← Section I and III (Core): Australian Drama and Theatre
How has Australian theatre developed as a distinctive national tradition, and what historical and cultural forces have shaped it?
The historical and cultural context of Australian theatre, including the development from colonial entertainment through to a distinctive national tradition from the 1950s onwards
A focused answer to the HSC Drama core dot point on Australian theatre history. The colonial heritage, the postwar Australian Performing Group and New Wave, the rise of state theatre companies (Belvoir, STC, MTC, QT), the prominence of Indigenous theatre from the 1990s, and how this history informs HSC prescriptions.
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
What this dot point is asking
NESA expects you to be able to place Australian theatre's prescribed playwrights and movements in a historical and cultural context. The Australian Drama and Theatre core is grounded in the idea that Australian theatre has a distinctive tradition that emerged from the 1950s and has been shaped by particular institutions, political movements, and changing ideas of national identity. Strong responses can sketch this history in a paragraph or two before zooming in on the prescribed material.
The answer
The colonial inheritance
Australian theatre before 1955 was overwhelmingly an imported product. The repertoire was English, the actors often visited from London and New York, and the local industry consisted of touring circuits run by J. C. Williamson Ltd ("The Firm"), which dominated commercial theatre from the 1870s to the 1970s. Original Australian plays existed (Louis Esson, Doris Egerton Jones, Sumner Locke Elliott) but did not constitute a national tradition with international visibility.
The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, founded in 1954, was the first serious public investment in Australian performance. Its support helped get Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll to the stage in 1955.
The Doll and the start of a national tradition
Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (premiered Union Theatre, Melbourne, November 1955) is the conventional founding work of modern Australian theatre. It put cane cutters, a Carlton terrace, and a particular Australian male friendship onto the stage in vernacular speech. The Doll's transfer to London (1957) and to Broadway (1958) was the first commercial success for an Australian play.
The Doll trilogy (with Kid Stakes, 1975, and Other Times, 1976, written as prequels) is one of the most commonly prescribed Australian Drama and Theatre study areas. Its themes (mateship, ageing, the rural-urban divide, the failure of bohemian dreams) became templates for later writers.
The New Wave, 1968 to 1981
The late 1960s and 1970s produced the most concentrated burst of Australian playwriting in the country's history. Two organisations matter most.
The Australian Performing Group (APG) at the Pram Factory in Carlton, Melbourne (1968 to 1981). Co-operative, politically left-wing, committed to original Australian work. Launched David Williamson (The Removalists, 1971; Don's Party, 1971), Jack Hibberd (Dimboola, 1969; A Stretch of the Imagination, 1972), Alex Buzo (Norm and Ahmed, 1968), and Barry Oakley.
The Nimrod Street Theatre in Sydney (1970 to 1988). Slightly less political, more focused on craft. Launched Louis Nowra (Inner Voices, 1977; Visions, 1978), Stephen Sewell, and revived classics in distinctively Australian productions.
Williamson is the most produced playwright the country has produced. The New Wave plays are politically engaged, use vernacular Australian speech, and often deal with class, masculinity, and political failure (The Removalists' police violence; Don's Party's 1969 election night).
The institutional era, 1979 to the present
The big state-funded companies, founded or expanded through the late 1970s and 1980s, became the new homes for Australian playwriting:
- Sydney Theatre Company (STC), founded 1979. The Wharf and the Roslyn Packer Theatre at Walsh Bay.
- Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), founded 1953 but professionalised through the 1970s and 1980s. Now based at Southbank.
- Belvoir Street Theatre, in Surry Hills, opened 1984. The most willing of the major companies to take artistic risks.
- Queensland Theatre Company (QT), founded 1969.
- State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), founded 1972.
The 1980s and 1990s saw Hannie Rayson (Hotel Sorrento, 1990; Inheritance, 2003), Michael Gow (Away, 1986), Louis Nowra (Cosi, 1992), Andrew Bovell (Speaking in Tongues, 1996), and David Williamson's continued output (Travelling North, 1979; Emerald City, 1987; Brilliant Lies, 1993).
Indigenous theatre, 1990s onwards
The most significant development since the New Wave has been the arrival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights into the mainstream repertoire. Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The 7 Stages of Grieving (Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts, Brisbane, 1995, then to Belvoir Street, 1996) is the touchstone. Jane Harrison's Stolen (Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative, 1998), Andrea James, Nakkiah Lui (Black is the New White, 2017), and Leah Purcell (The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, 2016) are the next generation.
