The Bleby family name is well-known in South Australian legal circles – with former Supreme Court Justice, the Honourable David Bleby SC, retiring after 14 years on the bench in 2011 and his son, the Honourable Justice Chris Bleby serving as the State’s Solicitor General before being appointed to the Supreme Court and South Australia’s new Court of Appeal in 2020.
A lesser-known fact is the family has also earned an impressive reputation in amateur theatre over more than 35 years!
Later this month (November) Chris Bleby sheds his judicial robes to take on the robes of Emperor Joseph II and hold court (18th century Viennese Court that is) in Independent Theatre’s latest production – Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.
It may well be the ‘last (theatrical) hurrah’ for a man who started his acting ‘career’ with Independent Theatre with his younger brother back in the 1980s, later met his wife there, and now has a daughter and nephew who have both followed him onto the stage.
The appearance of the Hon. David Bleby SC in a role that needed little rehearsal – the judge in Judging Oscar, performed at UKARIA Cultural Centre in 2019 – brings to six the number of family members (spread over three generations) who have trod the boards for the amateur theatre company.
The seventh member of the clan, who will be only just out of the spotlight during this season of Amadeus, is mother-in-law, Angela Doherty, who is creating the costume for Emperor Joseph II!
The return to an Independent Theatre stage brings back great memories of school days for Chris Bleby – where Amadeus was a favourite play studied in his final year and he was first introduced to Independent Theatre.
“I was a year 12 student at Pulteney Grammar School and Independent Theatre was using Pulteney’s facilities to stage A Tale of Two Cities,” he recounts.
“They invited the school’s theatrically minded students to audition, so my friends, my younger brother and I all auditioned, and that’s how this journey with Independent Theatre all began, as extras in 1986’s A Tale of Two Cities.”
A couple of years later, working backstage for the production of Candide, Chris met his wife, Meg.
While Chris’ acting hobby has taken a backseat over the past couple of decades, with family and work commitments taking precedence, the next generation of Blebys have made their mark on Independent Theatre stages.
Chris and Meg’s daughter, Emma, has starred in a series of productions starting with To Kill a Mockingbird as far back as 2012 (when she was aged just 11) and more recently including Don Carlos, Maltese Falcon, and Macbeth. It’s been valuable experience for a talented young woman now pursuing a professional acting career having studied at the prestigious Australian Film & Television Academy (TAFTA) in Victoria.
Nephew, Henry, has also become an Independent Theatre regular, having performed in recent productions of My Three Angels, Macbeth and Anton Chekhov’s Seagull.
For Chris Bleby, the opportunity to play Emperor Joseph is the perfect return to his old stomping ground.
“There is not a part I would have preferred to play, not for a minute,” he said. “I don’t rate myself highly enough to be able to play Salieri or Mozart, and I would be too old to play Mozart anyway. It’s a smaller but interesting character that has the capacity for a genuine contribution to the play. It brings in some comedy; he is a good counterpoint for the pretty high drama of this classic play.”
And are there still a few nerves for this seasoned court performer?
“I think if you are entirely without any nerves (as a barrister or actor), you’re probably a bit too calm, a bit too complacent.
“Having said that, if you prepare properly, you should be able to go out there with confidence. So it’s been many years since I’ve felt incapacitated by nerves. But the butterflies are still there.”