Location: 35.29770° S, 149.12503° E

Smells have a powerful link to memories, and the Albert Hall has a smell I have not soon forgot.

Opened in 1928 and named after the famous Royal Albert Hall in London, our Albert Hall has been used as a hub for Canberra entertainment and meetings ever since.
Perhaps its most significant (at least to me) event was exposing me to my first ever live theatre performance.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Im not sure how old I was, old enough to be instantly hormonally besotted with Snow White and bedazzled by the spectacle of seven florescent dwarfs flying about over the stage suspended on cables (I can’t remember how the flying bit worked into the storyline….but who cares?).

Snow White may well have been my second crush, after Judy from ‘Lost in Space’.
Memory is a fickle thing. Did they actually have seven dwarfs or were kids playing those rolls?….I cannot remember.

Yet the thing I remember far more vividly than flying dwarfs or Snow’s beauty is the smell of the theatre. And in particular the smell of the stage. Some sort of alchemic mix of wood and makeup and sweat and hot lights and perfume and other things. I can still smell it now if I concentrate.

Moreover, I have been back to the Albert on quite a few occasions since then. And I always make some excuse to make my way down to the edge of the stage to see if it still smells the same.

Over on stage left. As close to the wings as I dare. If I close my eyes and take a long slow inhale, dwarfs swoop overhead, and Snow White steps to front of stage. It smells like magic.