“Rediscovering your city differently has been absolutely one of the key pillars of my time here at Sydney Festival,” says Festival Director Olivia Ansell. “It’s something that I really wanted Sydneysiders and visitors to this city to experience. How can we tell authentically Australian stories, Sydney stories, Gadigal stories in unusual locations, in different ways?”
“Shirley Beiger grew up in a sly grog household. Her mother, Edith Beiger, was one of the underworld figures of the day, in the same vein as Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh; however, she wanted Shirley to integrate into a normal life and marry up, so she used her underworld profits to send Shirley to [independent Anglican-run girls’ school] SCEGGS Darlinghurst. Shirley graduated, ran the daffodil counter part-time at David Jones, was a part-time model, and was dating a young man called Arthur Griffith, whose family was connected to the bookie industry – and Arthur was allegedly two-timing Shirley with a showgirl from the Latin Quarter, who he took on a date to Checkers nightclub,” Ansell explains.
