‘Urgent listening is needed’: Australian theatre asks artists to advise them on diversity

In industry first, Melbourne Theatre Company has formed an advisory council of artists including Zoë Coombs Marr, Tony Briggs and Patricia Cornelius

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When the producers of Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner recently asked publications to only send critics of colour to review the show in Melbourne, the ensuing controversy once again threw a spotlight on the gatekeepers of Australian theatre.

Issues of diversity and inclusion, which had been swept under the carpet to a large extent by the existential crisis of Covid-19, were front and centre again, prompting a furore on social media, open letters and a controversial piece in the Age that criticised the decision as “a misguided move that promotes tokenism” and was, in print, accompanied by a cartoon deemed offensive by some readers.