The yawning gap in Adelaide’s arts ecology

Why does South Australia's theatre sector lack an equivalent of Belvoir, Griffin, La Boite and the Malthouse?

Brink Production’s Land & Sea (2012). Image via brinkproductions.com

Australia’s capital cities host a diverse range of arts organisations; most boast a three-tier theatre ecology, with mainstage companies such as Black Swan and the Melbourne Theatre Company at the top, smaller companies including La Boite and the Malthouse on the next rung down, and a range of small-to-medium organisations occupying the third, but no less important, tier.

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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