Theatre remount culture needs a reboot

Broadly speaking, the Australian theatre sector does not have a strong culture of remounting and reviving works. For every Switzerland by Joanna Murray Smith, produced several times by different state companies, there are scores of new plays which are staged once and never seen again. While some recent plays have been revived – Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree,  Patricia Cornelius’ SHIT, Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife – too many recent plays vanish all too quickly. 

Not everyone agrees, however. Sydney-based playwright Alana Valentine, whose Letters to Lindy is touring nationally from June to September this year, questions the assumption that we don’t have a strong culture of remounting and reviving work in Australia.