Shine (film) "universal acclaim". "Shine" grossed $35,892,330 in the United States and Canada. The film also grossed $10,187,418 at the box office in Australia. Shine (film) Shine is a 1996 Australian biographical drama film based on the life of pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. It stars Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, John Gielgud, Googie Withers, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd, Nicholas Bell, Chris Haywood and Alex Rafalowicz. The screenplay was written by Jan Sardi, and directed by Scott Hicks. The film made its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1997,
Geoffrey Rush of Being Earnest" as John Worthing (Ernest) (in which his wife, Jane Menelaus, appeared as Gwendolen). In 1994, Rush played Horatio in a production of Hamlet alongside Richard Roxburgh, Jacqueline McKenzie and David Wenham in the Company B production at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. In September 1998, Rush played the title role in the Beaumarchais play "The Marriage of Figaro" for the QTC. This was the opening production of the Optus Playhouse at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at South Bank in Brisbane. A pun on Rush's name (and the circumstances) was used in the opening prologue of