by Sahar Foladi
A musical memoir ‘Aunty O’ based on Australia’s sweetheart Olivia Newton-John is being presented by her niece Tottie Goldsmith at Drum Theatre.
The show will kick-start at the Drum, with a focus on famous actor-singer Olivia’s life away from the limelight and the influence she had on Goldsmith.
“I feel excited and vulnerable,” Goldsmith says on the eve of opening night.
“This was not tried and tested show – you never know how people may respond.
“I just pray they don’t compare me to Olivia singing, I’m just using her song to tell her story.
“I hope they get something from it, see the joy, wisdom and depth of Olivia outside of what they already know about her.”
A well-known actor-singer herself, Goldsmith will perform her aunt’s most cherished songs alongside a five-piece band to share the very intimate details of her life and how Olivia supported her.
“A favourite memory that pops is whenever she was in Melbourne or we were traveling, we’d sit up on the bed talking and falling asleep holding hands.”
Her aunty was her “go-to” person in life and they even worked together at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre at the Austin Hospital in northern Melbourne.
For 30 years of her life, Olivia fought breast cancer until she could no longer do so in 2022.
“I felt it really deeply, I felt bonded to her, and I needed her in my life,” Goldsmith says.
“I work at the hospital, at the cancer centre, working behind the scenes. I feel her presence and doing things like this makes me feel she’s very alive.
“She’s in me in every part of my world.”
As a coping mechanism, Goldsmith turned to write about Olivia and from that, the memoir show started off “organically.”
She talks about the abandonment by her English mother (Olivia’s sister Rona) and how Olivia stepped up to fulfil that role.
“When I was not yet three-years-old, she (her mother) wanted to pursue her career and brought us to England with dad to raise us.
“Olivia felt troubled about it and stepped in with a mother’s heart. It’s the only word I can use to describe it.”
She shares how Olivia bought them tickets to the United States to visit their mother as an 18th birthday gift after she had cut all contact with her three children.
“It’s very tricky for me to understand. She was 24 years old when she had three children, she was very young, her career felt important to her, I can only imagine she made a really difficult decision.
“That was a survival technique for her. She didn’t tell anybody her struggles in life when she moved to England or America.
“Olivia played a pivotal role in our emotional role, we wouldn’t have known her (their mother) without Olivia.”
But for Olivia, it was important to raise the young children as emotionally and spiritually strong.
“A lot of people are abandoned by their parents even when they are physically around.
“Olivia talked to me a lot of about forgiveness, surrender and acceptance which helped me with the healing process with everything.
“She helped us to understand the other part of where we came from and made us felt loved.”
Goldsmith presents Aunty O at South East Business Network’s International Womens Day event at Drum Theatre on 6 March, 12.30pm.
Details: greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au/greater-dandenong-council/events/international-womens-day-lunch-sebn-showcasing-women
