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La Mama Theatre

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La Mama Theatre

La Mama Theatre is nationally and internationally acknowledged as a crucible for cutting edge, contemporary theatre since 1967. Thank you! Don't be a troll.

Facilitating fearlessly independent theatre making. La Mama is Australia’s most vital, responsive, inclusive and diverse home of independent theatre-making. We believe in the power and possibilities of theatre and art for all people. La Mama is committed to a diversity of artistic approaches, to innovation and to exploring minority as well as general concerns. A vibrant space and prolific producti

on house, La Mama has given initial exposure and support to thousands of playwrights, directors, actors, and technicians as well as poets, musicians, performance artists and experimental film-makers

La Mama is financially assisted by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Creative Investment Partnerships. We are grateful to all our philanthropic partners and donors, advocates, volunteers, audiences, artists and our entire community. Rules of Engagement:
We love you, we love your love, we love your comments and your conversations. Keep it kind and relevant. Trolls will be blocked - which is so dull. Lots of love, La Mama xx

27/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: P+ERL PANEL SERIES | FREE to attend; bookings essential

Where art and activism intersect: a panel series about climate and the arts.

Join us for three sessions hosted by the Performance and Ecology Research Lab in tandem with the HOPE PUNK Climate Festival, where we'll hear from industry professionals and artists on climate action and the arts. Each session includes the opportunity for audience Q&A - and of course the traditional La Mama free tea and coffee.

Program:
🟢 3 Sep: What’s Happening in Climate and the Performing Arts sector NOW
🟢 4 Sep: Performing Arts in a Climate Changed FUTURE
🟢 5 Sep: HopePunk Climate Storytelling Symposium & Manifesto Creation

📆 3-5 Sept
📷 Darren Gill from 2024's All I'm Saying
🎟 FREE to attend; bookings essential
🎟 Book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival/ppluserl-panel-series

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A DAY! All events across the festival have staggered start times so you can book several shows/panels/workshops in a day

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

25/08/2026

🐸 Can you believe it's less than a month until SCHOOL HOLIDAYS?!! 🙈🙉🙊

🐱 Luckily... we have a fabulous array of puppet fun happening at La Mama as part of the Melbourne Festival of Puppetry! Shows and workshops and roving puppets - oh my!

⭐ With absolutely adorable, educational and whimsical shows such as:
🦘 The Wobbly Wallaby Show
🌛 Dreamer in the Deep
❄ Snow on a Summer's Day
🪨 Sticks Stones Broken Bones
✨ The Boy Who Lost his Light
🤖 Trinket the Robot
🐈‍⬛ Puss in Boots

⭐ Plus workshops right next door at COASIT to stimulate your young artist's imagination:
🟢 Sock Puppet Workshop
🟡 Junk Puppets Workshop
🔵 Marionette Puppets Workshop
🔴 Cardboard Creatures Workshop
🟣 Shadow Puppets Workshop
🟠 Robot Puppets Workshop

⭐ Plus you'll espy roving puppets around Carlton and can partake in the Puppet Treasure Hunt!

ℹ Take a look at the program and book your September holiday fun now!

🐯 Melbourne Festival of Puppetry 🦁
📅 21 - 27 September
🟠 Show tix: $15-$25
🟠 Workshops: children: $15 and free for adult carers
🔵 Find out more and book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/melbourne-festival-of-puppetry-2026
📷 Miranda Mayle for The Wobbly Wallaby Show

23/08/2026

🌿 We have an exciting and vast program of one-off events across La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival - some of these are free to attend and others are, as usual, very reasonably priced! Grab your diaries, take a gander and book early as there's limited space for all events.

🌿 From opening night's THE CARNIVAL on 1 September to a series of panels presented by P+ERL, play readings, some truly special LA MAMICA events, a Climate Salon SCRATCH... and more, September's HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is going to be a tonne of fun, and promises to drive some really thought-provoking conversations.

📆 1-20 September
📷 Darren Gill from All I'm Saying (2024)
🎟 Range from FREE to $35 depending on the event
🎟 Find out more and book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival

🟢 Don't forget event times have been staggered so you're able to experience several in a day.