Companies including Yirra Yaakin (Perth), Moogahlin Performing Arts (Sydney), and Ilbijerri (Melbourne) have built sustained Indigenous theatre infrastructures. NESA's Australian Drama and Theatre prescriptions now regularly include an Indigenous Australian movement alongside the older mainstream tradition.
Why this history matters for the exam
The Australian Drama and Theatre topic is built on the idea that the prescribed plays sit within a particular Australian theatrical lineage. A Section III essay that frames Summer of the Seventeenth Doll as the foundation of mid-century Australian realism, or that frames The 7 Stages of Grieving as the breakthrough work of Indigenous Australian theatre, will outscore one that treats the plays as isolated texts. Markers reward students who place plays in historical conversation.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past NESA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Practice (NESA)5 marksOutline the development of a distinctive Australian theatre tradition from 1955 to the present.Show worked answer →
A 5-mark "outline" needs three to four chronological phases with one or two named works or companies each.
- 1955 to 1969. The first Australian voice
- Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Union Theatre, Melbourne, 1955) is the conventional starting point. For the first time a play with Australian settings, characters and idiom found a national and international audience. The Doll toured to London (1957) and New York (1958). The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (founded 1954) and later the Australian Council for the Arts (1968) provided early infrastructure.
- 1968 to 1981. The New Wave
- The Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory in Melbourne (founded 1968) and the Nimrod Street Theatre in Sydney (founded 1970) launched David Williamson (The Removalists, 1971), Jack Hibberd (Dimboola, 1969), Alex Buzo, Dorothy Hewett and Louis Nowra. The plays were raucous, vernacular, often political, and resolutely Australian in setting and idiom.
- 1980s. State theatre companies
- Belvoir Street Theatre (1984), the Sydney Theatre Company (1979), and the Melbourne Theatre Company (founded 1953, ascendant in this period) became the major institutional homes for Australian playwrights. Louis Nowra (Cosi, 1992), Hannie Rayson (Hotel Sorrento, 1990), and Michael Gow (Away, 1986) emerged through these companies.
- 1990s to present. Indigenous theatre and new voices
- Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The 7 Stages of Grieving (1995) and Jane Harrison's Stolen (1998) brought Indigenous Australian playwrights into the national repertoire. Andrew Bovell (Speaking in Tongues, 1996; Things I Know to Be True, 2016), Tommy Murphy, and Patricia Cornelius continued an Australian playwriting tradition.
Markers reward dated works, named companies, and at least one transition explanation.
Related dot points
- Ray Lawler and the Doll Trilogy as a foundational movement of Australian dramatic realism, including the form, style, dramatic conventions and Australian cultural context
A focused answer to the HSC Drama core dot point on Ray Lawler. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), Kid Stakes (1975), Other Times (1976), the conventions of mid-century Australian realism, the symbolism of the doll, and Lawler's place in the history of Australian theatre.
- The New Wave of Australian theatre, including the Australian Performing Group, the Nimrod Street Theatre, the political and vernacular character of the work, and the playwrights who emerged from this period
A focused answer to the HSC Drama core dot point on the New Wave. The Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory and the Nimrod Street Theatre, David Williamson, Jack Hibberd, Alex Buzo, Dorothy Hewett, and the vernacular, political theatre that followed the Doll.
- Indigenous Australian theatre as a major movement in contemporary Australian drama, including Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, Jane Harrison, Andrea James, Nakkiah Lui, Leah Purcell, and the dedicated Indigenous theatre companies
A focused answer to the HSC Drama core dot point on Indigenous Australian theatre. Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The 7 Stages of Grieving (1995), Jane Harrison's Stolen (1998), Nakkiah Lui, Leah Purcell, and the companies (Ilbijerri, Yirra Yaakin, Moogahlin) that have built sustained Indigenous theatre infrastructures.
- Contemporary Australian playwrights of the 2000s and 2010s, including Andrew Bovell, Hannie Rayson, Michael Gow, Patricia Cornelius, Joanna Murray-Smith and the major institutional companies that produce them
A focused answer to the HSC Drama core dot point on contemporary Australian playwrights. Andrew Bovell, Hannie Rayson, Michael Gow, Patricia Cornelius and Joanna Murray-Smith; the institutional companies that produce them (STC, MTC, Belvoir, QT); and the formal range of twenty-first-century Australian theatre.