Melbourne Festival of Puppetry 2023

Welcome to the 2023 Melbourne Festival of Puppetry. We are delighted to welcome artists from across Australia to present their work. This year we are thrilled to offer audience’s 11 Children’s Performances, 3 adults performances, Roving Performances throughout the festival, Children’s Puppet Workshops and Professional Development Opportunities for Artists and Adults. New this year’s festival … Continued

Two puppeteers with a giant ibis puppet interacting with children

The Puppet Picnic

Artist Talk with Sonny Tilders

A grandma puppet in a black diver suit swims in the sea, holding a net and surrounded by seaweed.

PUPPEROOS: Haenyeo: Women of the Sea

Jun 27 - Jun 29

BONKEL: ROLLING!

Performer in front of bookshelves miming opening a door.

MARK PENZAK: Labyrinth in the Library

Jun 27 - Jun 29

A garden snail slides through the undergrowth and enjoys the rain.

Dream Puppets: Dreamer and the Rainbow Tiger

Jun 27 - Jun 29

Against the night sky, a stick puppet reaches for the moon.

BLACK HOLE Theatre: KUTHUMI

A puppet named Mr Bumblegrum looking out the window, with a book and a flower in front of him.

SHAKE SHAKE THEATRE: The Story of Mr B.

View the complete Melbourne Festival of Puppetry 2023 Program

La Mama Connect

La Mama Connect – Learning Program Roundtable

La Mama Connect – Have Your Say

View the complete La Mama Connect Program

Greek Plays

From the back streets of Athens, with its smoky nightclubs and seedy gambling dens, to the tumultuous waters of the Indian Ocean and to the ports and suburbs of Melbourne, Helen Yotis-Patterson’s epic Greek Trilogy takes us on a journey like no other, tracing the roots of migration to the backdrop of Laika and Entechno … Continued

An older woman wearing a turban, scarf and cat eye glasses smoking a cigarette with a determined and mysterious look in her eye.

Eftihia – Life Has Two Doors

Feb 14 - Feb 25

An old black and white photo of a woman in her thirties sitting on a balcony in Greece, you can see a mountain and the sea in the distance

Taxithi – The long Journey home

Feb 21 - Feb 25

View the complete Greek Plays Program

An Indigenous Trilogy

8 Nov - 27 Nov

a desert mountain range with a body of water in front.

Act II: Masterpiece

Nov 15 - Nov 27

A landscape with red dirt, green shrubs, a mountain and blue sky with clouds.

Act III: Some Secrets Should Be Kept Secret

Nov 23 - Nov 27

A red dirt road, a mountain and blue sky with clouds

Durational Performances

Nov 26 - Nov 27

View the complete An Indigenous Trilogy Program

Melbourne Fringe at La Mama 2024

2 Oct - 20 Oct

White woman wears black Be Kind T-Shirt, looks up at a clothesline of different things. A pink peg in her mouth.

A black woman with braids laughs while holding a microphone.

Black Girl Rising

A woman sits on a stool holding a cup of tea. She wears a white top and red jeans.

Two people hold onto each other as they grin and laugh. They are wearing matching blue polo shirts and flap hats.

Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship)

A Caucasian woman is in a suit with her eyebrow raised. She is surrounded by early internet glitches and errors.

I watched someone die on Tik Tok

Oct 15 - Oct 20

A woman in a yellow boilersuit stands with a jellyfish on her head, in front of a starry sky . She is holding a phone to her ear and the cut phone cord in the other.

Notes From a Black Hole

Oct 16 - Oct 20

View the complete Melbourne Fringe at La Mama 2024 Program

Summer 2024

27 Jan - 7 Apr

A SUFFOCATING CHOKING FEELING

Feb 13 - Feb 18

A bird

You’re no good

Feb 20 - Feb 25

A dark-skinned woman stands with a big yellow headpiece. Her right arm is extended and on it, she wears is a wooden bracelet. She looks straight out. She is wearing a red dress.

A woman in a sparkly blue and silver dress laughs bending back with one arm in the air.

A woman with dark hair and black clothes flips the bird to the camera. A woman with light brown hair and white clothes raises her eyebrows to the camera. They both hold wine glasses with red wine.Their jewellery sparkles.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT

Mar 12 - Mar 17

A hand holds a glass with a Gin and Tonic against a bright pink background. The hand has a long pink acrylic nail on the thumb and is dripping with blood.

Teeth and Tonic

Mar 20 - Mar 22

A woman wearing a black suit is standing in front of a Chinese garden, walled in with a big round door in the center, holding a red dress symbolizing traditional Chinese upper-class attire in a movement showing her throwing it away. On the garden wall some pages of calligraphy containing poems can be seen hung above swords stuck in a garden bed.

FAREWELL LADY AUTUMN

Mar 20 - Mar 28

View the complete Summer 2024 Program

Extra Springy

La Mama Mobile: Ken’s Quest

Play: THE EXQUISITE CORPSE… SHALL DRINK THE NEW WINE

Oct 25 - Oct 30

‘The Broken Men’ Memorial to the victims of communism on Petrin Hill in Prague. Seven male statues in different forms of decay descending a flight of stairs.

Playreading: Broken Men

Playreading: THE WRONG HORSE

a tree on a river at dusk

La Mama Mobile: The Seagull at Nyerimilang

Community: Enliven Carlton

View the complete Extra Springy Program

Seniors Festival at La Mama 2024

An old man in ragged clothing. He has a grey rough beard. He is holding a burning candle, in a candlestick, in his right hand. He is looking straight at the viewer with a wild, haunted look.

Oct 22 - Oct 24

Two figures looking like slabs of meat in the butcher

The Butcher, The Baker

Oct 23 - Oct 24

Two women in suits stand looking at camera. One is wearing a moustache. The other holds a ukulele.

Oct 26 - Oct 27

Hughes under examination by the Prosecutor.

Billy Hughes P.M. – “Dirty Little Rat!”

Oct 26 - Oct 27

A woman with a sad face and hair messy. The face is overlaid with abstract image of lungs.

Oct 21 - Oct 27

View the complete Seniors Festival at La Mama 2024 Program

La Mama On Screen

A white red and black hand drawn interpretation of a zoom screen

The Play’s the Thing

Mar 10 - Mar 14

A close up of a womens face with her hands reaching out

La Mama On Demand: Make me a Houri

Sep 22 - Oct 22

The Mermaid Online

View the complete La Mama On Screen Program

Spring 2022

3 Oct - 18 Dec

View the complete Spring 2022 Program