Media & Publications

Tim Byrne, The Guardian, 2024. ★★★★★“Multiple Bad Things: A hilarious, provocative work of profound complexity.”

Time Out, 2024. ★★★★★ “Multiple Bad Things…presents a narrative that feels distinctly original, universally resonant and plenty surreal.” 

Cameron Woodhead, The Age, 2024. “Multiple Bad Things is yet another provocative and emotionally intelligent piece of devised theatre. It creates from the outset an atmosphere of atomisation and retreat in the face of crisis.”

Kelly Burke, The Guardian, 2024. “Venice Biennale: regional Australian theatre company wins prestigious Golden Lion…Back to Back receives lifetime achievement award for work that ‘blows away’ prejudice and ‘makes disability a tool of artistic inquiry’”

Kerrie O’Brien, The Age, 2024. “Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre has just been announced as the 2024 recipient of the Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement in theatre…The theatre group is a pioneer of powerful, often confronting work, much of which they have toured around the world to great acclaim.”

Myron My, My Melbourne Arts, 2023. “The simplistic narrative of small metal objects not only allows you to consider the power dynamics between the four characters, but also cleverly has you thinking about the power dynamics at play in our society.”

Susan Horsburgh, Good Weekend, 2022. “There isn’t much that’s conventional about Back to Back, but maybe that’s why this unlikely troupe of performers from regional Australia has become one of the country’s most celebrated cultural exports.”

Alison Croggan, The Monthly, 2022. “How to describe Back to Back’s theatre? It’s work that peels away the illusions that sustain us, a kind of psychic cleansing that generates a fugitive sense of freedom and joy. By its end, their audiences are left facing themselves. The voyeurism that shames us. The cruelty that stems from self-hatred. The conflicts that expose us. The fascism that seeds in the tyranny of the well-meaning. Our unbearable fragility. Our mortality.”

Tim Byrne, Arts Hub, 2021. “It was the sort of deeply felt and intellectually dazzling work that has come to define this company, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Cameron Woodhead, The Age. 2021. “Challenging, arresting, supremely considered theatre from a world-class ensemble, Food Court leaves most theatre for dust in terms of daring and emotional intelligence, and will dispel utterly any preconceptions the audience might have about artists with disability.”

Alison Croggan, The Saturday Paper. 2021.“Their performances are at once a reflection of how dominance is internalised and reproduced as lateral violence – how power can fracture our capacity for kinship – and a representation of devastating lived experiences of human cruelty.” 

Cameron Woodhead, The Age. 2019. “The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes offers an urgent and uncompromising conversation about the state of humanity”. 2019. Print. 11 October 2019

Alison Croggan, The Saturday Paper. 2019. “Acerbic and powerful, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes exposes the exploitation of people with disability, and continues Back to Back Theatre’s tradition of making groundbreaking work”. 2019. Print. 19 October 2019

Philippa Hawker, The Australian. 2017. “Oddlands focuses on actors’ skills, and shows off some new ones“. 2017. Print. 4 October 2017

David Zimpatti, The West Australian Review. 2017. “PIAF Review: Lady Eats Apple“. 2017. Web. 4 Mar 2017

Clarissa Sebag- Montefiore, BBC News. 2017. “Art and disability: The performers demanding to be judged on merit.” 2017. Web. 26 Feb 2017

Jane Howard, The Guardian. 2016. “Lady Eats Apple – examination of the epic and the every day bears fruit”. 2016. Web. 10 Oct 2016.

Michael Cathcart & Sarah Kanowski, ABC Radio National – Book & Arts. 2016. “Back to Back Theatre: Lady Eats Apple”. 2016. Radio. 7 Oct 2016.

John Bailey, The Sunday Age: M Magazine. 2016, “Share the stage”. 2016. Print. 2 Oct 2016.

Kate Holden, The Saturday Paper. 2016, “Behind the scenes with Back to Back Theatre”. 2016. Print. 1 Oct 2016.

Steve Dow, The Guardian Australia. 2016. “Disability and the ‘new normal’: why Australia needs to ramp up access to stage and screen”. 2016. Web. 24 Sep 2016.

Eckersall, Peter, and Helena Grehan, eds. We’re People Who Do Shows – Back to Back Theatre Performance, Politics, Visibility. Wales: Performance Research Books, 2013. Print.

Alexeyeff, K. “The Toolondo Fishman: Humananimals and Forms of Response-ability”. Responsibility. Eds. Hage, G and Robyn Eckersley. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2012. 187-197. Print.

Hadley, Bree. Disability, Public Space Performance & Spectatorship; Unconscious Performances. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Print.

Hargrave, Matt. Theatres of Learning Disability. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Print.

Harvie, Jen. Theatre & The City. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

Machon, Josephine. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.

Tan, Marcus. “Elephant Head on White: Reflexive Interculturalism in Ganesh Versus the Third Reich.” Contemporary Theatre Review 26 4 (2016): 416 – 428, Routledge. Web. 14 Mar 2017.

Calvert, David. Everything Has a Fucking Value: Negative Dialectics in the Work of Back to Back Theatre. 2015. Journal.

Bourgeois, Catherine. “Le grand frère australien en visite – Entretien avec Bruce Gladwin du Back to Back Theatre.” Jeu Revue de theatre 146 1 (2013): 130-134 Jeu Revue de theatre. Web.

Kuppers, Petra. “Outsider Histories, Insider Artists, Cross Cultural Ensembles: Visiting with Disability Preferences in Contemporary Art Environments.” The Drama Review 58 2 (2014): 33-50 MIT Press Journals. Web. 12 May 2014.

Maxell, Ian. “Book Review of ‘We’re People Who Do Shows’: Back to Back Theatre: Performance Politics Visibility’.” Theatre Research International 39 3 (2014): 244-245 Cambridge Journals Online. Web.16 Sep 2014.

McGillvray, Glen. “Negotiating Material Reality Through Fetishism and Disavowal in Food Court.”  About Performance 10 (2010): 7-14 Informit. Web.

Rittberger, Kevin. “Indian Elephants and Poor Dogs.” Theatre Heute 89 (2012) Kultiversum. Web.

Schmidt, T. “Acting, Disabled: Back to Back Theatre and the politics of Appearance”. Post-dramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. Eds. Carroll, J, Steve Giles and Karen Juers-Munby. London: Methuen Drama, 2013. 189-207. Print.

Schmidt, T. “A journey through Back to Back’s Hell House.” Performance Research: On Fire 18 1 (2013): 139-148 Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 18 Jun 2013.

I EAT SHARKS, SHARKS EAT PEOPLE

Nelson Park Residency, 2023

GIANT RUNNING IN CHILD’S SHOES

Nelson Park Residency, 2024

Back to Back Theatre’s 2023 Annual Report

Back to Back Theatre’s 2022 Annual Report

2021 Year In Review/Annual Report

2020 Year In Review

2019 Year In Review

2018 Year In Review

2017 Year In Review

2016 Year In Review

2015 Year In Review

2014 Year In review

2013 Year In Review