The man known to preschoolers as "Silly Philip" has just won a top West End theatre award. He's Philip Quast, host of ABC's Playschool, and now the holder of a Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a British Musical.
Sally Bigby: From suicide to Playschool, Philip Quast is one of Australia's biggest and most versatile actors. Far from the nursery of acting, Quast has found fame on theatre's toughest stage: London. He has won the prestigious Olivier Theatre Award. He played George Seurat in Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George.
Philip Quast: The notion of an actor getting an award for being sort-of "the best" when your whole life is trying to be better it's hard to come to terms with. And I thought I could have been better.
SB: Quast lasted through six auditions to win the coveted role. It gave him a chance to learn from Stephen Sondheim, regarded by many as the maestro of musical theatre.
PQ: He's a great teacher--he's a huge well of information and as a personality he's fascinating, which means you want to explore him because of his work. He's very private, I learned not the tricks, but I understand why his material is like it is why it's so complex, because he's a wordsmith.
SB: Philip Quast, too, likes to write stories, but he doesn't like much giving interviews. He's got that slightly guarded charm of the bushy, that is still an element of the turkey farmer's son from Tamworth.
PQ: I've done it all: shovel shit, cut their necks, bled them... I sometimes regret leaving it, that's the quality of life, it's great, I mean physical labour is a wonderful thing. Most I like spending time out by myself: wandering the hills, shooting foxes and things. Of course, I don't shoot anything anymore, but it's a lot of contemplative, medative time and... I don't know pretending, then I suppose. No that's silly.
SB: Were you always a performer? Did you perform as a kid?
PQ: What, do you mean get up and show off and do all that?
SB: Yeah.
PQ: No, I lied a lot, I suppose. Yeah, I kidded myself, and pretended things, you know that sort of thing. No, I don't think... I'd challenge the notion that actors like getting up in front of people and doing things.
SB: A generation know him as "Silly Philip" from Playschool. He's an ardent supporter of the show. Like Stephen Sondheim, Quast believes children and art are man's most enduring legacies.
PQ: The ABC's cutting everything, you know children's education is going. And I think of all the things that should never be cut in times of crisis it should be, you know, our heart. That's where the blood beats, and we're just sort-of cutting off our hands.
SB: Although it's likely that Quast will be occasionally lured back to London, Australia will remain home. His next role will be in the upcoming ABC miniseries Brides of Christ.
PQ: It's hard, and bad times could come, you know. I could break my leg tomorrow, or be hit on my pushbike on the way home and then that's it.
SB: Do you think you'll ever be a mega-star?
PQ: Oh, no, no ... I don't think so. I'm not a good enough film-maker, and I'm not interested enough in America, and I'm too fat, and you know, and I've no jawbones and horrible teeth, and I'm not intelligent enough. I don't know...
SB: Mel Gibson or Jason Donovan he is definitely not, but he has his own appeal, although he is slightly embarrassed about the growing reputation of his bush ballads.
PQ: Yeah, I write them. (He laughs)
SB: Well, you must be able to remember one!
PQ: Oh, I can--but no, I couldn't do it. I'd have to have a few beers or a few drinks and be in an anonymous sort-of place.
"Well, it wasn't long before the locals gathered in the street
And men began excitedly to boast on who they'd beat
They aspired and jumped and swirled their chests and strutted past the tent
Like cockles in a hen-pen or an older boy at Lent."
PQ: And so it goes on, that's just one I can remember.
Congratulations, Philip Quast. Sally Bigby there with the winner of the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a British Musical.