But a career in theatre was initially not in Robert Jarman’s sights. In fact the now 63-year-old actually had plans to study history and become a university lecturer.

However, a request from one of his classmates – who was directing a university play and needed someone to fill a vacant role – quickly changed the trajectory of Jarman’s life.

“I went to university to study history,’’ he recalls.

“I saw myself eventually becoming a history lecturer in a university ... I was very serious about history.

“But then a friend of mine – his name was Leo – was in my history tutorial. He was directing a play for SUDS (Sydney University Dramatic Society) and he needed someone else to be in it, one other person.’’

“He said ‘would you be interested?’ and I said ‘oh, all right’. I’d been to the theatre a few times.’’

That play was Harold Pinter’s A Slight Ache, and Jarman had a non-speaking role. But he quickly discovered a raging passion for theatre that he had no idea was hidden inside him.

“I played the match seller who doesn’t speak,’’ Jarman laughs as he reflects on his first foray into theatre.

“He just stands there in a daggy costume holding a tray with boxes of matches on it.’’

It was a small production, with a small budget, and a maximum of 40 people in the audience.

“But even at that bare bones kind of setting I found the whole process completely fascinating,’’ Jarman admits.

He soon swapped to a performing arts major and became increasingly involved in theatre.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Jarman is now a prolific and much-loved local performer whose skill and dedication to the theatre industry was recognised with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent Tasmanian Theatre Awards in Hobart.

As an actor, director, writer, designer, dramaturg and teacher, the freelance theatre artist has been a leader in Tasmania’s performing arts sector, performing locally, interstate and internationally since moving to Tasmania in the mid 1980s.

Jarman, who lives at Howrah, estimates he’s been involved with more than 200 theatre productions during this time – directing more than 120 shows, and performing in 80 more.

He co-founded Blue Cow Theatre in 2010 and was artistic director for nine years. He has developed numerous programs and theatre workshops for local artists, has served on countless arts advisory boards and has been a lecturer at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music.

Jarman has also worked with all major Tasmanian theatre companies – including Zootango, Blue Cow, Terrapin, Salamanca Theatre Company, Is Theatre, Tasmania Performs, Australian Script Centre, Tasmanian Writers Centre, Theatre Royal, Big Picture Theatre, Tasmanian Theatre Company, CentrStage, Al Fresco, Big Monkey, IHOS, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Bel Canto Opera, TasDance, Two Turns Dance, O&O, and X/Wellington, plus an array of independent projects.

Jarman has also been part of numerous festivals and public events – his work has featured in every Ten Days on the Island festival since the event’s inception in 2001.

Further afield Jarman has worked with Music Theatre Sydney, Australian Institute of Music, OzOpera, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Jute, Musica Viva, The Marais Project and La Boite – just to name a few – and also internationally with Ashtar Theatre in Palestine.

He says he is honoured that his work has been recognised with a lifetime achievement award. He has had some “extraordinary opportunities” during his time in Tasmania while working with “many talented people”.

Thinking back to his early days in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Jarman recalls that he and his university comrades “genuinely thought theatre would change the world” and by day performed some “terribly serious plays” tackling political themes including nuclear disarmament.

But by night Jarman was involved in some “very, very silly cabaret shows”, including a season at iconic Sydney venue Kinselas.

“It was two competing worlds,” Jarman recalls.

And to this day he maintains a similarly diverse workload, with a passion for directing everything from serious dramas to musical theatre.

And he says that’s been one of the fantastic things about a theatre career in Tasmania, as he has been fortunate to have many wonderful – and varied – experiences which he’s not sure would have come his way if he’d stayed interstate.

“Hobart and Tasmania offered opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have got in Sydney,’’ Jarman reveals.

“If you stay in a place like Sydney there are so many people and it’s so competitive. You have to find your niche and occupy it and fill it and take possession of it. But here I have had some extraordinary opportunities ... I’ve worked on dance projects, in puppetry ... all sorts of things.’’

He says a good example of this varied nature of his work was the first Ten Days on the Island festival, when he was involved with two separate productions.

