PL TAS 20th Birthday

The Cake Man

“Two realities. [Pause.] And I’ve lost one. [Pause.] But I want it back … I need it back. [Pause.] Not yours … mine.”

The Cake Man is a play in three acts, telling the story of an Aboriginal family – Ruby, Sweet William and their child Pumpkinhead – living on a mission in western New South Wales in the 1950’s. 

“A droll examination of white paternalism from a black point of view, Merritt’s play kicked off a renaissance of art and performance that laid the foundations of contemporary Indigenous theatre.”(From Belvoir Theatre) 

Asked to sum up his play, Merritt said: “I tried to depict the situation as I see it. It’s basically about a black family trying to survive. We have our hopes and our dreams.” Brian Syron sums it up in this way: It is about dreams – about a man’s dream, a child’s dream for the future and a woman’s dream. It is urban dreaming about survival and the need to live one’s life with dignity.” (Article in Financial Review, Friday 11 June, 1982). 

“Robert Merritt’s The Cake Man is braided into a rich seam of storytelling that has long preceded colonial settlement and will long resist it.” (From Currency Press) 

Timeline from seed/concept to performance 

Robert James Merritt was born in Cowra, New South Wales in 1945 and brought up on Erambie Aboriginal Mission. The Cake Manwas written at Bathurst in 1974 and was first performed by the Black Theatre in Redfern, Sydney, in 1975 – the first professionally produced play written by an Aboriginal playwright. In 1977 it had a season at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre, Sydney, directed by George Ogilvie, and was also broadcast on ABC Television. 

In 1982, The Cake Man was revived by the Aboriginal Theatre Company, formed by Merritt and director Brian Syron, and represented Australia at the World Theatre Festival in Denver, Colorado, USA. This was the first time a play written by an Indigenous Australian person toured out of Australia. This was followed by a season in Melbourne and later in Brisbane at the Commonwealth Arts Festival. 

Impact of Performing Lines Support 

The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, the predecessor organisation which later became Performing Lines, assisted The Aboriginal Theatre Company to tour a revival of The Cake Man to the 1982 World Theatre Festival in Denver. 

While at first being denied funding from all government agencies and private sponsors approached, the tour eventually received contributions from the Aboriginal Arts Board, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the New South Wales Government through the Premier’s Department and the Trust itself, who set up a three-performance warm-up season at the Parade Theatre (Merritt, Robert J, The Cake Man, Currency Press, Rev. ed., 1983)

The Season

Families are like seasons: you don’t get to pick them, and when they show up you best be ready. 

Somewhere between mainland Australia and its southern-most mate Tassie lies Dog Island. For six weeks every year that’s where you’ll find the Duncans, a mob as funny as they are unforgettable. 

They come back to roost for mutton-bird season,and have done for as long as anyone can remember. Amid the threat of snakes and Pop’s explosive temper, the family reunites with a country and culture still very much alive. 

Old secrets are dug from their burrows, and fledgling rivalries begin to take flight – it might all fall apart if it wasn’t for the fierce love that holds this bunch together. 

Nathan Maynard has crafted a deadly funny portrait of a singular corner of our world. 

Career Trajectory 

In 2013, Nathan Maynard attended the Performing Lines Tasmania Regional Artist Residency, where he first pitched his idea for The Season. Following the residency, Nathan undertook a mentorship with Annette Downs (Senior Producer for Tasmania Performs), who secured funding to purchase a laptop and time with dramaturg Peter Matheson to work on the writing process for The Season. 

In 2015, The Season was workshopped and presented as a work-in-progress public reading in Sydney at the Yellamundie, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Playwriting Festival, where he was provided with a professional cast, director and dramaturg. This opportunity led to Nathan Maynard gaining wider recognition. 

In 2016, David Malacari, Artistic Director of Ten Days on the Island and the Major Festivals Initiative (MFI) came on board. At the time, Wesley Enoch was Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival, and Rhoda Roberts AO was at the Sydney Opera House, both lending their critical support and belief in the work. 

