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Artwork for Radical Then, Radical Now

Radical Then, Radical Now

A panel with Anne-Louise Sarks, Caitlin Dullard, Alison Croggon, Andrea James and Mark Wilson

Saturday 29 March, 4.30–5.30pm

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

Free event

Join us for an insightful 60-minute panel conversation exploring theatre that shakes us awake and the stories from our own backyard that refuse to fade.

Due to popular demand, we have relocated this event to the Sumner theatre to accommodate more seating.

Haven’t seen The Removalists yet? Catch the 2pm performance immediately prior to this free event, or stay for the 7.30pm performance that evening. Tickets to The Removalists sold separately.

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About the Event

Nearly 54 years ago, The Removalists exploded onto the stage at La Mama – a small theatre with a huge impact. Raw, impossible to ignore, and unapologetically Australian, David Williamson’s gritty play shocked audiences, challenged authority, and held up an unflinching mirror to society.

Now, under the visionary direction of Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks, Melbourne Theatre Company is restaging this landmark work. But if it still disturbs, still provokes, still feels uncomfortably real – what does that say about us as a society?

Join Sarks, La Mama CEO Caitlin Dullard, arts critic Alison Croggon and playwright Andrea James (Sunshine Super Girl, The Black Woman of Gippsland) for an insightful conversation exploring the kind of theatre that shakes us awake, the stories from our own backyard that refuse to fade, and how companies such as La Mama and Melbourne Theatre Company are vital in keeping theatre fearless, urgent and alive.

Moderated by Melbourne Theatre Company Associate Artist Mark Wilson.

This event is free to attend, however spaces are limited so please register for a free ticket.

 

 

 

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

Artwork for Anne-Louise Sarks

Anne-Louise Sarks

Anne-Louise Sarks is Artistic Director & Co-CEO of Melbourne Theatre Company, where her directing credits include My Brilliant Career, A Streetcar Named Desire, Escaped Alone & What If If Only and Bernhardt/Hamlet. Previous work with the Company includes Minnie & Liraz and The Seed. An internationally acclaimed director, writer and dramaturg, Anne-Louise’s work has been seen in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Helsinki, Mexico City, New York, Warsaw, Dublin, Auckland, Mumbai, Perth and Basel. Recent productions include Avalanche (Barbican); Our Town, Medea (Theater Basel); and Stop Girl (Belvoir). Her production of Blasted at Malthouse Theatre was nominated for four Green Room Awards. Medea, co-written with Kate Mulvany, won five Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction. It was also awarded an AWGIE for Best Stage Play. Anne-Louise was previously Artistic Director of the Lyric Ensemble at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and of Melbourne independent theatre company The Hayloft Project. She has been Resident Director at Belvoir, Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre, and in 2010 she was Emerging Resident Director at Melbourne Theatre Company.

Artwork for Caitlin Dullard

Caitlin Dullard

Caitlin Dullard began working at La Mama in 2006, starting in Community, Touring and Producer Roles, before becoming the General Manager (2014), co-CEO (2018) and CEO/Director (2023). She has curated La Mama’s Explorations program (works in development) since 2014 and was Project Manager on the La Mama Rebuild, after the devastating fire of 2018.

Caitlin holds a Master of Teaching (English and Drama), a Post Graduate Diploma of Arts (Theatre), a Bachelor of Arts (Drama and Literature) and a Post-Graduate Certificate of Arts & Community Engagement at the VCA. Caitlin has also worked with Augusto Boal and trained in Forum Theatre.

She was the Chair of DVA Theatre for adults with disabilities from 2006 – 2013 and practiced independently as a performance facilitator and director in a wide range of community settings. She has worked extensively across New Zealand and regional Victoria, devising and presenting works and developing exchange programs and collaborations. Caitlin produced the site-specific durational version of Uncle Vanya in Avoca, Stieglitz, Eganstown, Bundanon and The Cedars as part of the Adelaide Festival. She has also produced Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, as part of the Minutes of Evidence Project, in various locations, including on site at Coranderrk. Before La Mama, she was at the Centre for Cultural Development at the VCA.