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

19/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: La Mama EMERGE presents Sh****ng Ourselves Secretly

Sh****ng ourselves secretly because the world is ending. Sh****ng ourselves secretly because the world!? Sh****ng ourselves secretly because. Sh****ng ourselves.

A full venue takeover, this is some Sexy and Ugly business at the end of the world. Turn up and see what happens.

Devised and performed by the La Mama EMERGE Ensemble 2026

📆 5-6 Sept
📷 Liv Bell
🎟 Just $5-$10
🎟 Book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival/la-mama-emerge-sh*tting-ourselves-secretly

💚 Thanks to the Mietta Foundation for their generous support of this program.

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A DAY! All events across the festival have staggered start times so you can book several shows/panels/workshops in a day

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

17/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: Currawongs Calling
An immersive interspecies sonic plea using recorders and soundscapes to advocate for environmental action.

Currawongs Calling is a flood of sonorous sound fields from Australia which plea for environmental action and care for country. Premiered by the Recorder Co-op with guest artists Ros Bandt, Alana Blackburn & Jim Atkins, this immersive surround-sound performance spans 50 years of Bandt’s environmental advocacy. By blending ancient renaissance recorders with audiovisuals and field recordings, the performance highlights the more-than-human world, from currawongs to devastating tornados. It is a stunning, sonorous call to humans reminding us of the importance of caring for water, wildlife and country.

Ros Bandt - composer & recorder
Alana Blackburn - composer & recorder
Jim Atkins - sound engineer

The Recorder Co-op:
Ruth Wilkinson - recorder
Hannah Coleman - recorder
Alexandra Bailliet-Joly - recorder
Ryan Williams - recorder
Young student participants from the Melbourne Recorder Academy.

📆 ONE SHOW ONLY: 20 Sept
📷 Darren Gill
🎟 Book via festival 🔗 below

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A NIGHT! All shows at HQ across the festival start at 6pm so that you have plenty of time to get to La Mama Courthouse for the 7.30pm show.

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

16/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: Soapboxed
Big tech has the capacity to replace human art. But does it have the power?

Three veteran actors, fired from a fading Australian soap opera, discover malevolent forces at play. They want to fight, for themselves and their industry. But why are they feeling so overwhelmed? Why is it getting so hot? And who keeps turning out the lights? Riotously funny and deeply moving, Soapboxed is a soap opera trapped in a reality show made for the theatre about the future of humanity in a world designed by the broligarchy. Expect laughter, tears, romance, a race against the clock… and the occasional blackout (just like the best soaps).

Soapboxed is about the state of the Arts and artists, and how technology, particularly AI, is impacting them. These emerging, omnipresent technologies are impacting industries everywhere, and they are doing so at the expense of the planet. As the full environmental impact of data centres on communities and resources is revealed AI is emerging as the central antagonist in the fight to secure a liveable future. The best chance we have to fight it is by leaning in to our most human instincts. The place where those instincts are keenest, where lies the most power to engage and inspire people to act… is the Arts. So take your seats, switch off your phones, and get ready to fight!

WRITER: Megan Herbert
DIRECTOR: Ryan Moloney
PERFORMERS: Ryan Moloney, Lucinda Cowden

📆 15-19 Sept
📷 Megan Herbert
🎟 Book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival/soapboxed

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A NIGHT! All shows at HQ across the festival start at 6pm so that you have plenty of time to get to La Mama Courthouse for the 7.30pm show.

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

13/08/2026

🔥 Can you believe we are already on the final run of our EXPLORATIONS showings - just two weeks to go - and what a season it's been!

✨ Check out these fabulous shots by Darren Gill and Ruiqi Fu, and if you haven't been yet - don't miss it. Plenty on this weekend in both venues! Must end 30 August

🎟 Book EXPLORATIONS via 🔗 below
🟠 All tix just $20 with 100% box office going to the artists

Images:
1 Freedom
2 The Chekhov
3 Amy Is Not Scared
4 The Death of Lý Văn Chi
5 Growing Pains
6 Exhibition: First and Second
7 S***f
8 F**k•A•Papa
9 Poo Bag
10 The Dawn, an Enemy, or the Coming of a God
11 An Unspeakably Wonderful Mysterious Something
12 Mowing the Lawns
13 Gas

📷
Darren Gill: 1,2,3,6,7,8,11,12,13
Ruiqi Fu: 4,5,10

🧡 Thank you to our funders: Cybec Foundation and City of Melbourne Multi-Year Arts Grants Program.
🧡🧡🧡

12/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: Our Last Tree
Grief has fallen upon the forest; hope must take root in the ruins.

In a near-dystopian future, the last forest giant has fallen. Through contemporary dance and live music, Our Last Tree begins at the moment of impact, where ecological loss is felt across the living world. Haunting yet hopeful, Our Last Tree is a visceral performance about climate grief and the possibilities when a community reckons with the past and acts together.

Produced by Nelipot Collective
Director: Leonardo Canales
Composer/Sound Designer: Andrea Breen
Creative Producer: Sarah Andrewartha
Set: Pema Chungyampin
Creative Development: Sarah Andrewartha, Andrea Breen, Leonardo Canales, Tullia Chung-Tilley, Pepe (Jose) Inostroza Aqueveque and Emma Miley
Costumes: Emma Miley
Choreography: Sarah Andrewartha, Leonardo Canales, Tullia Chung-Tilley, Pepe (Jose) Inostroza Aqueveque and Emma Miley
Dancers: Sarah Andrewartha, Leonardo Canales, Tullia Chung-Tilley, Pepe (Jose) Inostroza Aqueveque and Emma Miley
Musician: Andrea Breen

📆 15-18 Sept
📷 Darren Gill
🎟 Book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival/our-last-tree

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A NIGHT! All shows at HQ across the festival start at 6pm so that you have plenty of time to get to La Mama Courthouse for the 7.30pm show.

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

11/08/2026

🌿 La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival: COBBLE CREEK RANGERS
Nick and Jesi will teach you how to save the planet... sort of...

Bums on seats and listening ears on!
Nick and Jesi are the Cobble Creek Rangers, wildlife warriors here to teach you how to save the planet.
Are they qualified? No
Are they warriors? Also, no
BUT they are super passionate about climate change and nature preservation, and isn't that all you need?

Written & Performed by Kyle McCallion & Ann Maree

📆 13-19 Sept
📷 Darren Gill
🎟 Book: https://www.lamama.com.au/whats-on/la-mama-hope-punk-climate-festival/cobble-creek-rangers

🟢 SEE TWO SHOWS IN A NIGHT! All shows at HQ across the festival start at 6pm so that you have plenty of time to get to La Mama Courthouse for the 7.30pm show.

La Mama HOPE PUNK Climate Festival is funded by Greater Melbourne Foundation, Community Bank Clifton Hill-North Fitzroy, and the City of Melbourne, in partnership with The Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. P+ERL is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage (project number LP230200526).
The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

10/08/2026

🔥 From the fabulous Melbourne Fringe Festival launch on Friday night, a couple of shots featuring a couple of our fabulous Fringe artists from a couple of our fabulous Fringe shows!

🧡 With: Emerson Brophy and Kat Yates from PARASOCIAL, Emma Fawcett from TOTO'S SONG, Ben Grant from WRONG WAY GROW BACK, Emma J Hawkins and Leisa Prowd from EXHIBIT, and our very own La Mama Fringe Producer, Nicki Jam.

🩵 Check out the program via the 🔗 in bio and start pencilling dates into your diaries... All tix on sale now just $10-$35 or $10-$20 for previews.

Address

205 Faraday Street
Carlton, VIC
3053

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 4pm
Tuesday	11am - 4pm
Wednesday	11am - 4pm
Thursday	11am - 4pm
Friday	11am - 4pm

Telephone

+61393476948

Website

http://www.lamama.com.au/

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