Back to Back Theatre is an Australian theatre company that engages with disabilities on stage. The company is based in
Geelong, Victoria creating its work nationally and touring around the world. The work produced by the company explores questions about politics, ethics, and philosophy in humanity.[citation needed]
The company originated in 1987, and a year later its first performance Big Bag was put on stage.[1]
The ensemble currently consists of six actors, all of whom are
neurodivergent or disabled. As of May 2022 the Back to Back ensemble is: Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Mark Deans, and Breanna Deleo.[2]
Back to Back Theatre gained international attention in 2007 after touring with small metal objects and winning a
Green Room Award.[1] Another play Ganesh versus the Third Reich revolved around ideas of eugenics and Nazism and received a
Helpmann award after its first performance in 2012.[3] In 2019 the company also engaged in some film work creating Oddlands, a 28-minute pilot for TV that will grow into a six-part series.[1]
In 2013 Back to Back Theatre published a book We're People Who Do Shows ― Back to Back Theatre Performance, Politics, Visibility that expanded on the company's artistic vision, process, and history.[1]
The company's film Shadow was showcased at the
Sydney Film Festival in 2022.[4] The film is a contradictory commentary on activism in disabled communities.
A US writing student named Kaiya Gordon has criticised the company for not discussing race in the context of disability.[5]
[1] Roger Wooster (2009) Creative inclusion in community theatre: a journey with Odyssey Theatre, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 14:1, 79–90,
doi:
10.1080/13569780802655814
[2] Schmidt, T. (2013). Acting, Disabled: Back to Back Theatre and the Politics of Appearance. In K. Jüers-Munby, J. Carroll, & S. Giles (Eds.), Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance (1st ed., pp. 189–207). Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/37318239/Schmidt_Back_to_Back_Theatre_and_the_politics_of_appearance.pdf
[3] H., Grehan, (2013). 'We're people who do shows': Back to Back Theatre - Performance Politics Visibility. PR Books.
OCLC 864694297.
[4] Titchkosky, T. (2003). Chapter 6: Revealing Culture's Eye. In Disability, self, and Society. Essay.
[5] Dave Calvert (2016) 'Everything Has a Fucking Value': Negative Dialectics in the Work of Back to Back Theatre, Contemporary Theatre Review, 26:2, 134–152,
doi:
10.1080/10486801.2015.1105799