Brooke Satchwell’s CV reads like a roll call of Australia’s best-loved TV shows. First she was Anne Wilkinson in Neighbours, the role that made her a teen hero in the late 1990s. The Melbourne-born actor went on to appear in Water Rats, complete a five-year stint as a presenter on Play School, and later popped up in Packed to the Rafters. She was also luminous as Ally in Mr Inbetween, one of Australian television’s most underrated productions.
Right now Satchwell is working on stage. She is making her Sydney Theatre Company debut in Oil, a play that unfolds over a 162-year timeline, starting in a Cornwall farmhouse at the end of the 19th century. Her dressing room is full of small but essential items like Band-Aids, rubber bands and safety pins.
Here Satchwell tells us why she never goes anywhere without that makeshift kit and shares the stories behind two other important belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
My brown bear. A gift from my maternal grandparents, he has been with me since day dot and has the scars and wear to show for it.
Brown Bear didn’t fit in the humidicrib, so I was also gifted Little Bear, an exact miniature replica. Brown Bear was once stolen by our family dog and buried in the backyard. In his absence, a new bear, Francis, joined the bear family – but in a stroke of magic Brown Bear was found, rescued and rejoined the gang. He holds my whole world.
My most useful object
I like to be prepared, so bear with me – it’s a little more than one object. I don’t go anywhere without rubber bands, a head torch, safety pin and a Band-Aid.
Rubber bands are seriously one of the more underrated items going and immensely useful in all occasions. I religiously collect them and reuse them because I find I can go from feast to famine in the blink of an eye.
I think the remaining items speak for themselves. To be completely honest, the true list is a little longer. In fact, the cast of Oil call my dressing room “the shop”. I can only be how life has taught me.
The item I most regret losing
As a child, our family visited Sovereign Hill and I left my Fido Dido bumbag at the playground. It is the first possession I ever remember being negligent of. (Aside from being told I lost my skirt in the dress-up corner at kindergarten – but that’s another story.)
The bumbag contained a pair of hot-pink love heart clip-on earrings and three shiny $2 coins. The loss still stings and I often wonder who ended up with them.
Brooke Satchwell stars in Oil, which runs at the Sydney Theatre Company until 16 December
