Videos

Before the era of government subsidies, Australian colonial theatre was dominated by a production behemoth, JC Williamson Theatres, or “The Firm”. Robert Reid lays it all down.

Witness Histories, Episode 3 Part 1: Robert Reid tracks Australian theatre through the 19th century, through the often disreputable careers of the early actor-managers.

Witness Histories, Episode 3 Part 2: Robert Reid tracks Australian theatre through the 19th century, through the often disreputable careers of the early actor-managers.

There were plays! There were riots! There were offended clerics and government shutdowns! Robert Reid traces the fascinating, troubled and largely forgotten history of convict theatre after the First Fleet arrived in 1788, and ponders why so much of it seems so familiar.

Witness Histories Part 1: Choreographer and creative director of the Yirramboi First Nations Festival Jacob Boehme talks to Robert Reid about 80,000 years of Indigenous performance history in Australia. 

Witness Histories Part 2: Jacob Boehme talks to Robert Reid about 80,000 years of Indigenous performance history in Australia. Modernism? Post-dramatic theatre? What makes Europeans think that these are new ideas?

Theatre’s never really had the best of reputations: it’s been commonly associated with thieves and prostitutes, disease and rebellion. It’s one of the reasons we like it. Robert Reid asks why we care.

Here we are, Robert and Alison, trailing our cloaks…