Person - Hugh Carlsson
HUGH CARLSSON
Hugh Carlsson played Charlie in Love on the Dole which opened on 24 November 1935. He played Dr Benjamin in the original cast of Waiting For Lefty in January 1936, followed by Stieglitz in Till the Day I Die 1936, and was in the cast of Bury The Dead 1937. He played Mr May in Paradise Lost 1936, directed Behind the Scenes 1937 and Private Hicks (an eisteddfod winner in 1938), acted in The Brave and the Blind 1938, played the Special Writer in Sub-Editor’s Room 1939, was reviewed as outstanding as the doctor in Blood on the Moon at the Conservatorium 1939, and was in The Gentle People 1940. Carlsson was NT Treasurer. He befriended Spanish Civil War survivor, frail Dick Whateley .
Before joining the Workers Art Club Hugh Carlsson had acted with the Sydney Repertory Theatre. In 1932 he was in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Anna Christie, Passion Flower, Rip Van Winkle, Something Wrong and Listen Sweetie. In 1933 he acted in The Fergussons, It's His Wife, Atlantic, The Silver Cord, and for a Grand Guignol evening wrote The Dividing Line in which an escaped lunatic hypnotises a young student then murders him. In 1934 he directed Twenty Below at the Ingersoll Hall, Crown Street, and wrote and acted in After Closing Time a Grand Guignol play at the Kursaal Theatre, a former soup kitchen in Kent Street, whose ushers wore evening dress. In 1935 he was in The Fool at the Kursaal. The Kursaal was housed in St John's Church; in 1954 it reverted to a theatrical venue: The Genesian Theatre Company.
