Davson, Win

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94 
"MAKING HISTORY LIVE" 
Queensland's Mercury Theatre 
achieves its purpose 
(Summary of a paper presented by Mrs. WIN. DAVSON, 
M.B.E., F.T.C.L., A.A.S.A., at a meeting of the Society 
on 23 May 1974) 
"I love and reverence all the Arts . . . but to me, it seems 
as if when God conceived the world, that was poetry; He 
formed it, that was sculpture; He coloured it and that was 
painting; He peopled it with living beings, and that was the 
grand, divine eternal drama," said Charlotte Cushman, and 
these are my feelings also. 
The doings of these "living beings"—and of their Gods— 
have inspired creative people through the ages, and their 
deeds have been recorded in mime, song, dance, music and 
words—in performances—and so theatre has evolved. 
Theatre, in which drama is only one aspect, arose in the 
dawn of civilisation, out of fundamental human needs. 
It arose from a basic instinct, a primitive urge—to 
RE-CREATE. 
Theatre has taken many forms, but always it has sought 
finally to entertain. 
Mercury Theatre came into being on 18 June 1949, in 
Wynnum. Gatton Mercury Theatre was founded on 7 Feb-
ruary 1951. They form a theatrical complex which is unique 
in Australia. Both theatres share the same founder, and both 
were founded on the same Constitution. While that at 
Wynnum is a seaside Littie Theatre in the Greater Brisbane 
area, the other at Gatton is a country Little Theatre in the 
Lockyer Valley, below Toowoomba. 
Both have the same motto drawn from Shakespeare's 
"Henry V": 
"Let us 
On your imaginary forces work. 
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play." 
Mrs Davson, founder of Mercury Theatre, Wynnum, and Mercury Theatre, 
Gatton was awarded the M.B.E. for services to theatre, culture and the community. 
For the interest of followers of Australian theatre, copies of the full text of her 
paper are being lodged with the Oxley Memorial Library, Brisbane, and the Royal 
Historical Society of Queensland. 
95 
Both theatres participate in observance of a National 
Week sponsored by Gatton Mercury Theatre and Mercury 
Children's Theatre since 1959. 
How did this come about—Mercury Theatre and Aus-
tralia Theatre Week? Well, it all goes back to my childhood. 
My first stage was a wool-bale on my father's grazing pro-
perty "Pine Tree Park", at Amby. My mother, the late Mrs. 
Mary May O'Neill, was a staunch C.W.A. member, a 
devoted worker for the Anglican Church, and Superintendent 
of the Sunday School. She organised many concerts for the 
Church building fund, and our home and the Shire Hall 
were the venues. 
We left the West when I was nine, and came to live in 
the Wynnum district, an area my mother knew well; for 
her father, J. T. Sandison, founder in the early 1890s of 
the still-existent Victoria Pottery at Annerley, had been a 
member of the Wynnum Shire Council for twenty years 
before the formation of Greater Brisbane. 
From time to time I participated in church and school 
concerts. Next came plays with the Brisbane State High 
School Old Girls and Old Boys' Association Drama Club, 
then with the Brisbane Amateur Theatre (now Brisbane Arts 
Theatre). The Second World War was now raging, and I 
became a V.A.D. The Wynnum and Manly Younger Set 
War Workers was formed, the brain-child of the late Miss 
Betty Clacher, and I became foundation Drama Director 
from 1943 until the end of the war when it disbanded. We 
took concert parties, including plays, to the soldiers at 
Lytton Fort, as well as staging plays at Wynnum and Manly. 
In 1949 I was teaching in a studio in Brisbane and at 
our home at Wynnum Central. Some of my senior pupils 
were in the Brisbane Repertory Theatre, in which I then 
became actively involved. 
The inaugural meeting of Mercury Theatre was held at 
our home. My own office on the executive was that of 
director. We staged "Milestones" by Arnold Bennett-Edward 
Knoblock, a three-act play, at the Star Theatre, Wynnum 
Central on 7 July 1949 with emergency lighting equipment 
made available by Mr. Sam Greene, the theatre proprietor, 
during a strike. 
