“I was taken to a pantomime at the old Theatre Royal in Brisbane when I was five. I came home and apparently announced that I wanted to be on the stage.”
“I don’t remember this but my mother told me, over and over, as if to instil that memory. Perhaps I never said it.”
“This was the beginning of my mother trying to live her life through me. It was always there, that pressure to please her. Nothing was ever enough. I was never enough.”
Geraldine Turner is one of Australia’s most renowned stars of the stage, but growing up in Brisbane in the 1950s and 1960s in a dysfunctional family fraught with alcohol abuse, violence and mental health issues, Geraldine could hardly have imagined the places her talent would take her and the esteem in which she would one day be held.
Turner shares poignant stories of her relationship with her parents and siblings and the many years of commitment required to make it to the top.
She describes frankly the highs and disappointments of a life in show business, the challenge of maintaining personal relationships alongside a demanding schedule of rehearsals and performances, as well as the rivalries and camaraderie amongst those who have made the stage their life.
A name synonymous with Australian show business, Geraldine’s decorated career spans over 40 years and has seen her star in acclaimed Australian productions of great musicals including Chicago and Anything Goes.
She has also starred in a range of Stephen Sondheim works including Sweeney Todd, Company and Into the Woods, which led to an enduring friendship with the great composer.
Her screen time has also seen her involved in iconic Aussie shows and films, including Home and Away, All Saints, House Husbands and The Wog Boy.
Geraldine Turner: Turner’s Turn is published by New Holland Publishers and available form all good book retailers including Booktopia.
Image: Geraldine Turner: Turner’s Turn – courtesy of New Holland Publishers