In 2017, The Season premiered at the Sydney Festival at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, with an Aboriginal writer, director, and cast. 

“The Season ends up as both a meditation on culture and the nature of life itself, as birds and humans alike come and go, and pass down their histories to their offspring. It’s quietly moving and surprisingly uplifting.” — The Season Review, Sydney Festival 2017 

In 2018, The Season had a ten-week, eleven venue national tour and was nominated for eight Green Room Awards in the Theatre Companies category. It went on to win three awards, including the big one – Best Production. Director Isaac Drandic took home Best Direction, and playwright Nathan Maynard won Best New Writing for the show – his first full length play. 

The Season was also nominated for five Tasmanian Theatre Awards in the Professional Theatre category, with Nathan taking out Best New Writing. 

Impact of Performing Lines Support 

Annette Downs, Senior Producer 2006 – 2023 

“Nathan was working as an Aboriginal Park Ranger when he was cast to play a child in a Terrapin production. After seeing his performance, I invited him to attend the very first Tasmania Performs Residency in 2012. It was immediately clear that he was a naturally funny man with a gift for storytelling, though the idea he initially pitched was a little ambitious for someone just starting out. During the residency he spoke passionately—and endlessly—about mutton‑birding on Dog Island. Eventually another participant, Guy Hooper, gently suggested that perhaps that was the story he should write. 

Nathan had a wealth of stories, a sharp ear for dialogue and impeccable comic timing, but his cultural world was more Hawthorn Football Club, than the arts. Tasmania Performs stepped in as a broker, connecting his raw talent with the processes of play development—how to shape a script, resource a production, assemble a creative team and navigate the sector. Once he discovered this “new world”, there was no stopping him. He was a quick study, a tireless worker, and he had found his calling. Instead of shouting from the barricades at political protests, audiences were soon buying tickets to hear what he had to say about the palawa experience.  

From the outset, Nathan was clear that he didn’t want to succeed alone—he wanted his community to rise with him. Following our work together, Arts Tasmania established an Aboriginal Mentorship Fund, and each year Nathan would nominate someone new for Tasmania Performs to mentor. That simple, generous act helped ignite a wave of Aboriginal and palawa artists stepping into professional careers. 

Tasmania Performs has fully produced two of Nathan’s plays with Major Festivals Initiative support, secured multiple grants during his early development, and nominated him for a Churchill Fellowship which enabled him to travel internationally. Most recently, he received a Sydney Myer Fellowship—recognition of his national significance as a multi‑talented artist now working across stage and screen as both a writer and director.  

Of all the artists I’ve worked with, he has made me laugh the most.”

Performing Lines Tas, Sector Day

The Performing Lines Tas Sector Day plays a key role in Tasmania’s arts ecology, bringing the performing arts community together to connect, reflect and collaborate. It’s a welcoming space for artistic leaders, a forum for shared ambition, and a place to build problem solving skills while gaining valuable insight into the realities and successes of Tasmania’s regional arts sector. 

The day brings together representatives from state and federal funding bodies, artistic directors of funded companies, CEOs of presenting organisations, festival directors and leading independent artists. Together they open up honest conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. 

Recent topics have included regional touring, collaborations with First Nations artists, the need for more producers to support independent practice, workforce shortages, shifting priorities, and how to stabilise the sector for the long term.   

Sector Day has also led to tangible outcomes: joint budget submissions to the State Government, the development of a strategic touring model tailored to local needs, and statewide mental health training supported by Arts Tasmania. Together, these outcomes highlight the event’s ability to generate practical, sector-led solutions.   

In 2026, Sector Day will also mark a major milestone as Performing Lines celebrates 20 years of supporting independent artists and live performance across Australia. This special anniversary offers a moment to reflect on two decades of impact, advocacy and creative development, while looking ahead to the future of the sector. 