She is committed to fostering opportunities for independent artists and supporting underrepresented voices in theatre. Through her leadership roles at La Mama, Caitlin has played a pivotal role in maintaining the theatre's ethos of experimentation and inclusivity, helping to keep the venue a vital space for artists looking to push the boundaries of performance.

Alison-Croggon.png

Alison Croggon

Alison Croggon is an award-winning novelist, poet, librettist, critic and arts editor of The Saturday Paper. She has 30 years experience reviewing performance for outlets such as The Saturday Paper, the Australian, the ABC, the Guardian and The Monthly. She generated an international reputation as a performance critic with her influential blog Theatre Notes, and was editor and co-founder of the performance criticism site Witness Performance (2017-2021). In 2009 she was the first online critic to win the prestigious Geraldine Pascall Critic of the Year award.

She has published eight collections of poetry and nine novels. Most recently her translation of the Duino Elegies was shortlisted for the translation prize in the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She has won the Dame Mary Gilmore and Anne Elder Awards for poetry and the Wilderness Society’s 2016 Environment Award for Children’s Literature for The River and the Book. As well, her poetry collections and novels have been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the WA Premier’s Literary Awards, and her fantasy novels have been shortlisted several times for the Aurealis Awards for Speculative Fiction.

She has written a number of plays, most recently My Dearworthy Darling (The Rabble and Malthouse Theatre, 2019). She has written libretti for eight operas, including The Riders with Iain Grandage, for which they won Vocal/Choral Work of the Year in the Art Music Awards in 2015, and Mayakovsky with Michael Smetanin, for which her libretto was shortlisted for the Drama Prize in the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. She is currently working on a new opera for Opera Queensland, Naria, with composer and singer Jess Hitchcock.

Artwork for Andrea James

Andrea James

Andrea is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatremaker and graduate of VCA. Her plays include Big Name No Blankets (co-written with Sammy and Anyupa Butcher), Yanagai! Yanagai! (premiered at Playbox in 2004 and toured to the UK), and with Cath Ryan, Dogged (Griffin Theatre Company). Her play Sunshine Super Girl premiered at Griffith in 2020, and 2021 Sydney Festival before an extensive national tour. Andrea is currently Associate Artistic Director at Griffin Theatre where she directed Ghosting the Party by Melissa Bubnic in 2022, Jailbaby by Suzie Miller in 2023 and swim by Ellen Van Neerven. Previous positions include Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre (2001-2008), Aboriginal Arts Development Officer at Blacktown Arts Centre (2010-2012) and Aboriginal Producer at Carriageworks (2012-2016). Andrea was recently awarded the Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers. She was recipient of British Council’s Accelerate Program for Aboriginal Art Leaders and was awarded Create NSW Aboriginal Arts Fellowship in 2018. In 2024, she received Creative Australia's National Theatre Award.

 

Artwork for Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson works as a director, devisor, dramaturg, performer and writer. Directing credits include Declan Furber Gillick's Jacky (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Bighouse Dreaming (Melbourne Fringe Festival, Brisbane Festival, Darwin Festival), Rory Godbold’s Code of Conduct (Midsumma Festival); Emma Hall’s World Problems (Theatre Oostblok, Amsterdam) and Michael Gow’s Sweet Phoebe (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre). As a maker and performer he has collaborated with Brian Lipson on The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus (Melbourne Fringe, Arts Centre Melbourne); Alice Will Caroline on Doors Shut (Melbourne Fringe/Temperance Hall); Triage Live Art Collective; and as dramaturg on Emily Godard’s This is Eden directed by Susie Dee. Before the pandemic, he created and performed three radical Shakespeare adaptations: Unsex Me, Richard II and Anti-Hamlet. He trained at Monash University, Victorian College of the Arts and Ecole Philippe Gaulier and is an International Fellow of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. He teaches regularly at VCA. His shows have won awards at Melbourne Fringe and in the Independent Theatre and Dance categories at the Greenroom Awards.

Get Directions

The Sumner

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006