Geoffrey Rush-es on Cloudstreet

I've had a relationship with Company B Belvoir since its formation, and worked with artistic director Neil Armfield before that, so I've known him for about 18 or 19 years. I take great pride in the success of Cloudstreet wherever it goes.

Cloudstreet has been described as an event - not just theatre. Anything over two-and-a-half hours becomes an event these days. Nevertheless it's one of those rare and special pieces of theatre. Often audiences are given something brochure-ised and transparently hip, with smart casting and a high concept to help fill a busy day. But the moment audiences encounter something that has more mysterious and deeper roots, and pulls them in, they go, ''That's like my family!'' and it becomes all the things theatre is supposed to be.

Cloudstreet is adapted from a novel by Tim Winton. He came up with this saga of two families that you wouldn't expect to succeed in cohabiting together. The play is mentored by this Aboriginal figure who guides the families into sharing a deeper experience. It works with a power that audiences find exhilarating - as if they have been starved of that kind of strong emotion.

Company B Belvoir was created out of the demise of a company called Nimrod, which had been significant in the Seventies in Australia during a major rebirth in the theatre. It was created in a weekend by our general manager, who literally rang up all the people she knew had a thousand bucks - 500 in one weekend - and said we'd got to save this building, in what was then a downmarket part of Sydney. It has been thriving for 16 years, and in the past five has entered a new phase, going from strength to strength. Cloudstreet represents a lot of that strength.