Alzheimer Symphony

Alzheimer Symphony is a mesmerising and moving theatrical tour de force that has emerged from an international collaboration between artists from Switzerland, Austria and Tasmania. 

Amidst his daily routines, a famous actor tries to recall the lines to Shakespeare’s King Lear, but they are starting to escape him. He develops tricks to fight his forgetfulness as it follows him into every corner of his private life. He forgets the name of his sons, cannot recognise a picture of his mother, and when he finds a sock in his soup he eats it without questioning. 

As his memory increasingly eludes him, he obstinately fights with all his might but is gradually left with no choice but to embrace his new reality. Important things become unimportant, feelings become stronger than thoughts and his inner child is revived. 

This beautifully wrought solo performance from Justus Neumann, an artist who is a master of his craft, is largely played from a set-piece that has been brilliantly designed to surprise and delight the audience and is perfectly accompanied by a compelling score and an elegant lighting design. Together these elements mesh with Horner and Neumann’s touching and cheekily humorous script to create a riveting night of theatre. 

Performing Lines Tas (formerly Tasmania Performs) produced and toured Alzheimer Symphony as part of Ten Days on the Island Festival in 2015. 

Winner of six awards at inaugural 2015 Tasmanian Theatre Awards: Best Production, Performing Lines Tas, Best Direction, Hans Peter Horner, Best Original Work and Performance, Justus Neumann, Best Writing, Justus Neumann and Hans Peter Horner and a special judges award for Original Music Compositon, Julius Schwing. 

“Justus Neumann is an artist of the highest order. His work is regarded as one of the most important elements in the theatrical landscape of Vienna in the last few decades. His investigation into the ‘black clown’ as performer, director and theatre maker has enabled Justus to develop and transform his work across different genres and diverse continents. Justus’ connection with Australia is an important one. He brings a unique approach to the theatre that enriches the cultural landscape and the audiences that he performs to.” – Barrie Kosky, Artistic Director, Schauspielhaus 

Annette Downs, Senior Producer 2006 – 2023  

“This is my favourite of the many remarkable works Justus has created during his years on Bruny Island. It felt as though his life’s practice converged in this piece — a work both timely and deeply resonant, especially given Tasmania’s ageing population. When it was showcased in Victoria it was an instant hit with presenters, and audiences across Tasmania embraced it wholeheartedly. 

Justus has an extraordinary gift as a clown: he can gift you a belly laugh and, in the very next breath, drop you into the depths of human drama. In this work, every collaborator rose to meet him. Greg Methe’s imaginative set design was so integral to the storytelling that it functioned almost as another character onstage. 

Although Justus’s skill had long been celebrated in Vienna, it had perhaps been less widely acknowledged here in Tasmania. Living and creating on Bruny Island is hardly positioning oneself at the centre of the Australian theatrical realm. That’s why it felt especially meaningful that this production coincided with the inaugural year of the Tasmanian Theatre Awards. Seeing his work recognised at last — after so many years of quiet, consistent artistic contribution — was profoundly satisfying and deeply deserved.”

Sa/Moa

SA/MOA (sacred/centre) Project, visioned by Lila Meleisea, was a creative exploration into Samoan knowledge systems and practices, working in collaboration with people and the natural world. Raised and based in Lutruwita / Tasmania, the core of this work also sought to strengthen bonds and connections between Lila’s two island homes. 

Following three years of nurture and development, the first expression of SA/MOA was presented as a major multi-arts installation and Samoan cultural takeover of Moonah Arts Centre for Ten Days on the Island (Ten Days) 2025. 

A multi-layered story celebrating Samoan peoples, history, traditions, oceanic resilience and intrinsic inter-relationships, SA/MOA reflected the deeply embedded practices of Indigenous cultures that honoured land, waters and sky. It spoke to traditional ways of living in harmony with our world and the need for recognising, revitalising and honouring cultural practices that healed us collectively. 

