Wolf Heidecker is a producer and director with a penchant for tackling unusual subjects in his plays. The 60-year-old Werribee resident is working on a new play that deals with the topic of ‘death cafes’. He talks to Charlene Macaulay.
What’s your connection to Wyndham?
We moved here 14 years ago when I got a job with Wyndham City Council. They were in the final stages of completing the Wyndham Cultural Centre and I became the centre’s first manager and ran it for the first year of operation. Before that, I was manager of the Fruit Fly Circus in Albury/Wodonga.
What attracted you to a career in the arts?
I was born in Nuremberg, Germany and that’s where I started my theatre career. I went to drama school – my parents forced me, but I was interested as well. Throughout my career in Germany, I moved further north and became the youngest chief executive to run an opera house theatre company; I was 31. In Germany, I oversaw the building and management of three theatres. I have a wide breadth of skills: I have a diploma in marriage celebrancy, in funeral celebrancy, I’m a qualified business economist, I have a diploma as an actor, a diploma as a director, and a doctorate in psychology.
All the dreams I’ve ever had in my life, I’ve more or less realised them all.
Why did you move to Australia?
Germany never felt like home. I travelled the world and in 1982 I came to Australia for the first time. I stepped off the plane in Brisbane and knew I was home; this was where I belonged. I moved here in 1997.
What do you love about living in Wyndham?
I feel really embraced by the community. This is the first time in my life that I’ve lived in the same place for so long.
Tell me about your production company, Larrikin Ensemble Theatre.
It’s one of four theatre companies I run. Larrikin Ensemble Theatre is a partnership with Christopher Bunworth, a renowned TV and film actor. We did a play about the no toxic waste dump campaign. I also did a play about Dr Mohamed Haneef, the first person in Australia arrested and incarcerated under the anti-terror laws of John Howard. That’s when playwrights started coming to me and giving me stuff no one else wanted to do.
Tell me about the new play you’re producing and directing, Muffins At The Death Cafe.
It’s a play written by Dina Ross. The death cafe movement is based on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief. They’re not-for-profit organisations worldwide and they come together for four to six weeks and just discuss death. The aim is to make death an ordinary topic that’s not taboo any more. It’s not a grief-counselling session or self-help group; it’s just for people who want to philosophise about it without being scared. The play is a black comedy.
