One of the city’s most iconic theatres, where many of our most famous theatrical names first started out, reopens this weekend after a near 20-year hiatus.

Originally known as the Union Theatre and part of Sydney University, the Footbridge Theatre in Camperdown first opened in 1961. Performers there over the years include John Bell, Marcia Hines, Nancye Hayes, John Gaden and Germaine Greer.

Among those Footbridge alumni is veteran actor Belinda Giblin, who recalls her Sydney University days and the theatre with fondness.

“I was there during the Vietnam War,” she says. “In my day, university was free, so anyone who had a neuron to rub together went. It was a period of patchouli oil, pot and incense. We were doing the marches and the love-ins and be-ins and sit-ins. For a young girl from Tamworth coming to Sydney and being in the middle of all that really was wonderful.

“Those were the days of the big faculty reviews [at the Footbridge]. All the engineering students would sit up the back and heckle and all the little conchie arts students would sit down the front and be deep and meaningful. It’s a lovely space and I can’t believe it wouldn’t get good audiences now.”

After graduating, Giblin went to NIDA, returning to the Footbridge in 1990 to star in Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves.

Theatre director Neil Armfield, who graduated in 1977, got his first experience acting and directing at the Footbridge.

“It was like we formed this little small theatre company,” he says. “You couldn’t study drama at Sydney University at that time. So you did it yourself. It was extraordinary training for me.”

He recalls a production in 1973 that was repeatedly hit by blackouts caused by industrial action.