SA/MOA was a collaboration with traditional makers, knowledge holders, musicians and contemporary artists from Samoa and Samoan artists in Australia. SA/MOA held many threads that connected with and shared Lila’s cultural learnings and community (both through her travel to Samoa, and through connecting with the Pasifika diaspora in her home of Lutruwita / Tasmania). SA/MOA culminated in a presentation of work (re)connecting traditional barkcloth, siapo, held at TMAG with contemporary barkcloth created in the village of Siutu, Samoa and displayed in Lutruwita for Ten Days on the Island. 

This project was first seeded through Performing Lines Tas at the Tarraleah Regional Artist Residency in 2021. It was further developed in 2023 during a residency at Moonah Arts Centre. 

SA/MOA brought together three years of development, research and collaboration with more than 30 individuals and numerous Australia–Pacific organisations. 

SA/MOA was realised with support from Performing Lines Tasmania as producers, lighting designer and audio-visual artist K. Deverell, Moonah Arts Centre, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) and the Samoan Cultural Collective Tasmania (SCCT). 

Sinsa Mansell, Senior Producer Performing Lines Tas 2023 – present 

“The significance of this work lies in its power to change lives: strengthening identity, restoring intergenerational knowledge, and building genuine connections between communities. SA/MOA reminds us that when culture is centred, communities are strengthened.” – Sinsa Mansell

Cross, Mudlark Theatre

Regina is a talented photographer travelling the vast Australian continent taking pictures of an array of roadside shrines for an art exhibition. 

Her wayward and kooky sister Erica is along for the ride, bringing along her puppet ‘friends’ in the shape of a snake and a moth. By delving into the rather macabre stories of strangers on the edge of the road, the sisters discover the beauty within their relationship and life. A magical piece of theatre filled with humour, heartbreak and joy.  

From Playwright Stephanie Briarwood 

We’ve changed the way we grieve. In past times we’d dress in black and mourn actively. We’d visit graves, bowing our heads. Nowadays we erect shrines in the place where loved ones have passed on, wreathing them in garlands of plastic flowers. Cross began as a curiosity in an increasing phenomenon that has been labelled ‘road side shrines’. We have all seen the crosses erected on the sides of roads and highways that indicate that someone died there. Mostly these crosses are simple, white and wooden with a name on them, but they can be very elaborate with flowers and other memorabilia. 

I found myself wondering at their purpose. What were they for?  

Originally presented as part of Theatre North’s 2008 subscription season in Launceston at the Earl Arts Theatre, Cross underwent a second development stage, with the generous support of Tasmania Performs. 

Beyond The Neck

An old man falls into his wife’s arms and cries. A young mother drops a pile of washing on the floor. A teenage girl, still a child, tells her mother the news. A boy walks home in silence, feeling blood run down his cheek. Four strangers, bound by a shared moment: the Port Arthur Massacre.  

Based on in-depth interviews, Beyond the Neck is set ten years after the 1996 tragedy and explores grief and recovery, as the aftershocks of the event continue to ripple through lives.  

In 2004, as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, La Mama selected an early draft of the script for further development. In 2005, with funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, Holloway began researching the events of the massacre and interviewing those affected by it. 

By 2007, Holloway had completed the script but had not yet secured a producer. That year, Annette Downs produced Beyond the Neck through the newly formed Tasmania Performs (established in 2006). The play premiered at the Peacock Theatre in Hobart, followed by a season at the Earl Arts Centre in Launceston. 

Also in 2007, Beyond the Neck was one of only ten plays selected for a staged reading at the Royal Court Theatre’s International Young Playwrights Festival in London, chosen from more than four hundred submissions. 

Adding to its accolades, Beyond the Neck won Best Stage Play at the 2008 Australian Writers’ Guild Awards (AWGIE) and was included in the NSW HSC Drama Syllabus from 2015 to 2018. 

Beyond the Neck cemented Tom Holloway’s career as a playwright. Today, he is a four-time AWGIE Award winner and a multi award-winning Tasmanian-born playwright and librettist whose work has been staged extensively in Australia and internationally. 

