PAST PROJECTS
We've been rocking houses across Meanjin since August 2022. Check out some of our past productions and projects below. You can reach out to theatrepunkco@gmail.com for more information, resources and reproduction enquiries.
2024
DOGHOLE
Meet DOG-or Camille Evans (don't call them that to their face, though). An egotistical, bold young writer, they're on the journey to writing the next hit Australian novel. It's called DOGHOLE-and it's their ticket out of the middle-of-nowhere town they grew up in.
DOG thinks all male writers are bad. DOG thinks Tim Winton isn’t that great of an author. DOG knows that normal writers don’t get haunted by the ghosts of dead authors who insist they’re doing this writing thing wrong. DOG knows that normal writers don’t find the world of fiction and reality crossing over until they’re not sure what’s a line in a book or an event in real life. DOG knows this, they really do. But that’s just another hurdle in their race to be the next big thing.
Love, identity & legacy collide in this heartfelt and utterly silly fantasy world that tells an all-too-relatable coming of age story for anyone who's ever felt too big for their boots.
Described as “outrageously humorous and incredibly intelligent” (Theatrehaus), the work promises to be an in-your-face disco of a theatre show you won’t soon forget.
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Cast and Crew
by Grace Wilson
A theatrePUNK co. X Underground Theatre Production
Directed by el waddingham
Stage Manager: Teddy Waddingham
Producer: Kiera Lee
Creative Associate: Aimee Tacon
Sound Design: Hannah Page
Lighting Design: Abigail Taylor
Creative Collaborator: Belle Steinhardt
Dramaturg: Alex Mcdonald
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Dog: Zee Bartley
Kat: Ava Ryan
Patrick White: Tom Anderson
Tim Winton: Bridie Middleton
Mum/Ensemble: Jiordie Lobwein
Ensemble: Mia Chisholm
Ensemble: Estella Hall
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Reviews
https://westender.com.au/doghole-identity-intersects-with-art-in-a-glittery-coming-of-age-tale/
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Production HiSTORY
2024
Queensland Multicultural Centre, April 16-28th
Archival footage available upon request.
2023
LYSISTRATA
LYSISTRATA follows a group of ferocious women as they take a stand against war by refusing to have sex with their husbands (and take over the city's financial and political epicentre, but that's far less scandalous). Throw in an all-female/queer cast and crew, language pulled straight from the original text and the comments section of a Twitter argument, and a hardy dose of female rage-and you've got an emblematic theatrePUNK co. show. Taking a deep stab at questions of activism, womanhood, and queerness, LYSISTRATA is a dagger-edged, glittered new take on an iconic story of women doing what we do best: fight.
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Cast and Crew
by El Waddingham after Aristophanes
Directed by Annabel Gilbert
Stage Manager: Teah Peters
Producer: El Waddingham
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Lysistrata: Siena D'Arienzo
Calonice: Mia Chisholm
Stratyllis: Mia Foley
Myrrhine: Emme Skye
Lampito: Madelyne Leite
Magistrate/Cinesias: Belle Steinhardt
Chorus: Keeley Hay and Chelsea Doran
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Program
https://issuu.com/theatrepunkco/docs/lys_program
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Reviews
https://www.theatrehaus.com/2023/03/lysistrata-allentertainment-theatrepunk-co/
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Production History
2023
PIP Theatre X Allentertainment's Original Works Festival
Archival footage available upon request.
2023
BARRIERS
‘Barriers’ written by Seb Saint and directed by Jason Damot is a responsive dystopian imagining of humanity’s future. The year is 2100. Technology is king, face-to-face communication is as obsolete as a VHS and we’re on to the 40th Marvel cinematic universe. Insanity. Until a researcher decides to chuck eight kids into an underground bunker, without their precious devices, to give them a taste of what real school was like. No phones, no dopamine hits, no soothing blue light. Chaos is bound to ensue.
Created by a team of teenage artists at theatrePUNK co. through our babyPUNK artist development program, ‘Barriers’ is a radical provocation to empathy, and a warning of what youth could look like if we don’t keep tech in check. Featuring a cast of social media royalty, queer cyberkids, right-wing edgelords and one totally clueless non-user, secrets and past mistakes threaten to rear their heads when all barriers are down. What will be unearthed? Will we ever be-real again?
Welcome to the future, kids.
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Cast and Crew
by Seb Saint
Directed by Jason Damot
Stage Manager: Madelyne Leite
Production Designer: Grace Lashbrook
Lighting Designer: Cale Dennis
Dramaturg: El Waddingham
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Capa: George Sharman
Mia: Rachael Woodnett
Luca: Joshua Price
Steven: Elijah Unterburger
Chrissy: Phoebe Quinn
Paul: Cameron Walker
Vin: Cullyn Beckton
Xavier: Ewan Robertson
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Program
https://issuu.com/theatrepunkco/docs/bar_program_
Production History
2023
Studio1, 23-25 June
PALLAS SISTER RISING
“We don’t see shit like us on the TV. You can call it bizarre, I call it fucking scary.”
