Brink Productions is an Australian

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, specialising in the ensemble-development of new writing. Founded in 1996, its productions have toured interstate, and the company continues to produce stage performances in Adelaide and regional South Australia. Stephen Nicolazzo has been

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

since April 2024.

History

Brink Productions was established in 1996 as a

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

of seven actors, primarily graduates from the drama school of Flinders University, in order to "improve artistic production" in Australian theatre. Brink's founding members were Michaela Cantwell, Michaela Coventry, Lizzy Falkland,

Victoria Hill Victoria Hill (born 18 February 1971 in Adelaide) is an Australian actress, writer and producer. Early life and career Victoria Hill is the daughter of Robert Hill, a former politician, diplomat and Chancellor of the University of Adelaid ...

, Richard Kelly, David Mealor, John Molloy, and Paul Moore, joined soon after by director Benedict Andrews. Director

Chris Drummond Chris Drummond is an Australian theatre director. He was artistic director of Brink Productions (2004-2023). and Associate Director with the State Theatre Company of South Australia (2001-2004). Personal life Drummond was born in Kimba, South ...

was appointed artistic director in 2004. One of Brink's most successful collaborations was ''When The Rain Stops Falling'', written by

Andrew Bovell Andrew Bovell (born 1962) is an Australian writer for theatre, film and television. Life Bovell was born on 23 November 1962 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and completed his secondary school education in Perth. He graduated from the Universi ...

with designs by visual artist

Hossein Valamanesh Hossein Valamanesh (2 March 1949 – 15 January 2022) was an Iranian-Australian contemporary artist who lived and worked in Adelaide, South Australia. He worked in mixed media, printmaking, installations, and sculpture. He often collabora ...

and music by Quentin Grant. During 2008-2010 the Brink cast performed the play to over 60,000 people in Adelaide (2008, 2010),

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in the Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Theatre ...

(2009),

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

(2009),

Queensland Theatre Company Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Brown Theatre and the Queensland Performin ...

(2010), Canberra Theatre Centre (2010) and the Araluen Arts Centre,

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

(2010). The script has been performed all over the world including seasons at the

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...

in London and the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

in New York City. In 2016–17, Brink worked in association with Far & Away Productions to produce ''Ancient Rain'', created with songwriter Paul Kelly, singer

Camille O'Sullivan Camille O'Sullivan is an Irish singer, musician, and actress. She is known for her unique, dramatic musical style and Cover version, covers of artists such as Radiohead, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Sinéad O'Connor, and Shane MacGowan, S ...

and musician Feargal Murray. The theatrical song cycle featured the poems of

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

Paula Meehan Paula Meehan (born 1955) is an Irish poet and playwright. Life Paula Meehan was born in Dublin in 1955, the eldest of six children. She subsequently moved to London with her parents where she attended St. Elizabeth's Primary School in Kings ...

, Padraic Pearse and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and was presented at the 2016

Dublin Theatre Festival The Dublin Theatre Festival is Europe's oldest specialised theatre festival. It was founded by theatre impresario Brendan Smith in 1957 and has, with the exception of two years, produced a season of international and Irish theatre each autumn. ...

, 2016

Melbourne Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

, Canberra Theatre Centre, Merrigoing Theatre, 2017

Dark Mofo Dark Mofo is an annual mid-winter arts and culture festival held by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Launched in 2013 as the winter counterpart of the summer MONA FOMA festival, Dark Mofo events take place a ...

QPAC The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (also known as QPAC) is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre and is located on the corner of Melbourne Street and Grey Street in Brisbane's South Bank precinct. Opened in 1985, it includes the Lyric Thea ...

and the 2017 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. In 2018, Brink premiered ''Memorial'' at the 2018

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, before touring it to the 2018

Brisbane Festival Brisbane Festival is one of Australia's leading international arts festivals, and is held each September in Brisbane, Australia. Its presence dominates the city for three weeks in September and its line-up of classical and contemporary music, t ...

and the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

. Memorial was a stage adaptation of

Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second ...

's ''Memorial: An Excavation of the Iliad'', with music by

Jocelyn Pook Jocelyn Pook (, rhyming with "book") (born 14 February 1960) is an English composer who is known for her scores for many films, including ''Eyes Wide Shut'', ''The Merchant of Venice'' and '' The Wife''. Her principal instrument is the viola. ...

. Staged as a theatrical

soliloquy A soliloquy (, from Latin 'alone' and 'to speak', ) is a speech in drama in which a character speaks their thoughts aloud, typically while alone on stage. It serves to reveal the character's inner feelings, motivations, or plans directly to ...

performed by

Helen Morse Helen Morse (born 24 January 1947) is an English-born Australian actress who has appeared in films, on television and on stage. She won the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1976 film ''Caddie'', and starred in the 1981 minise ...

, it featured 200 chorus members In 2018, the company toured ''The Aspirations of Daise Morrow'' to

Canberra Theatre Centre Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC), also known as the Canberra Theatre, is the Australian Capital Territory’s central performing arts venue and Australia's first performing arts centre, the first Australian Government initiated performing arts cen ...

