Curated and developed by Arts Centre Melbourne with the assistance of Geoffrey Rush, The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush will reflect on his many achievements to date and explore his ability to inhabit characters through a remarkable physical and verbal dexterity.
Geoffrey Rush is one of Australia’s best-known and most respected actors. Throughout his prolific and distinguished career he has earned international acclaim for his work on both stage and screen. The focus of the exhibition is Geoffrey Rush’s talent as a great character actor. Arranged according to character types played by Rush, the exhibition provides an insight into his skills and techniques in both theatre and film.
The exhibition title relates to Geoffrey Rush’s approach to developing characters through specific shapes of their appearance, such as posture, costume components or overall silhouette. The concept of shape is also reflected in the physicality of Rush’s performances.
Highlights of the exhibition include costumes worn by Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, Philip Henslowe in Shakespeare in Love, the Marquis de Sade in Quills, Poprishchin in The Diary of a Madman, King Berenger in Exit the King and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Also on display will be Rush’s photographs, moving images and personal items and the ‘triple crown of acting’: his Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award.
The exhibition items are drawn from Geoffrey Rush’s personal collection, film studios and theatre companies, as well as from the Arts Centre Melbourne’s Performing Arts Collection, Australia’s largest and most important collection of performing arts history and traditions. This collection comprises more than 510,000 items documenting nearly 200 years of performance in Australia across theatre, music, dance, circus and opera, and is featured in exhibitions that attract over 600,000 visits a year.
The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush
Gallery I – Arts Centre Melbourne
Exhibition: 6 July – 29 September 2013
For more information , visit: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au for details.
Image: Geoffrey Rush as King Berenger in Exit The King, 2009 Photograph by Hugh Hartshorne
