Mainstage Productions

We seek out the best contemporary writing in Australia and on our international stages – award-winning contemporary plays with themes that resonate with today’s audiences, such as mental health, environmental, legacy and intergenerational relationships.

Whether producing plays in cinemas, found spaces or established venues, we take theatre to audiences wherever we can find them.

Notable productions since the transition to THEATRE 180 in 2018 include:

• The award-winning production with Cinemastage, A.B. Facey’s A Fortunate Life by Jenny Davis OAM & Stuart Halusz. Adapted from the iconic WA biography, this production has reached 125 performances so far and continues to tour sell-out shows.
• SYDNEY II: Lost and Found by Jenny Davis OAM. With assistance from the Finding Sydney Foundation and WA Museum, a landmark production based on Australia’s greatest maritime disaster off the coast of Geraldton in 1941.
• The Lighthouse Girl Saga by Jenny Davis OAM and Hellie Turner, based on the award-winning novels by Dianne Wolfer. A sweeping WWI story about the forging of the Anzac spirit.
• The Children by UK playwright Lucy Kirkwood. A Tony award-winning play, performed at Burt Memorial Hall, this powerful story addressed the importance of legacy, generational responsibilities and the environmental impact on the planet of human activity.
• I and You by US playwright Lauren Gunderson, Guest Director Kate Cherry. This American Theatre Critics Association award-winning play, performed in a near sell-out double bill with The Children at Burt Memorial Hall, was described as an ode to youth, life, love and the strange beauty of human connectedness.
• Blue/Orange by UK playwright Joe Penhall. This Olivier and Critics Circle award-winning play had a critically acclaimed season for our third production at Burt Memorial Hall, this time with a foyer space and bar. A compelling, modern classic which challenged our notion of ethnic prejudice and mental wellness in society.
• Matters of the Heart by WA playwright Leith Taylor, Guest Director Leith Taylor. Three sold-out performances of a staged reading of a new play which gave voice to a local story about a life-saving Australian first operation in 1949.