Phillip Mackenzie, born December 10, 1937, Bunbury WA; died July 11, 2022, Canberra.

ONE of Canberra’s longest-serving and most productive arts identities, Phil Mackenzie, has died aged 84 after complications from lung cancer.

As an actor, director, writer, publisher and broadcaster, Mackenzie had an enormous influence on the Canberra arts, and while known for his acerbic wit and intolerance of fools, he was always to the fore when supporting any new arts initiative, in the cultural sense, a “true believer”.

Mackenzie was born in Bunbury WA, but grew up in Manjimup, falling into a job as a bank clerk in rural WA after finishing school.

Pursuing a vocation to the Anglican clergy, he entered theological classes at the University of WA, but was quickly seduced by the literary offerings of the campus and turned to the more secular humanities in his studies while participating in campus productions.

After university, Mackenzie headed east, joined the public service and eventually became a senior officer within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, a job which saw him travel the length and breadth of Australia as he got to meet Australia’s First Peoples.

Once in Canberra, he joined Canberra Repertory Society and became a regular actor, performing in many productions under the late theatre directors Ralph Wilson and Canadian director Walter Learning. He even played God at a Rep workshop in the ’70s.

His last performance for Rep in 2001 was as Big Daddy in Learning’s production of “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”.

In the meantime, Mackenzie had founded Polonius Press, which focused on the publication of poetry by Canberra writers.

Also, as the curmudgeonly “flea” of Canberra Stereo Public Radio’s (now Artsound) program “A Flea In Your Ear”, he railed against the arts establishment and anybody who murdered the English language.

Mackenzie’s theatrical activities went far beyond Rep. In the 1980s, he and Wilson co-founded the Classical Theatre Ensemble, then in the 1990s he was co-founder of Eureka Theatre, a venture that in the ’90s saw him lose two houses as he downsized to pay off the company’s commitments after a box-office disaster at The Playhouse.

His great loves were the poetry of CJ Dennis, AD Hope and Ogden Nash and the plays of Samuel Beckett, in whose later plays he was considered “matchless.”

He was also besotted with the words of Persian poet Omar Khayyam, in whose persona he appeared several times at the Canberra Multicultural Festival, usually with a bevy of belly-dancers.

Mackenzie was also a follower of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and was the instigator of “Bloomsday” events held in the National Library of Australia and more recently at Smiths Alternative. He was planning a 2022 Bloomsday event when it became clear that his illness was not responding to treatment.

After his many years in Canberra, Mackenzie decided in 2004, against the advice of friends, to return to his native WA. There he had a play about his mother’s experiences as a nurse on the Western Front staged professionally and joined a theatrical company in the Perth Hills, where he performed in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”.

But he missed his friends and the cultural milieu of Canberra and returned after 11 years, settling in Queanbeyan, where he resumed home poetry reading sessions, got himself a theatrical agent, won an award for acting in in “Short + Sweet”, performed Chekov and Beckett for the Ralph Wilson 25th anniversary commemorations in 2019, penned sharp reviews for “CityNews”, revived his Omar Khayyam show in Queanbeyan during 2021 and continued, as he had done successfully for many years, to submit short stories to competitions.

His last theatre outing was to “Emerald City” at ACT HUB in June.

Mackenzie died at home with his family yesterday (July 11). He is survived by his daughters Bronwen and Philippa.

UPDATE: There will be a funeral at William Cole Funerals, 60 Nettlefold Street, Belconnen 10.30am, Friday, July 22, with a wake at Canberra Rep afterwards.

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