Dr Rob Vs

A new podcast about Australian Theatre recorded live in front of a foyer/cafe audience.

First it was the budget of the Australia council. Then it was the review pages in newspapers. Then it was tertiary education. Then it was small to medium sized companies. Then venues. Now it’s the national administrative structures. What’s it gonna take? The system we know as Australian theatre is in collapse. What has to happen before everyone else can see it. No more Malthouse? No More QTC? STC?

Each episode Dr Rob takes a different play from the Australian canon and turns it inside out with storytelling, critical analysis and popular songs. Presented in a casual cabaret lecture style, these one-off performances introduce audiences to forgotten or never heard of Australian plays, considers the state of contemporary Australian theatre and tells the story of the arts and being an artist in Australia. Just Dr Rob, a guitar and a powerpoint presentation. Come get your heart broken.

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Episode One:

Dr Rob Vs. Independent Theatre

It might change its costume now and then, but independent theatre in Australia has been doing the same act for more than fifty years now.

In this pilot episode, Dr Rob examines contemporary independent Australian theatre as it is, how it got this way, and how it fits into the bigger picture of Australian theatre as a whole.

They also review and rewrite The Great God Mogadon, a late 70s play by New Wave playwright Barry Oakley and reflect on issues raised in Trapped by the Past, a Platform Paper from 2005 by Julian Meyrick.

Despite the endless dance of shifting aesthetics since the 1970s, the practice of alternative Australian theatre has arguably ossified into a handful of approaches bound by a limited and shrinking engagement with the local environment.

Dr Rob Vs. weaves textual analysis and historical research with storytelling, jokes and songs in a relaxed performance environment. Stick around after the show for an open discussion on the issues raised and and sharing of stories, lead by Dr Rob.

Every two months throughout the year Dr Rob will record a new episode, exploring new aspects of Australian theatre, the stories, the people, the plays, the day to day realities, its history and its future.