The director stated on the programme: "I have founded 
the Mercury Theatre because I believe there should be in 
Wynnum a theatre with a policy, character and company of 
its own to foster an appreciation and love of a great art 
whose field is the whole of human life with its laughter 
and tears, sorrow and tragedy . . . The name was inspired 
96 
Part cast of "The Search" by Mrs. Win. Davson, staged at the official opening 
of the Mercury Club Rooms and Mini-Theatre by Sir Gordon Chalk on 10 October 
1970. Left to right: Susan Manteuffel, Corinne Manteuffel, Sharon Davson, Leon 
Kondos, Susan Clinton. 
by the London theatre of the same name . . . The policy 
is to stage plays, using mainly local players and producers, 
and to interchange productions with the Little Theatre 
groups in Brisbane. Proceeds of productions will go into 
general theatre funds, or by special arrangement to some 
patriotic organisation." 
It was never visualised as just another suburban Littie 
Theatre but as a vital and enduring cultural force voicing 
and serving the needs of a well populated district in Water-
loo Bay, slightly removed from city opportunities and rich 
in latent talent. There was no other Theatre in the district. 
GATTON THEATRE FOUNDED 
Gatton Mercury Theatre came into being as a separate, 
independent branch of Mercury Wynnum. It was formed 
at a public meeting attended by more than forty and chaired 
by the Shire Clerk, Mr. A. J. Smallwood, in the R.S.L. 
Hall at Gatton. 
When I felt that Mercury Wynnum was firmly established 
with a strong executive, I resigned as director. By then I 
97 
was living at Gatton, and the strain of constant travelling 
for meetings and rehearsals in both theatres had become 
heavy. I had the privilege of naming my successor. It was 
paramount that a producer be director to train members 
and guide the young Theatre. With the assurance that the 
executive committee and members would willingly support 
her, school-teacher and experienced producer, Miss Lois 
Lenihan who lived with her parents at Manly, became the 
second Wynnum director. Her position as secretary was 
taken by Miss Dorothy Raymond. 
In its foundation year Gatton Theatre showed almost 
mercurial progress and reached one hundred members. 
Duties at times were heavy for the executive committee 
and members of the general social committee, and to some 
it was almost a full-time occupation. The Society gained a 
curtain and improved lighting effects at the School of Arts, 
and the promise of a grant of a lease of portion of Lyttleton 
Park, for the erection of Club Rooms, from the Gatton 
Shire Council. 
A two-hour Jubilee Pageant, "Lockyer Milestones", in-
cluding a Cavalcade of Transport from the Queensland 
Agricultural College, was staged at the Gatton Showgrounds 
under the general direction of the author who acted as nar-
rator. The Gatton Mad commented: "The district is to be 
congratulated that there is in their midst a group who will 
go to the trouble of making our own history live." 
On my suggestion the Gatton Shire Council adopted the 
mauve-pink bauhinia as the district's floral emblem in April 
1952 and in October the first annual Bauhinia-time Festival 
was held. Another notable event in Lockyer Valley history 
was the Gatton Centenary Celebrations when Mercury 
Theatre opened the town's festival on 6 April 1955 with the 
premiere of a local song honouring the town and its emblem. 
CHILDREN'S THEATRE 
A most important step forward was the founding on 17 
April 1957 of a Children's Theatre to cater more fully for 
those under
 18 years. We sponsored, through the Australian 
Council for Child Advancement and the Arts Council, an 
International Child Art Exhibition including 400 examples 
of child art from India, Japan, China, Norway, Austria, 
Russia, America and the United Kingdom, and featured 
entries of a local art competition. 
Wynnum Junior Mercury was also founded in April 1957 
by Miss Lois Lenihan and Mrs. Daphne Raymond. 
98 
In Gatton we renewed the drive for our club rooms at 
Lyttieton Park and met with unexpected setbacks and delays, 
Then, after years of rehearsals in places wherever we could 
be accommodated—in private homes, rented halls—and put-
ting up our play set for rehearsal, pulling it down for 
pictures the next night and putting it up again during work-
time the next day, we secured that priceless possession, our 
own Club Rooms Theatre—a converted Army drill hah in 
the Gatton Showgrounds, leased from the Commonwealth 
Government for three years from 1 May 1958. It was 
officially opened by our Patron, Sir Gordon Chalk, on 23 
July 1958. 
It was wonderful having a "place of our own", but it 
meant a lot of work converting a building in a state of dis-
repair. The westerly winds whistled through it, and at first 
we rehearsed in overcoats with pigeons flying overhead, and 
their droppings meant more cleaning duties. 
So we got to work, built a large thirty feet by seventeen 
feet stage, sealed up broken louvres, weather-proofed and 
bird-proofed the building, and swung exit doors outwards. 
