VALE SASKIA POST

Australian actress Saskia Post, whose vivid portrayal of doomed rock-star girlfriend ‘Anna’ in Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs in Space made her an icon to a generation of teenage moviegoers, passed away March 16 at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital from complications stemming from a congenital heart condition. She was 59.

Born of Dutch heritage in 1961 in Martinez, California, Saskia Steenkamer immigrated with her family to Australia in 1975. Studying writing at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and acting at both University of New South Wales and The Drama Studio in Sydney, she soon became a popular and respected figure in the arts communities in both cities.

She made an immediate impact on audiences in her television debut, playing WWII Dutch refugee ‘Julianna Sleven’ in the popular series, The Sullivans (pictured, right; centre, with co-stars Norman Yemm and Vicki hammond), and would work steadily in the medium with semi-regular slots on primetime soaps Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice and the mini-series Return to Eden.

Following a small cameo in Haydn Keenan’s film Going Down (1982), Post made her credited debut in the nuclear-era drama One Night Stand for director John Duigan (Dimboola, 1979; Winter of Our Dreams, 1981). A four-hander about teenagers spending a night together in the Sydney Opera House as war erupts in Eastern Europe, Post shone opposite the equally impressive Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney and Jay Hackett (pictured, below) in a film that beckons cult status.

Post followed One Night Stand with a support role in Ray Lawrence’s AFI Best Film honouree Bliss (1985), playing Barry Otto’s daughter in the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Peter Carey’s book. Other film work included Jocelyn Moorhouse’s Proof (1991), with Russell Crowe and Hugo Weaving, and Stavros Kazantzidis’ True Love & Chaos (1997), alongside Miranda Otto, Noah Taylor and Ben Mendehlson.

Post also became a sought-after stage performer, with a long career playing key roles in such productions as Hating Alison Ashley, Salome, Endgrain, Train to Transcience, Could I Have this Dance?, In Angel Gear, Figures in Glass, Skin and Vincent in Brixton.

But it will be Dogs in Space, Lowenstein’s chaotic recollections of Melbourne’s hard-edged inner-city 70’s music scene, for which Saskia Post will be forever remembered. As the wise-beyond-her-years Anna, she both towers over yet succumbs willingly to the enigmatic, self-destructive musician Sam (Michael Hutchence), in a performance that itself seems to dominate then ultimately submit to the tragic trajectory of the heroin-infused narrative.

Film writer Thomas Caldwell, in his 2011 analysis of the film’s enduring legacy, described Post as, “The heart of the film…[radiating] every time she is on screen with her combination of punk attitude and classical Hollywood beauty.” In 2016, theatre director Robert Chuter, who worked with Post on his 1990 stage production In Angel Gear, wrote a brief appreciation of their collaboration, recalling, “she was one of my favourite people/actors: beauty, dignity, curiosity, talent, kind, independence.” (Pictured, right; Post, left, with Lowenstein and Hutchence).

Although she surfaced briefly in 2017 for what would be her final onscreen appearance in Timothy Spanos’ underground oddity Throbbin’ 84, Saskia Post spent her final years in the small Victorian township of Trentham, where she practiced transpersonal art and therapy. Her impact upon both her community and her many fans was evident when nearly $15,000.00 was raised via a Chuffed crowdfunding campaign to help with her living and medical costs.