At 74, Jack Charles is charming, with his actor's voice, his rapport with his three musicians ("take it away, boys!") and his expert pottery demonstration ("clay is land and land is where we belong").
His autobiographical show, Jack Charles Vs the Crown, is tantalising, full of hints and ellipses, which makes for a surprisingly gentle evening, given the subject matter: Charles was a heroin addict for 40 years and a prisoner for 20-odd non-consecutive years. It helps that the "skilled survivor" is clearly enjoying himself, having a cuppa onstage.
Sometimes it's hard to tell whether things are passed over because they're too painful or we're already expected to know them. Footage of clay-working is intriguingly eroticised even as the show presents Charles' sexuality as having been a source of worry and confusion for him. Yet the tagline for Bastardy, a 2008 documentary about Charles, is bald: "Addict. Homosexual. Cat Burglar. Actor. Aboriginal."
A slideshow tours Charles' childhood and then, after an electric violin solo from musical director Nigel Maclean, the second half shifts gear: Charles puts his case to us, as if we were Canberra judges, as to why his criminal record should be expunged.
It's heady stuff: a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder theorising that Australia's historic (and ongoing) trauma encompasses everyone, regardless of heritage: "from cradle to the grave, no one is spared the ball and chain."
