Dust devil

9 MINUTES

Why a Broadway dancer started her own theatre in the Mojave Desert

‘I’ve wrapped myself up in my world, and I’m gonna keep it as long as I can.’

Born in New York City in 1924 and growing up amid the Great Depression, Marta Becket found respite at the theatre, where she immersed in ‘a ball that protected me from the ugliness of the outside world’. She would soon become an accomplished performer herself, appearing as a dancer on Broadway and a ballerina at Radio City Music Hall, but later found herself growing tired of appearing in productions over which she had no artistic control. Looking to ‘strike out on her own’, Becket began raising money for her own productions, culminating in a tour of a one-woman show.

It was on this tour in 1967, while passing through the near-abandoned town of Death Valley Junction in California, that Becket would unexpectedly find a new life in the desert. Stopping to glance into a dilapidated, defunct social hall, she imagined a new world for herself there, with far fewer people but unbound artistic freedom. She started bringing her vision to life almost instantly, uprooting from New York City to transform the social hall into the Amargosa Opera House – a small theatre that she and her then-husband renovated and rented at a rate of $45 a month.

At first – no surprise – audiences were sparse, and Becket sometimes even found herself performing to no one but the Renaissance characters that populated the murals on her theatre’s walls. But in the ensuing years, the Amargosa Opera House would become a place of legend, with the peculiar outpost attracting full houses of tourists and locals alike, and helping to revitalise the town. It was a sanctuary that she inhabited for more than four decades, until her final performance in 2012. And although Becket died in 2017, today the Amargosa Opera House continues to operate as a nonprofit theatre, hotel and café.

The short documentary Dust Devil finds Becket approaching the end of her life, reflecting on the transcendent moments that performing at the Amargosa Opera House brought her, and considering what the future might hold for the theatre. Working from archival footage, glimpses of the theatre today and scenes from the barren Mojave Desert, the Australian filmmaker Poppy Walker builds an enchanting portrait. There’s a sparse and surreal beauty to it – a fitting tribute to a dream built on a whim in the middle of nowhere.

Written by Adam D’Arpino

Director: Poppy Walker

Website: HW Collective

Explore more

Photo of a street with vintage cars, motel signs and a person leaning on a truck holding a broom under a blue sky.

How to alter the passage of time to feel fast or slow

Knowing the psychology behind why moments drag or whizz by can give you a degree of control over your experience of time

by Martin Wiener

People dancing at an outdoor festival, colourful tents in background, clear blue sky overhead.
MUSIC

The beats that make us want to move

Some musical rhythms are built to get us bobbing, foot-tapping or dancing. Researchers show how rhythmic complexity matters

by Matt Huston

Illustration of a scoreboard at Barclays Center showing a man with raised arms, surrounded by an arena.

A dancing NBA superfan on the joy of spaces that let us go wild and get weird

Directed by Mickey Duzyj

Scene from a film showing a man standing indoors near a staircase bathed in green light.

Perhaps the weirdest experience you’ll have sober, what exactly is déjà vu?

Video by BBC Ideas

Black and white photo of an older man who is Christopher Walken in a suit gesturing while speaking into a microphone.

The voices that stick in our minds

Are the most memorable voices just the ones we hear frequently? Or is there some other quality they have?

by Matt Huston

Reflection of a group of people on water surface under blue sky photo distorted by ripples.

Why our flawed, flexible memories come with social benefits

Though relationships are grounded in shared memories, some gaps and inaccuracies can help us live well in a social world

by Gillian Murphy & Ciara Greene

A person sitting in sunlight on grass by a building, wearing a yellow top and jeans, with soft lens flare.

How do transgender people remember their earlier selves?

Research with transgender people sheds light on the memory processes that allow any of us to navigate periods of change

by Caleb Schlaupitz

An Aboriginal painter depicts scenes from her youth in this beautiful short

A film by Grace Kemarre Robinya and Jonathan Daw