LIMINAL THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE
Liminal Theatre and Performance is a company of artists and associates committed to Theatre Research, Practice and Performance.
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“A kind of theatre that is unique in Melbourne: a theatre that attends to its roots in ritual....Out on the edges of our culture, with the most minimal of resources,
Liminal Theatre is making theatre of a rare ambition and seriousness.
Attention must be paid.”
L I M I N A L
derived from Limen, meaning threshold; between the sensate and the subliminal
OUR WORK
Liminal examines “the creative moment” as a transformation within a threshold: a living encounter between ideas, body, time, light, space, sound, design, text and moving image; a rigorous conversation between what has passed and what is unfolding in the present.
Liminal explores traditional and contemporary arts training practices, and collaborates and shares its research and practice with different communities, cultures and organisations. Through these developments, Liminal also produces original theatre productions based on multiple sources.
"On Melbourne's theatre scene, Liminal Theatre stands alone in the breadth of
the cultural dialogue that informs its practice. Co-founders Robert Draffin and
Mary Sitarenos are as much arts ambassadors and students of the world as they are theatre makers, drawing inspiration from residencies in Indonesia, China,
Taiwan and....Senegal in West Africa."
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
"Draffin and his collaborators have created a nightmare from which I didn’t want to wake: a vision with an excoriating emotional bleakness verging on the unbearable, but realised in such an astonishingly original and complete way that I couldn’t help but be transfixed."
John Bailey, RealTime
OUR HISTORY
Liminal was formed officially by Co-Artistic Directors Robert Draffin and Mary Sitarenos in 2003, beginning with a month-long workshop with the renowned Indonesian performer Sardono Kusumo. This collaboration produced the Duets of Desire: Mishima in the City project, investigating the ideas of 14th Century traditional Japanese writer Zeami (Father of Noh Theatre), and the amazing contemporary Noh plays of Yukio Mishima. This culminated in our adaptations of Sotaba Komachi and Kantan in 2004 and The Damask Drum in 2006.
This phase forged our first identity; it formed and clarified the foundation of our training and theatre making practices, which have continued and have been developed further through a series of award-winning international and local productions and training collaborations in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and Africa.
In 2013 after losing our studio at the St Josephs Community Arts Venue (North Fitzroy), Mary Sitarenos continued her intercultural work by forming a cultural music venue in Sydney Road, Bar Oussou.
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Since 2013, Robert Draffin has designed a Masters of Directing for Performance Course at VCA, and completed a Higher Doctorate in Performance, based on his training and theatre making practices. In 2016 he set up a new training program with a group of artists, which has given rise to a new original work in development, The Selkie Project.
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See more about our past projects.
