★★★★★

“Expansive and razor sharp…a chilling reminder of the ways power disguises itself for its own ends” – The Guardian

International Ibsen Award 2022

Golden Lion Award, Venice Biennale 2024

Set in a placeless warehouse, three employees approach a possibly pointless task. As the employees struggle to work together, they grapple with questions of inclusion and identity.

They are forced to test the limits of their bodies, their cooperation and their capacity to care. Initial politeness descends into bad behaviour and sly victimisation. Reality distorts, and language flips from being playful and hilarious, to deadly serious and menacing. The conflicts are familiar, continuing to exist in the reality we live in today. Are you complicit?

The witching hour is here. Who will be the scapegoat?

Back to Back Theatre has received international acclaim for crafting work that defies expectations, and has consistently devised with an ensemble of actors who identify as having an intellectual disability or as neurodivergent. They are the first Australian company to win the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in 2024, and were also a recipient of the International Ibsen Award in 2022.

In the making of this new work, Back to Back Theatre invites new voices into the devising room. Zoë Barry’s score is assembled from collected field recordings of bad things. Anna Cordingley’s design demands the actors’ physical participation to reach its manifestation.

MULTIPLE BAD THINGS is theatre. It is not real. But in a world where self-righteously indignant voices so often drown out the most disenfranchised and vulnerable, this theatre sometimes feels real.

Welcome to the workplace at the end of the world. They’re only saying what you’ve already been thinking.

Hear from the artists themselves — Join them at Workshop: Theatremaking with Back to Back Theatre (23 Aug) to learn more about developing an inclusive theatrical practice and experiment with different ways of co-creating theatre.

Devisors: Bron Batten, Breanna Deleo, Natasha Jynel, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Ben Oakes, Scott Price, Tamara Searle, Ingrid Voorendt

Directors: Tamara Searle, Ingrid Voorendt

Performers: Bron Batten, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price

Set & Costume Design: Anna Cordingley

Composer & Sound Design: Zoë Barry

AV Design: Rhian Hinkley

Lighting Design: Richard Vabre

Helpline Voiceover: Rachel Griffiths

Script Consultant: Melissa Reeves

Creative Development: Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Alana Hoggart, Francesca Neri, Tamika Simpson

Stage Manager: Alana Hoggart

Production Associate: Jordi Edwards

Sound Engineer: Thomas “Soup” Campbell

Company Manager: Erin Watson

Production Manager: Bao Ngouansavanh

Producer: David Miller

Executive Producer: Tanya Bennett

Artistic Director: Bruce Gladwin

MULTIPLE BAD THINGS has been co-commissioned by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), The Keir Foundation, The Anthony Costa Foundation, Geelong Arts Centre and Back to Back Theatre’s New Work Donor Circle, with development support from Festival d’Automne (Paris), Malthouse Theatre, Une Parkinson Foundation, Sidney Myer Fund and Give Where You Live.

Back to Back Theatre is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Greater Geelong.