Housed at Fremantle’s historic Victoria Hall, Deckchair Theatre was founded in 1983 and has premiered over 80 new Australian plays. Following our Fremantle seasons, many have gone on to tour far and wide, garnering a swag of awards, including a highly coveted Edinburgh ‘Fringe First’ for Outstanding New Production and most recently a WA Equity Guild Award for Best Director.

Across its 26 years, hundreds of Australia’s most talented writers, directors, designers and performers have been brought together in Fremantle to collaborate on the creation of original works. For our ever-evolving audience, there have been many intoxicating journeys into bold new territory.

Deckchair is Fremantle’s only adult professional theatre company, and one of the very few theatre companies in the country solely dedicated to the task of developing and presenting new Australian theatre.

Under new Artistic Director Chris Bendall, Deckchair is staying true to its original mission of celebrating new Australian writing and telling Western Australian stories Deckchair is actively engaged in a range of programs to develop new writers, new theatre makers and new audiences.

Deckchair’s work has been highly awarded over the years, receiving the coveted Edinburgh International First Award for Best New Production, Swan Gold Theatre Awards for Best Play and Outstanding Theatre Development, The Fremantle Arts Heritage Award for commitment to local product, an Australian Writer’s Guild Award for Best New Play and nominations in the prestigious Helpmann Awards for Best New Work.

The company has recently formed an Artistic Advisory Panel, consisting of six volunteer leading members of the Western Australian theatre industry and advising the Artistic Director on artistic output, programming choices and potential artistic collaborators.

The Peer Advisory Panel for 2010 is now confirmed as:
o Jeffrey Jay Fowler, young & emerging director
o Fiona de Garis, producer / facilitator
o Kirsty Hillhouse, actor / dramaturg
o George Shevtsov, actor
o Sally Richardson, director
o Bryan Woltjen, designer