Dragon King but finding no market for it, Strehlow stopped writing for the stage, basing the company in London and specialising in Shakespeare’s plays and modern British classics. For the next three decades, the company toured their plays to more than 300 theatres in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. Their productions have consisted of plays by Shakespeare (Macbeth, Hamlet^[24], Twelfth Night^[25], Romeo and Juliet^[26], The Tempest^[27], A Midsummer Night’s Dream^[28], As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing^[29], Anthony and Cleopatra^[30], The Taming of the Shrew^[31] and The Merchant of Venice^[32]) as well as modern classics such as The Importance of Being Earnest^[33], An Inspector Calls^[34], Blithe Spirit and Private Lives^[35], Look Back in Anger^[36], The Glass Menagerie^[37], Black Comedy and Equus^[38], Pygmalion^[39], Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead^[40], The Real Inspector Hound^[41], Relatively Speaking^[42], Time and Time Again, The Caretaker^[43], I Ought to be in Pictures^[44], and Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure at Sir Arthur Sullivan’s by Tim Heath.

Strehlow has also worked as a freelance director in Australia (Tony Strachan’s Harlequin Shuffle for the Stage Company in Adelaide in 1985) and Germany (Michael Cadman’s I thought I heard a Cuckoo for White Horse Theatre in 1987). In 2007, Strehlow successfully staged an experimental German production of The Merchant of Venice (Der Kaufmann von Venedig) in the E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater in Bamberg, using a cast consisting half of English and half of German actors.^[45]

In the 1990s, Strehlow became increasingly curious about the lives of his grandparents, Carl and Frieda Strehlow after discovering the existence of Frieda's diaries, written in old script German,^[4] in Berlin and the realisation that this personal record of her life in Hermannsburg, from 1897 and 1908 which revealed previously unknown details of their lives their and happenings in the community and more generally around Central Australia. Strehlow began work on what would become a two-volume set in 1994, and the final volume was published, in two parts, in 2019; the launch was held at The Residency in Alice Springs on 17 December 2019. At this launch Ted Egan said that Strehlow had "contributed monumentally to the historic records of the NT" and that this work "will be of benefit to all scholars".^[46]

Strehlow records these stories in the first person, saying:^[47]

It is my story, when I got going on it properly I thought either I had to tell it completely in an objective fashion as if I’m not really part of it or I had to make it really clear that it is my story. I couldn’t do both. It could have been told the other way but it would, for me, ring false. Obviously I wanted to know the story. To some extent these events have really, I wouldn’t say totally dominated my life, but they’ve certainly been a very powerful shaping force.

— John Strehlow, Alice Springs News Online

Research for this work took Strehlow to more than 50 archives in the UK, Germany and Australia and rests not only on Freida's diaries, but other untapped sources only published in German (which Strehlow learnt for this purpose).^[46] The ultimate result includes a detailed record of day-to-day life at Hermannsburg, the forming of stations in the area, the survival of the Arrernte and Luritja people in the area, and the pressure the missionaries faced.^[4]

• The tale of Frieda Keysser: Frieda Keysser & Carl Strehlow, an historical biography; Volume 1 / by John Strehlow.
• The tale of Frieda Keysser: Frieda Keysser & Carl Strehlow, an historical biography, between three worlds,1910-1922; Volume 2 / by John Strehlow.