As money was not plentiful, we later ceiled the building 
with dyed hessian and found to our delight that we had 
thereby obtained excellent acoustics! 
The search for second-hand curtains and seats was an 
exhausting but exciting one. These were finally located in 
Brisbane from picture theatres which were renovating in 
readiness to meet the competition from television. With true 
workshop zeal we made our own lighting equipment—our 
spots with galvanised iron at the local plumbers, using truck 
rims for stand bases and water pipes for stands and cross-
pieces. The stage sets and equipment, which were not per-
mitted to be stored at the School of Arts, were at last trans-
ferred from under our home. All one hundred and forty-four 
seats were occupied at the opening and included representa-
tives from Wynnum Mercury and other theatres. A number 
of people ha(i responded to the idea of memorial seats. 
The official opening programme included the song "Gatton 
—Bauhinia Town" with a Mercury Children's choir. A 
highlight was "The Stars Grow Pale", a one-act play I 
had written, and it was performed under my direction. This 
had been premiered at the Ipswich City Hall in the Drama 
Festival the week before. It advocated the annual observance 
of an Australia-wide Theatre Week to focus the public eye 
on the benefits of a Living Theatre in the community by 
impact of publicity, to gain better staging facilities and "play 
houses" for Little Theatres; to encourage Government and 
99 
local authority subsidies or grants; to permit the leasing of 
sections of recreation reserves or parks for Littie Theatre 
purposes as enjoyed by other particular clubs; to draw atten-
tion to the great plays through the ages; the fine religious 
plays, the best playwrights of today; to foster and encourage 
the rich but neglected field of Australian drama; and to 
help raise the prestige and popularity of theatre generally, 
which some people still thought consisted entirely of "rogues 
and vagabonds". 
(An interesting outcome of this play was the observance 
of the first Australia Little Theatre Week in Queensland 
Centenary Year, 1959.) 
At the time of signing our lease we volunteered that we 
would be wilhng to allow the Show Society the use of the 
building for the annual show, and we looked forward to a 
happy association with another organisation also operating 
for the good of the town and district . . . but we found that 
we alone had to undertake the gigantic task, prior to the 
Gatton Show, of dismantling our theatre, finding storage, and 
then re-instaUing everything after the show. My husband 
Maurice's organisation and help were invaluable here, as in 
other work in the Theatre. 
Australia Theatre Week became so popular that it was 
extended into a nine-day festival with further inter-State and 
country representatives. The first essay competition under 
its auspices was conducted in 1965 with the title of "The 
Value of Theatre in Education". Judges in each State 
appraised the entries, and donated prizes were awarded. 
« r ™ n n l ? „ ' T " J " ' * T « * ' ^''^^ °^ Edinburgh Gold Award from the Duke at a 
"i-mony in Brisbane. Gatton Mercury became a registered operator for this Award 
scheme in 1967. 
100 
HISTORY OF THEATRE 
Another special project launched in 1965 was for a 
History of Theatre in Australia. Theatres were invited to 
send their histories to the honorary director for Australia 
Theatre Week. A valuable collection has resulted. 
Several plans for new Club Rooms on the Old Education 
Reserve at Gatton, were submitted before the Shire Council 
passed a plan for the rooms' erection on the North Street 
land, based on a plan drawn up by Brisbane architect Dr. 
Karl Langer. Foundations were laid by a local builder, Mr. 
I. Rosenberg, and so the land was saved from passing out 
of our hands. Unfortunately, due to the many setbacks caus-
ing also loss of our guarantors, we did not have enough 
money to proceed further at that stage. 
But persistent effort brought its reward, and the official 
opening of our new Gatton Mercury Theatre and Mercury 
Children's Theatre Club Rooms and Mini-Theatre was per-
formed by Sir Gordon Chalk, Deputy Premier and Treasurer 
of Queensland, on 10 October 1970. 
Mercurians believe in their Theatre and its value in 
enriching contemporary life. They treasure the following 
tribute, paid by the late Rev. Edward Hunt on the occasion 
of its three-act Australian production for the official 
opening: 
"Here's every success to the Mercury 
And all that its symbol guards 
To bring to the town and the country-man 
The wealth of the immortal bards. 
The plays of our land and our English tongue 
Are a light to our darkened age; 
The footlights furnish a culture still 
And wisdom adorns the stage." 


"Making history live" : Queensland's Mercury Theatre achieves its purpose

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"Making history live" : Queensland's Mercury Theatre achieves its purpose

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