‘Garner’ means to gather or collect and actor Nadine Garner has been gathering or collecting characters since her teenage years when she first entered acting.
Nadine Garner is a fan of Tasmania or as she says ‘absolutely loves it’, noting its pristine beauty and tells me that she often fantasises of taking a boat trip to the state rather than her usual fly in fly out, that her job as an actor dictates.
A native of Victoria, Nadine says that ‘Melbournians have a nostalgic love for Tasmania’ and speak of it ‘whimsically’. It’s a sense says Nadine of that Tassie has what Melbourne has lost in its penchant for progress and its harried transport network. There is a longing for the calm of the wilderness and pristine beauty of Tasmania.
Not unlike Tasmania, the Ireland portrayed in Nadine’s play ‘The Weir’ is also very wild and unspoiled. Set in Sligo in Connaught, the western part of Ireland, the play is the story of several male characters welcoming a’ blow- in’ from the big city of Dublin in the form of Nadine’s character Valerie to their pub.
With the wildness and unspoiled terrain is also an area steeped in the tradition of story- telling in the Irish tradition, superstition and the supernatural, ghost stories built on ancient folklore of fracturing fairy forts and the consequence. This story-telling, as Nadine tells me, from a people who have had their share of suffering, from famine and emigration as well as the period of the troubles.
While the men in the play, says Nadine, wear metaphorical masks and some manipulation with their stories to cover their fears it is the character of Valerie that ironically who removes her mask to reveal a real life horror story to reveal among their revelries which tears the men’s macho masks away, leaving them shocked, shaken but emphatic and in their own way assist in her healing.
Nadine said the nature of the material is difficult to visit but she actors need to be ‘show fit’ and she believes they have an extra ‘muscle’ that allows them to interpret and perform difficult material and leave it behind when the performance is over.
Nadine loves both theatre and TV but acknowledges that theatre does not necessarily pay as well! With established qualifications in psychology and a strong interest in helping people Nadine would love to return to study and admits having a regular job would be gratifying after working as an actor waiting for an agent to call.
You can next see Nadine in the fourth series of Dr Blake Mysteries when it airs next year. In the meantime you can see Nadine in The Weir.
The Weir is playing at the Theatre Royal:
Wednesday, 30th September 2015 – 7:30pm
Thursday, 1st October 2015 – 7:30pm
Friday, 2nd October 2015 – 7:30pm
Saturday, 3rd October 2015 – 7:30pm
Paula Xiberras
