Depression, cancer, grief…lining up to be made miserable

Why do we plumb life’s darkest depths to make our art – and why do audiences seek out such experiences?
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Promotional image for I Can Breathe Underwater via The Blue Room

For theatre-makers, as with all artists, there can be many reasons for tackling challenging themes in one’s work. Anger that a particular issue is being ignored by the mainstream media; a personal need for catharsis; the desire to explore a topic with more nuance than is possible when writing an opinion piece for a newspaper.

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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