Christie Whelan Browne: All About Eve. Photo © Nicole Reed

The new Australian play can explore territory “uncomfortable, untested and necessary”, playwright Jordan Shea said recently; it can be a “bridge between different histories, cultures and experiences” and provide audiences with “worlds intensely personal and deeply connected to collective memory”.

Sometimes, however, getting a play on in Australia “can feel almost impossible”, Shea said in his Currency Press Festival of Playwrights keynote speech, calling for “time, mentorship and resources” for more stories to emerge. He counted 56 Australian works staged by 10 mainstage theatre companies in 2025, of which 29 were adaptations or remounts.

Just five were by playwrights making their mainstage debut, including his Malacañang Made Us, charting a family from Manila to Brisbane, heralded as a “watershed moment” by Queensland Theatre Company. That line was “flattering”, he...