Like many Australians, actor and Play School presenter Justine Clarke is not the biggest fan of magpies – she is also prey to the fear that strikes during swooping season.
It’s a surprise then that her new musical show for children, Mimi’s Symphony, centres on a young magpie who has fallen from her nest as she comes across dogs, possums, insects and other magpies on her way home.
A fear of magpies inspired Justine Clarke’s new album and stage show Mimi’s Symphony.Credit: Nick Moir
“I wrote this over a couple of years spending a lot of time at King George Park in Rozelle and around magpies,” says Clarke. “I’ve never been swooped by one, but I knew they swoop and so I’ve always been very nervous around them. So I did a fair bit of research and discovered more about the way they behave, I think in part to overcome that fear.
“Now I’m not so scared of them because I know they only swoop at certain times and that they can recognise people’s faces. As I discovered more about them, I became less fearful of them – I think that’s probably a good lesson for life as well.”
Clarke joined forces with composer and conductor George Ellis to create the new children’s album and show Mimi’s Symphony after he appeared on The Justine Clarke Show. They fell into conversation about what was available to introduce youngsters to classical music: Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals being the two most popular works.
“I really felt that there was a gap for younger children to be introduced in a gentle way, not to every single instrument, but to the different sounds of each of the four sections of the orchestra. So each section of the orchestra represents a different animal group in the park, a familiar landscape to young kids.”
Justine Clarke in the children’s show Mimi’s Symphony, which is playing at the Sydney Opera House from April 11-13.Credit: Katelyn-Jane Dunn
The work is set to be performed live for kids aged three and up by Clarke, with Ellis leading an 18-piece orchestra. There will also be an animated Mimi created by Studio Gilay, but those with ornithophobia need not fear – Clarke says she is “very cute and sweet and not scary in any way”.
Clarke’s career began when she was just seven, when she auditioned for a Vegemite commercial. Her big-screen debut came in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome where, as a 12-year-old, she was occasionally driven to and from set with star Mel Gibson, as they both lived in the eastern suburbs.