Tom’s new play ELIZA, starring Dan Spielman, will premiere at Melbourne Theatre Company in September 2026 directed by Paige Rattray. The play was commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company.  

He has collaborated on four operas with Czech composer, Miroslav Srnka, produced by Bavarian State Opera, the Bregens Festival, and including a new opera, Voice Killer, which premiered at Theatre an der Wein (Vienna) in June 2025.  

Tom’s stage adaptation of the James M. Cain’s classic crime novel Double Indemnity will be presented by Trafalgar Theatre Productions in 2026. Starring Mischa Barton in her UK stage debut, the play premiered at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre in February, before touring across the UK and Ireland until May 2026.  

“I’m not just indebted to Performing Lines Tasmania because of the deep support I have personally received from them – including producing the world premiere of the play that enabled my entire career – it’s the work I see them do for all performing artists in Tasmania. They nurture new voices and sustain established artists. They work across the state, across platforms, and find talented creatives from all walks of life. They are the beating heart of the Tasmanian industry, giving and sustaining… Where would we be without them?” — Tom Holloway 

Words by Annette Downs, Senior Producer, Performing Lines Tas 2006 – 2023 

“Tasmania Performs (Performing Lines TAS) played a pivotal role at a moment when a gifted young artist had an exceptional script responding to a profoundly important chapter in Tasmania’s history. Tom Holloway was absolutely the right person to tell this story, but he was still early in his career, and his ability to secure national funding without strong backing was limited.  

The involvement of Tasmania Performs was transformative for Tasmanian independent artists. Funders and artistic partners knew that if a project came through this pathway, it would be well supported, well managed, and delivered with integrity—even if the artists themselves were still establishing their reputations. As I recall, Wendy Blacklock approached the Performing Lines Trust, who contributed $10,000 upfront, a gesture that significantly strengthened the competitiveness of the application. Once the team and resources were in place, it was Tom’s writing that truly shone, and it mattered deeply that this story premiered in Tasmania before travelling elsewhere.  

I remember encouraging Tom to join the Australian Writers’ Guild so the play could be entered into their awards. I certainly didn’t anticipate he would win the 2008 AWGIE—but once he did, his trajectory was set. Today he stands as one of the nation’s finest playwrights, and quite possibly one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. ”

Helena & the Journey of the Hello, Terrapin Puppet Theatre

These are not bedtime stories. 

Bedtime stories are for your parents to tell you. 

These are morning time stories. And they are the best. 

Helena and the Journey of the Hello is a kid’s picture book tale in a crossed line conversation with contemporary times. The old-world charm of the illustrated story is given a theatrical twist as unexpected parts of the set and costumes open like pages in a book. As the audience sits inside the fantasy world of Helena Bugosi, children and adults alike are amazed at what is possible with a mobile phone, a coat and an old iron bed as they are taken on the Journey of the Hello. 

What a world this is! Helena’s mum is always on the phone – because she lives in it. Helena’s father went into the forest and befriended the foxes, before getting into a small boat and going out to sea, leaving Helena to sing songs by the side of the road. 

Helena and the Journey of the Hello is narrated by three mischievous animals that could be straight out of the midsummer night forest. They croon and wail in a waltz playing band; they fumble with puppets and fiddle with phones, weaving the audience through a thicket of stories about Helena and her mother who lives in a phone!  

Extract: On this night, as the last beads of the most perfect red necklace roll around the earth and into darkness, the animals hear the voice of a girl that lures them back after all these years. And they stand shoulder to shoulder beside her, and they call their love to the sea. Jackdaws and ravens and heart-tailed pipers lift their beaks and sing in perfect harmony. The foxes and tigers write eulogies with their claws in the wet sand, and offer each other hankies. The old wolf sheds a single tear.

Performing Lines Tas (formerly, Tasmania Performs) toured Helena and the Journey of the Hello to thirteen Tasmanian towns in 2009.