Theatre of Australia


Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the Corroboree, which go back more than 30,000 years. After British settlement in 1788, Australian theatrical arts became linked to the traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have more recently introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.
Like many other spheres of activity, the performing arts have been organised differently in different States. Notable theatrical complexes include the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and the Melbourne Arts Centre in Melbourne. The major teaching institutions for the dramatic arts are the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth.

Contributing individuals

Very many Individuals have contributed to theatre in Australia. Some of the best-known include:
Australia has contributed a high number of international movie actors. Many of these made a beginning in live theatre, and have continued to act on stage throughout their careers.

Funding

In general, larger performing arts companies cannot exist without regular, guaranteed government funding, and this has been particularly true for Australia with its small population, remote from Europe and America.
The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust was established with the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 to bring high culture – opera and ballet – to Australia, providing a theatre "of Australians by Australians for Australians". It formed by public subscription with a matching Commonwealth government contribution, and nurtured Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet Foundation, with associated orchestras in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Australia Council for the Arts was announced in 1967, modelled on similar bodies in the major English-speaking countries. The early Australia Council grants in the 1960s were distributed through the Theatre Trust and went mostly to the largest companies. In 1973, the reformist government of Gough Whitlam doubled Arts funding and reconstituted the Council as a statutory authority consisting of seven autonomous boards, which used a peer-reviewing process to select organisations or individuals for support. The most significant Boards for the performing arts were the Theatre Arts Board and the Literature Board.
In 2014–15, a large proportion of arts funding was removed, throwing the sector into chaos and leading to the loss of many small to medium companies. The lost funds were returned in 2016 after intensive sector lobbying.
The COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020–21 was very damaging to live performance in Australia, as everywhere in the world, but Australian theatre did somewhat better than most.

Early history

The traditional ceremonial dances of indigenous Australians performed at corroborees comprise theatrical aspects. At a corroboree Aborigines interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume and many ceremonies act out events from the Dreamtime. Corroboree in many areas have developed and adapted, integrating new themes and stories since European occupation of Australia began. Academic Maryrose Casey writes that 'Australian Aboriginal cultures are probably the most performance-based in the world – in the sense that explicit, choreographed performances were used for a vast range of social purposes from education, through to spiritual practices, arranging marriage alliances, to judicial and diplomatic functions'. Casey suggests that 'corroboree' could also be called 'aboriginal theatre'.
European theatrical traditions came to Australia with European settlement commencing in 1788 with the First Fleet. The first production, The Recruiting Officer written by George Farquhar in 1706, was performed in 1789 by convicts. The extraordinary circumstances of the foundation of Australian theatre were recounted in Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker – the participants were prisoners watched by sadistic guards and the leading lady was under threat of the death penalty.
The first European play to refer to Australia was Les Emigres aux Terres Australes, a French play. The earliest British play was Michael Howe, The Terror of Van Diemen's Land.
The earliest theatres copied the burlesque or vaudeville style of minor theatres in Britain, with many different independent acts including comedy, opera and circus. The burlesque form has always been popular and continues to the present day in theatre restaurants.
A theatre was opened in Sydney in 1796 by Robert Sidaway, until closed as a 'corrupting influence' – partly due to the presence of pickpockets in the audience. In major variety theatres, liquor was well-supplied, and prostitutes openly solicited customers in the auditorium of major variety theatres until the 1870s.
The first Australian play professionally produced in Sydney was The Hibernian Father.
From 1876, the American actor J. C. Williamson acted in shows in Australia. He became Australia's leading impresario when he won the right to stage Gilbert and Sullivan musicals in Australia. He brought many famous Victorian stage performers to Australia, becoming known for spectacular, large-scale productions of all kinds, mostly working in the Theatre Royal in Sydney and in Adelaide, but owning or leasing many other theatres. His theatrical empire became the largest in the world, continuing after his death in 1913 until the company closed in 1976. After 1945 the firm was best known for producing long-running American and British musicals in Australia.
After Federation in 1901, theatre productions embodied the sense of national identity that had been present in Australian literature since the 1890s. Playwrights active early in Australia include Arthur Adams, Musette Morrell, Malcolm Afford, Walter J Turner and Charles Haddon Chambers. Louis Esson, with Vance Palmer, founded the Pioneer Players, dedicated to the performance of Australian plays and the development of a national theatre. They produced 18 new Australian plays in their four years of existence.
Musicals were written by Alfred Wheeler, Arlene Sauer, and Edmund Duggan. Other examples include The Bunyip, F.F.F. and a 1918 pantomime version of Robinson Crusoe on Rainbow Island with music by six Australian composers. Operas were composed by Moritz Heuzenroeder and Arthur Chanter.

