Australian Theatre after the New Wave

In Australian Theatre after the New Wave, Julian Meyrick charts the history of three ground-breaking Australian theatre companies, the Paris Theatre (1978), the Hunter Valley Theatre (1976-94) and Anthill Theatre (1980-94). In the years following the controversial dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government in 1975, these ‘alternative’ theatres struggled to survive in an increasingly adverse economic and administrative environment. Drawing on interviews and archival sources, including Australia Council fi les and correspondence, the book examines the funding structures in which the companies operated, and the impact of the main cultural policies of the period. It analyses the changing relationship between the artist and the State, the rise of a managerial ethos of ‘accountability’, and the growing dominance of government in determining the fate of the nation’s theatre. In doing so, it shows the deep historical roots of many of the problems facing Australian theatre today.