Heath Ledger presence felt as theatre unveiled

THERE was an "eerie sense" that Heath Ledger was in the room for the opening of  Western Australia's State Theatre Centre yesterday.

Kim Ledger stands with Vincent Fantauzzo's portrait of his late actor son, Heath, in Perth. Picture: Colin Murty

FOR the family of Heath Ledger there was an "eerie sense" that he was in the room as Premier Colin Barnett opened Western Australia's spectacular $100 million State Theatre Centre yesterday.

With the main 575-seat theatre named in honour of the Perth actor, who died three years ago aged 28, there was no mistaking the pride in the local kid who had made it to the top of the turbulent showbusiness world.

Ledger's glittering Oscar, won posthumously in 2009 for his performance in The Dark Knight, and the dazzling purple costume he wore as The Joker had pride of place at the top of the stairs as Perth's arts glitterati, headed by Janet Holmes a Court, gathered at the entrance to the theatre.

"It's a little bit like he's standing there," Ledger's dad, Kim, said after the ceremony.

"I think he would have found it magnificent. He must have been a bird on the shoulder of the architect because he loved polished concrete, he loved raw timbers."

Ledger's sister Kate said the complex was "eerily reflective" of his character. "Walking in, you have a sense that he's around," she said. "It was really quite eerie."

The long-anticipated theatre centre is the state's first fully government-funded professional theatre, and its opening ends decades of anger within the arts community about a lack of facilities.

Construction began in 2006 and Mr Barnett gave credit to the former Labor government for starting the project.

The complex includes two theatres and two rehearsal rooms that replicate the size of the stage.

Actor William McInnes said it was a "cracker". "This is going to be an ornament not just to Perth, but to Australia. People will want to come and work here because it's such a cracking piece of infrastructure," he said.