australian theatre

By TianTian
  • Jan 1, 1402

    First European acting company

    First European acting company occupies permanent acting playhouse
  • Jan 1, 1558

    Outlawing of the performance of religious drama

    Queen Elizabeth the 1st came to the British throne in 1558 and outlawed the performance of religious drama.
  • Period: to

    European settlers brought Western traditions of theatre to Australia

    European settlers brought Western traditions of theatre to Australia
  • Period: to

    Robert Sidway started a theatre in Sydney

    Robert Sidway started a theatre in Sydney where performances continued until at least 1800.

  • Barnett Levy established Sydney's Theatre Royal in 1833

  • Adelaide's Theatre Royal, the first in that city,

  • The Pavilion, Melbourne's first theatre, opened

  • An early performer

    George Coppin, an early performer arrived in Australia in 1843 and appeared on the Sydney stage.
  • Period: to

    The Gold Rushes impact

    The gold rushes of the 1850s brought a growth in population and increased trade and wealth from the goldfields. There was a growing demand for theatre entertainment, and Shakespeare and opera performances increased.

  • The Lyster Opera Company came to Australia

  • Period: to

    W.S. Lyster added Italian and English opera, and a variety of other acts, to his touring program.

  • Period: to

    Nellie Stewart was a well-known Australian star.

    Alfred Dampier presented Sydney audiences with plays such as His Natural Life in 1886 and The Life and Death of Captain Cook in 1888. Janet Achurch, on tour from England, performed Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1889. Many major theatres were built during the 1880s
  • Period: to

    The Americans brought vaudeville-style theatre to Australia

  • Sarah Bernhardt toured Australia

  • Nance O'Neill starred in a Melbourne production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler

  • Australian Federation

    a new sense of nationalism - people looked for ways to express a unique Australian identity.The Squatter's Daughter, or, The Land of the Wattle (1907) by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan was a highly successful play of this time with a bushranger plot
  • Period: to

    On Our Selection

    On Our Selection, took a look at success, struggle and work in the lives of ordinary Australians and this played to over one million Australians and New Zealanders
  • Period: to

    Musical comedy was popular

  • Theatre populartity decreased

    Following the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression hit the Australian theatre world very hard. Live shows were taxed and had to compete with cinema and radio entertainment. However, many amateur, semi-professional and smaller theatre groups began springing up at this time.

  • White Horse Inn

    In 1934 J C Williamson staged the spectacular musical White Horse Inn. In contrast, the international New Theatre movement was responding to political issues with radical theatre.
  • Period: to

    The impact of World War II

    World War II brought home many Australian performers who had been away in Europe and other continents, while many international performers waited out the war years on Australia's shores. Despite a shortage of male actors, materials and scripts for productions, Australian theatre fulfilled an important role providing morale-boosting entertainment

  • Australian Themed Theatre

    the plays Rusty Bugles by Sumner Locke Elliott and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler marked a turning point in Australian theatre. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll quickly gained popularity for its uniquely Australian voice and universal themes

  • The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) was established in Sydney