One was a French play – “a really intimate, refined, classical drama” beneath the chandeliers of Hobart’s Town Hall while the other was a community event in Burnie, involving about 1000 people from local schools, dance troupes, bands and other community groups, coming together to perform on Burnie Oval.

Jarman initially came to Tasmania for a short visit to direct a show for The Old Nick Company and help set up theatresports (competitive improvisational theatre) in Hobart, as it was still a relatively new concept for the state despite having taken off in Sydney.

While here, he met the late Richard Davey, then the artistic director of Zootango Theatre Company, who Jarman describes as an “extraordinarily charismatic figure”.

“I kind of fell under the spell,’’ confesses Jarman, who was then in his late 20s.

“And I thought ‘I really want to work with this man’.

“So I went home – I arrived back in Sydney on Christmas Eve – and announced to everyone that I was moving to Hobart.

“It wasn’t the trendy place it is now,’’ he adds.

“There were no decent coffee shops anywhere.’’

Back then, Jarman says “the population was smaller and the resources were smaller’’.

But now he says it’s great to see so many theatre companies popping up in Tasmania along with investment in infrastructure, such as the recent upgrade to Hobart’s Theatre Royal and the adjacent Hedberg precinct.

He says there’s some “fantastic programming” happening at the Theatre Royal and having people like Brian Ritchie running festivals such as Mona Foma and exposing Tasmanians to a sector of the arts world that hasn’t really been explored before was exciting.

He says it’s also heartening to see Tasmanians keen to return to the theatre in droves following a hiatus due to the pandemic, when theatres were closed or forced to operate at lesser capacity.

“I think there’s still a little bit of cultural cringe around theatre here (in Tasmania) which is a shame,’’ Jarman says.

But he says Tasmania has plenty of world-class performers and productions, which should be celebrated.

Like performers John Xintavelonis, Jane Longhurst and Scott Farrow and playwright Tom Holloway. Just to name a few.

“I’ve worked with superb people,’’ Jarman enthuses.

“John X is a master at finding comedy in unexpected moments and creating comedy … he has a remarkable sense of timing.

“Jane Longhurst is a fine serious actress.

“And I think my favourite actor is Scott Farrow. He really is a comedian, he has an extraordinary ability when it comes to comedy and drama and of course he sings like an angel and he has a magnetic stage presence.

“These are people that could absolutely be getting gigs anywhere in the world and we really need to value them.’’

The feeling is mutual, with many in the theatre world offering high praise for Jarman.

“Robert Jarman directed me in my first ever play out of school,’’ Xintavelonis says.

“It was Berthold Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for Old Nick Co.’

“This was actually back when they just did one yearly review and that helped fund plays which helped train young actors like myself.

“It was basically Robert Jarman that introduced me to the joy of theatre and how glorious and fulfilling it can be for someone like me who decided to choose it as a career after this production.

“We have done musicals and plays and shows for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and co-founded Blue Cow Theatre Company with Jeff Michel as well in all that time.

“Robert has always had a masterful understanding of the written text, a great creative imagination of how to reinvent unique ways of presenting shows, and a great teacher of skills that you need as an actor when you’re starting off.

“He has been responsible for kickstarting and shaping many a career, including mine.’’

Meanwhile, Theatre Council of Tasmania president Petr Divis was “absolutely thrilled” to present Jarman with the Lifetime Achievement Award to recognise his “extraordinary contribution to Tasmanian theatre” at the annual Tasmanian Theatre Awards at Wrest Point this month.

“Robert has had a profound impact on the careers of numerous directors, actors and other theatre creatives and is admired by so many in our community,’’ Divis says.

It’s one of many awards Jarman has been honoured with over the years, including eight Tasmanian Theatre Awards (three for directing, three for best production, one for acting and one for contributions to professional theatre) and the Australian Centenary of Federation Medal for services to the performing arts.

Jarman says he’s “tried to keep a comprehensive list” of productions he’s worked on, but admits he’s “terrible with dates” and “I’m sure I’ve forgotten things’’.

Still there are a “few standouts” among his long list of acting and directing credits.

