For over three decades, the Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence was rated among the very greatest singers of her generation, a singer who had conquered the world’s stages from New York to Paris. Brought up on a dairy farm in regional Victoria, hers looked likely to be a classic rags to riches story until polio caused her life to take an unexpected dramatic turn. Her heroic fight back would see her go on to sing for both Queen Elizabeth II and President Roosevelt. It may seem hard to believe, but today she is barely remembered, which is why documentary filmmakers Wayne Groom and Dr Carolyn Bilsborow are on something of a mission with their latest production: Marjorie Lawrence: The World at her Feet.

Marjorie Lawrence

Poster for the film documentary Marjorie Lawrence: The World at Her Feet

The catalyst came in January 2020 when Groom was lent a copy of Richard Davis’s biography Wotan’s Daughter: The Life of Marjorie Lawrence. “I didn’t know much about opera and wasn’t much interested, but when I started reading the book I couldn’t put it down,” he says. “I knew nothing about Marjorie Lawrence, like most...