, Merrigong Theatre, the 2018 Galway Festival and the

Assembly Rooms In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there wer ...

at the 2018

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. ''The Aspirations of Daise Morrow'' is Brink's adaptation of

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, co ...

's short story Down at the Dump, from '' The Burnt Ones''. Brink has worked with a broad array of other artists not mentioned above, including

Roz Hervey Roz Hervey (1965 or 1966 – 8 November 2024) was an Australian dancer, choreographer, director and theatrical producer. She was known for roles as co-founder of and associate artist with Sydney dance-theatre company Force Majeure, as director ...

Benedict Andrews Benedict Andrews (born 1972) is an Australian theatre and film director, based in Reykjavík. Born in Adelaide in 1972, he was educated at Flinders University Drama Centre. His first feature film '' Una'' (an adaptation of '' Blackbird'' by Da ...

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist, writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the ...

, Paul Blackwell,

Kate Box Kate Box (born 28 October 1979) is an Australian stage, film, and television actress. She is known for her roles as Nicole Vargas in ''Rake,'' Lou Kelly in '' Wentworth'', and as Dulcie Collins in '' Deadloch''. Early life and education Kate ...

, Geordie Brookman,

Paul Capsis Paul Capsis (born 1964) is an Australian actor, singer and playwright who mainly works in cabaret and musical theatre. He has also released four albums, ''Paul Capsis Live'' (2004), ''Boulevard Delirium'', ''Everybody Wants to Touch Me'' (2008) ...

, Lenny Grigoryan, and

Slava Grigoryan Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He frequently collaborates and performs with his younger brother, fellow guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, performing as the Grigoryan Brothers. Career Grigoryan signed with ...

. Its repertoire of work includes "epic narrative, re-imagined classics, music theatre, and children's theatre".

People

Chris Drummond was

of the company from 2004 until the end of July 2023, when he stepped down. He continued to work part-time on several projects during the recruitment process for a new AD. In November 2023, Stephen Nicolazzo, who had been working in theatre in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, was appointed, undertaking part-time work before coming on board full-time in April 2024.

Awards

* 2018: ''Memorial'' Adelaide Critics Circle Award - Best Group * 2017: ''Long Tan'' Curtain Call Award - Best Design * 2015: ''The Aspirations of Daise Morrow'' Adelaide Critics Circle Award - Best Group * 2013: ''Thursday'' Curtain Call Award - Best Ensemble * 2011: ''Skip Miller's Hit Songs'' by Sean Riley

Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is Australia’s biggest arts festival and is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between ...

- John Chataway Digital Technology Award * 2010: ''

When the Rain Stops Falling ''When the Rain Stops Falling'' is a play about family, secret legacies, betrayal and forgiveness seen across four generations and spanning two continents. The drama had its world premiere as part of the 2008 Adelaide Festival of Arts. It was wr ...

'' by

, a collaboration with

& Brink Productions - ACT Green Room Award - Production * 2009: ''The Hypochondriac'' by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

, a new adaptation by Paul Galloway (Brink Productions, producer) - Adelaide Critics' Circle Award - Group Prize * 2008: ''When the Rain Stops Falling'', a collaboration with Hossein Valamanesh & Brink Productions, presented with the

State Theatre Company of South Australia The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It ...

and the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

**Adelaide Critics' Circle Award – Group Prize (Brink Productions, producer); **Adelaide Critics' Circle Award – Individual Prize(Andrew Bovell, playwright; **Ruby Award - Best Work or Event; **Curtain Call Awards – Best Drama & Best Technical for Set Design/Video Design & Projection; **Victorian Premier's 2008 Literary Awards (Louis Esson Prize for Drama; **Queensland Premier's 2008 Literary Awards (Drama Script – Stage - Award; **Oscarts 2008 – Best of Everything; *2006: ''This Uncharted Hour'' by Finegan Kruckemeyer, co-production with the STCSA, presented in association with The Firm and the

Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first capital city multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the early 1970s and designed by Hassell (architecture firm), Hassell Architects. The Festival The ...

's Inspace - ArtsSA: Jill Blewett Playwright's Award *2005: ''Drums in the Night'' by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

, translated by Finegan Kruckemeyer, co-production with STCSA - Adelaide Theatre Guide Curtain Call Awards: Best Show, Drama *2001: ''Killer Joe'' by

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received t ...

-''The Advertiser'': Oscart for Best Production *2000: ''The Ecstatic Bible'' by Howard Barker, a co-production with The Wrestling School - Adelaide Critics' Circle: Excellence in Arts * 1998: ''The Dumb Waiter'' by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

-''The Advertiser'': Overall Artistic Excellence, Adelaide Fringe Festival *1998 ''Mojo'' ''The Advertiser'': Overall Artistic Excellence, Adelaide Fringe Festival * 1996: ''(Uncle) Vanya'' by Howard Barker -Adelaide Critics' Circle: Best Production

References

External links

*
Brink Productions
on

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

{{authority control Performing arts in Adelaide Theatre companies in Australia 1996 establishments in Australia