Theatre buildings

Theatres are usually among the most prominent city buildings, being necessary for the performance of indoor drama, song and dance and for larger events and ceremonies. Their construction usually presents prevailing prosperity and the architectural styles of the time. The Australian gold rushes beginning in the 1850s provided funds for the construction of grand theatres in the Victorian style, along with many other civic buildings. The Western Australian goldrushes in the 1890s led to a similar construction boom in Perth.
Some of the oldest grand heritage theatrical buildings include:
  • The term Theatre Royal was initially synonymous with the major theatre in each city. The first Theatre Royal was opened in Sydney in 1833. The building suffered destruction and underwent renovation several times, and the existing Theatre Royal was built on the site in 1976.
  • The Theatre Royal, Hobart opened in 1837 and is the oldest still-operating theatre in Australia. Noël Coward called it a Dream Theatre and Laurence Olivier came to its defence when it was threatened with demolition in the 1940s.
  • The Queen's Theatre, Adelaide opened with Shakespeare in 1841 and is today the oldest theatre on the mainland.
  • The Melbourne Athenaeum was founded in 1839 as the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute, and the theatre in its present form was created in 1924.
  • A theatre was built on the present site of Melbourne's Princess Theatre in 1854, with the present building constructed in 1886.
  • The Victoria Theatre in Newcastle was built in 1876 and is the oldest theatre still standing in New South Wales. It was decommissioned in 1964, but in 2015 it was acquired, with plans to renovate in motion.
  • His Majesty's Theatre, Perth opened in 1904. The building remains a rare example of Edwardian baroque theatrical architecture in Australia.
In the period between the Wars, elaborate cinemas were constructed, often in the Art Deco style. When cinemas were no longer popular, these buildings were sometimes repurposed as general theatres for performances and community events. The Capitol Theatre in Sydney had a long history as a covered market, a circus and a cinema before becoming a theatre for major musicals in 1972. The State Theatre and the Regent Theatre both opened in Melbourne in 1929, originally as cinemas, while the Astor Theatre opened in 1939. The Palais Theatre, St Kilda is still the largest seated theatre in Australia,. Several art deco picture palaces, now theatres, opened in Perth in the inter-war years – the Regal in Subiaco in 1937 and the Astor in Mount Lawley.
From the 1960s, major cities across Australia developed new government-owned performing arts centres, often housing not-for-profit theatre, opera and dance companies. Examples include the Sydney Opera House, the Arts Centre Melbourne, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Canberra Theatre Centre and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.
The Arts Centre Melbourne in the Melbourne Arts Precinct was designed by architect Sir Roy Grounds. The masterplan for the complex was approved in 1960, and construction of the Arts Centre began in 1973. The complex opened in stages, with Hamer Hall opening in 1982, and the Theatres Building opening in 1984. The centre now hosts regular performances by Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Melbourne Theatre Company and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as well as a large number of Australian and international performances and production companies.
In 1973, the Sydney Opera House opened in Sydney – becoming among the most famous performance venues in the world and a World Heritage site. It is the home of the Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and has a drama theatre and other facilities. With its spectacular Sydney Harbour site and expressionist design, it is Australia's most visited tourist attraction.
Also opening in 1973, the Adelaide Festival Centre was Australia's first multi-purpose art centre, and it includes three theatres. It hosts the Adelaide Festival and several other festivals, and it is home to the major State performing arts groups.
Most major regional centres and many outer metropolitan areas have a professional-standard performing arts centre typically run by the local council, either newly built such as the Riverside Theatres Parramatta, the Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre or the Frankston Arts Centre, or refurbishment of heritage theatres or cinemas such as the Newcastle Civic Theatre, the Theatre Royal in Hobart or the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba.
Non-establishment theatres like the New Theatre in Newtown, Sydney have catered to a more radical clientele. The New Theatre was originally established in 1932 as part of the international New Theatre movement affiliated with Communist parties, and is the oldest theatre company in continuous production. Its most famous production was Reedy River in 1953 based on the 1891 Australian Shearer's Strike, which helped to launch the 1950s Folk Music Revival. Melbourne also had a New Theatre, founded by radical playwright Betty Roland in 1936. It ran the first play supporting Indigenous Australians, White Justice, about the Pilbara strike, and it was the first theatre to stage Brecht.
For a long time, innovative theatre was only staged by student companies in theatres associated with university precincts. Some of the better-known university performing arts theatres are:
There are many smaller theatres associated with particular theatre companies. A full list of existing major theatres in each city is given below,