PALLAS SISTER RISING is a raw, new work by Grace Wilson and directed by El Waddingham. Taking the myth of Pallas Athena and rocketing it into the 21st century, becoming a brutal exploration of what happens when two women of divine nature get too close, from one of Australia’s most explosive emerging playwrights. Delving deep into how abuse manifests in women, PALLAS SISTER RISING is painfully relatable and tragic to a level that only Greek mythology can reach.
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Cast and Crew
by Grace Wilson
Directed & Produced by El Waddingham
Stage Manager: Carys Maguire
Athena: Madelyne Leite
Pallas: Cara Avenia
Athena U/S: Madeleine Wilson
Pallas U/S: Keeley Hay
Program
https://issuu.com/theatrepunkco/docs/pal_program
Reviews
https://www.theatrehaus.com/2023/08/palla-sister-rising-theatrepunk-co/
https://atyp.com.au/pallas-sister-rising-review/
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Production History
2023
Debut theatrePUNK co. Season: Backdock Arts, 26-27th August
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Returned in collaboration with Underground Theatre Company for the Short Play Festival 2023 at Arcana Brisbane.
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Archival footage available upon request.
PASHUN
What do you do when Masculine, Feminine, and slight Enby energy are exacerbated in modern society? Exploitive instances of toxic masculinity online? Relationships only lasting a minute? The tragic tale of being an oppressed straight girl in a gay world? PASHUN is a comedically absurdist theatrical exploration exploring all of the above with a little bit of spice.
Supported by our babyPUNK Artist Development Program, this experimental new work is alive with crazy Brisbane Uni Energy (BUE).
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Cast and Crew
by Harrison Mills
Director: Joshua Price
Producer: El Waddingham
Stage Manager: Teddy Waddingham
Lighting Designer: Phoebe Quinn
Lena: Rachael Griffiths
Conner: Keegan Bell
Kai: Cullyn Beckton
Tiff: Zara Chandler
Emma: Naticia Slade
Rory: Ewan Robertson
SIGMA: Emma Stretton
Andrew: Scott Kift
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Program
https://issuu.com/theatrepunkco/docs/pas_program
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Reviews
"Skilfully interwoven absurdist techniques into the fabric of queer and heterosexual love, resulting in a profoundly thought-provoking experience"-Theatre Haus
https://www.theatrehaus.com/2023/09/pashun-theatrepunk-co/
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WINNER of Theatre Haus's Wall of Favourites 'Best Independent Production'
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Production History
2023
Debut theatrePUNK co. Season: Backdock Arts, 8-10 September 2023
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Archival footage available upon request.
2022
HOMILY
HOMILY is a GOD HATES FAGS sign on fire. It’s a bible covered in red glitter. It’s sneaking one too many sips of the communion wine and exploring a dark fantasy of a life that could have been. HOMILY is a semi-autobiographical work by emerging theatre-maker, el waddingham and seeks to divulge their experience growing up as a queer person in a Catholic school. It is written in the same traditional form of a Catholic homily and is a loose adaptation of Everyman, a 15th-century Christian morality play by an unknown author following Everyman’s attempt to repent for a hedonistic life after being told he is going to die. The themes of repentance in Everyman deeply mirror HOMILY’s attempt to reconcile with identity and the past. Enter their drag persona, Lady Diana, as THE PREACHER, a repressed, confused creature of the dark who goes on an emotionally intensive journey of self-discovery, reflecting el's own path to acceptance. It deals with how religion interacts with the psyche of a young person, and the different ways in which internalised homophobia and religious conditioning impact the queer identity.
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Reviews
"a beautiful authentic dance without artifice"-Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane
"like nothing I have experienced, and I was brought to tears by the empowered strength and demanding presence Waddingham has on stage."-Mystify Productions
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Production History
2022
Ron Hurley Theatre, co-production with Vena Cava Productions
TITS AKIMBO's SEXFEST
2023-Fringe Tour
Darwin Fringe, Browns Mart Theatre
Sydney Fringe, EASH
Melbourne Fringe, Theatre Works Explosives Factory
2022
The muses
"Our bodies synch and we get too close and we move and shake the Earth together and we combust into pure rage, pure passion and what we create is too powerful to be perceived. It must be made into art."
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This ambitious piece of feminist dance theatre is the culmination of experimenting with pushing gender norms and constructs and a life lived in constant of history by emerging playwright, el waddingham. 'The Muses' is a ritual invitation by three divine female powers to explore the exploitative role of the muse in art, politics and society through poetry, prose and fiercely political theatre.
It begs the question-what’s the difference between Aileen Wurnous and Eve?
Turns out, there’s not much between them.
A love letter to art, history and the women who inspired it, 'The Muses' seeks to explore how female rage and passion has been the invisible drivers behind great and terrible artists, and what being forced into this role means for women on the most molecular and fundamental levels. Come scream, laugh, dance and pop the champaign with us: however you best reckon with your place in this world.
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Production history
Playreading & open development session performed on the 10 & 11 December, 2022 at the Spring Hill Community Hall