Speaking the unspeakable

Art inspired by personal trauma is not mere catharsis - it can be creative, brave and even playful.
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Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre’s Betroffenheit. Image by Wendy D.

The cliché of the suffering artist is well established, but a personal experience of trauma is not a prerequisite for the creation of great art. Nonetheless, artists continue to mine their own sometimes intensely painful experiences – and the tragedies of others – in order to create work for the stage.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts