I am walking along George Street, Sydney, looking for Effie. Well, actually, I’m looking for the actor Mary Coustas, so without the big hair it’s going to be harder to find her in the crowd. There’s been a venue mix-up, which is why we’re tracking each other on our mobiles.
At an intersection I see a woman who just might be Coustas. It’s been about 15 years since I last interviewed her – at inner-city actor heartland Marios café in Fitzroy – so the recognition factor is down. Also, she’s been living in Sydney so she hasn’t been as big a presence in Melbourne as she was when she was stalking our stages with that massive ’do – often graced with various flowers – saying, “How embarrassment” and living the second-generation Greek-Australian dream.
It’s Coustas all right, and we make our way to a café to talk about her new autobiography, which is quite a dark and deeply moving work – a lot of pain has been spilled onto the page.
Her most famous character, Effie, first appeared on the television show Acropolis Now, which ran from 1989-1992, and she became a cult figure, even publishing a book, Effie’s Guide to Being Up Yourself. She was the most-loved character in the long-running Wogs Out Of Work franchise.
But we don’t talk much about comedy today, because her book is mostly about dealing with death. It’s heartfelt, searingly candid and revealing and, it has to be said, quite a way from your traditional actor’s memoir.
“This is a story about life and death,” Coustas writes, “a memoir based on a part of my history about which I never imagined writing. But loss has driven me to find answers in what remains, to airlift myself to a place that serves me better than helplessness and misery. To reach out. This is my love letter to what lives on beyond the devastation.”
The book deals with Coustas’ father’s ill health (he had his first heart attack at 33 and died at 59 when she was 23), and her experience with miscarriage and the stillbirth of a daughter…
Read the FULL STORY at The Weekly Review.
