Theatre
From the avenues of Belmont to the ARIA Hall of Fame, Geelong celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Divinyl’s inauguration as Aussie Music Royalty with 'Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett', playing at Geelong Arts Centre 12-13 February.
From Geelong’s humble list of remarkable figures came the woman who rocked the globe with her signature growl and sexual prowess. For the Aussie rock’n’roll fans of the 70s, Chrissy Amphlett, Australia’s First Lady of Rock, remains one of Geelong’s proudest exports.
It was 2006 when the Divinyls, who over the years included a rotating array of musicians around the central force that was Chrissy Amphlett and Mark McEntee, were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside Australian music royalty Midnight Oil, Daddy Cool and Helen Reddy.
From her humble roots in the quiet suburbs of Geelong came a global rock’n’roll megastar. Chrissy Amphlett was a rebel from a young age.
A Belmont High alumna, Chrissy’s early years gleaned a future career performing. Her mother, Mary, encouraged her toward theatre and young Chrissy danced and sung alongside other teenagers in local drama classes. Chrissy yearned for something edgier and rougher, something that demanded more grit and took her further away from home, and in the 70s she skipped town for the wilds of Europe.
Before she had turned eighteen, Chrissy had landed herself in a Spanish prison and lived on the streets of Paris. When she returned to home shores, she planted herself in Sydney where in 1979 she met guitarist Mark McEntee. The pair saw in each other the grit to chase the high of rock’n’roll and became the backbone of Australia’s most prolific new wave rock bands; the Divinyls.
The foundations of her iconic refusal of convention came from Chrissy’s relentlessness, built within the rough and tumble world of Kings Cross during the 80s.
Within the notorious, sweat heavy, beer-soaked venues of Sydney’s red-light district was born ‘The Monster Schoolgirl’, the onstage persona that would define Chrissy and the Divinyls and solidify their legacy in the rock world.
Their career as a group spanned five studio albums, including the soundtrack to the 1982 film Monkey Grip, where defining tracks like Boys in Town were featured. Their later releases like I Touch Myself flew to the top of the charts when released in 1990.
Chrissy was a living flame, burning her way through the rock’n’roll world, melting glass ceilings before she could smash through them. She transformed what it meant to be a woman in the music industry with her refusal toward convention and her brash sexuality.
With her fishnet wrapped legs and Angus Young inspired schoolgirl kit, she built a reputation of confronting hecklers during performances and rifling through handbags left on stage. She was wild, unconfined by the expectations of palatable, demure women. With her signature pout and ferocity onstage, Chrissy didn’t ask for the right to the rock’n’roll allowance that men of the genre were entitled to – she took it.
“We didn't really expect to see anyone who came on like a cavewoman. She was such a mighty singer, but she was innately so rock 'n' roll”, remembers music journalist Glen Baker in conversation with the ABC. “She was ferociously larger than life”.
“She was ferociously larger than life.”
Glen BakerThe concept of a one-woman tribute to Chrissy has been ten years in the making. Amphlett conceived the idea of the one woman show herself, but after her passing in 2013 following a battle with MS and breast cancer the torch was picked up by her longtime friend Simon Morely, who raised the concept with renowned theatre director Sarah Goodes in 2018.
Goodes agreed on one condition: “If I can do it with Sheridan”.
Now, eight years later, Sheridan Harbridge- award winning actor, director and writer- is returning this fully realised performance honouring our rock diva to Geelong, back to the streets where Chrissy’s rock and rage was born.
“I'm looking forward to bringing Chrissy Amphlett back to Geelong - back to the streets to where she was born and bred, where she learned to rock and rage,”
Sheridan HarbridgeSheridan Harbridge will make the journey from the stages of Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney to Ballarat's Her Majesty's Theatre, then stopping in Geelong in February to bring Chrissy home to the place where our First Lady of Rock found her rage.
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett honours, tributes and rocks alongside the legacy Chrissy burned into the music world.
"I'm looking forward to bringing Chrissy Amphlett back to Geelong - back to the streets to where she was born and bred, where she learned to rock and rage," shared Harbridge ahead of Geelong Arts Centre's 2026 launch event.
To experience the rock’n’roll odyssey through the life of our rebel, our pest, the woman who kicked the door to rock’n’roll off its hinges, take yourself into the mythically enormous world of Chrissy Amphlett at Geelong Arts Centre on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th February at 7:30pm in the Story House Theatre.