“What I’ve come to appreciate, looking back over it all, is that there are a few standouts – by my own standards … when you look at things I would call ‘achievements’ it’s those shows that are magic,’’ Jarman says.

And he says those “magic” shows typically have three things in common – good material, whether that be the script or the score or simply a good idea at the heart of it all; being timely and resonating with performers and audiences in that particular moment of time; and the team he works with … “it’s just that magic of the right combination of actors, designers, makers and stage manager that all just jelled’’.

Jarman says one of those “magic” shows was West Side Story at Hobart’s Theatre Royal, within months of America’s September 11 terror attacks.

“It was a play about racial prejudice and love conquers all in the face of hate, which suddenly took on new relevance because of 9/11,’’ Jarman says.

The Events at Moonah Arts Centre with Jane Longhurst, Rob Mallett and three community choirs is another highlight, along with three Theatre Royal Backspace productions – The Laramie Project; a three-part work called The Spectre of The Rose; and As We Forgive, which was written especially for Jarman by internationally acclaimed Tasmanian playwright Tom Holloway and later toured nationally.

“There have been some really special, magical moments,’’ Jarman says.

“And when they happen, they’re incredible.’’

But he says perhaps the greatest reward of a career in theatre is interacting with strangers in the crowd.

“In a sense, I feel the real achievement of theatre comes from what you get from the audience,’’ Jarman says.

He recalls a 1988 Zootango production of Soft Targets – a play developed from interviews with people whose lives were changed by AIDS – being performed on Tasmania’s North-West Coast.

A woman approached the cast after the show and thanked everyone, as her son had recently come out as being gay and she initially had no idea how to respond but felt the play had helped her better understand her own situation.

Another example came after As We Forgive, when an audience member approached Jarman and told him he hadn’t spoken to his brother for 15 years but after watching the play was going to go home and call his sibling.

“The theatre does change lives,’’ Jarman says. “In real and concrete ways.

“That’s the real achievement of theatre – the theatre is a big gymnasium where you go to exercise your empathy muscles.’’

Interestingly, Jarman hates being photographed, which seems somewhat unusual for a man who has made a living out of performing in front of a crowd.

“When you’re on the stage you’re not yourself,’’ he explains, as he’s photographed for TasWeekend.

“Maybe what I need to do is devise a character to get photographed as, then I might not hate getting photographed quite so much.’’

Jarman says he’s honoured to be recognised for his work, but also feels that a Lifetime Achievement Award feels a bit like a farewell or an obituary.

But he says people can expect to see him directing and performing for a lot longer yet.

“Reports of my demise are exaggerated,’’ he jokes. “I still do have shows coming up, I still have things I want to do.’’

He is directing Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from May 13-28.

He recently directed Jane Longhurst in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, which was performed as part of Mona Foma in January. Jarman is again directing her in Request Concert, which will be performed in August, the second instalment of her Black Bag Trilogy.

Jarman has a few other works in the pipeline, as far ahead as 2024.

When he’s not directing or performing he is “a passionate supporter and decades-long member of the South Sydney Football Club – The Rabbitohs’’. He also works two days a week in an administrative role at All Saints Church in South Hobart, which he was fortunate to pick up during the pandemic when theatre work dried up.

And when he’s at home, Jarman is busily working his way through the many scripts and “piles of books all over the house that never seem to get any smaller’’.

“I watch far too much television and don’t get enough exercise,’’ Jarman laughs.

He says it’s strange to think how different his life might be if his friend never asked him to appeared in that first play.

“I would be quite happy wearing my tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, my glasses perched on the end of my nose, probably lecturing in Elizabethan history,’’ Jarman says.

“It would be easier. One would be on a steady wage … with a house and a dog and a steady income.

“And healthy superannuation,’’ he adds with a chuckle.

“Maybe that is why I don’t like having my photo taken. Inside I am still a historian who much prefers books to cameras.’’

But he says he wouldn’t change a thing.

“It hasn’t been a particularly lucrative career,’’ Jarman says.

“But it has been a spectacularly rewarding career and an enjoyable life.’’•