Belvoir Street Theatre
Image: Belvoir Street Theatre exterior. Image: belvoir.com.au
The building housing this theatre company was once a tomato sauce factory (a fact comically acknowledged in the set design of a recent production.) In 1974, the building was converted into a theatre and became the Nimrod Theatre home to one of Sydney’s leading theatre companys for ten years.
When, in 1984, Nimrod vacated and the building was threatened with demolition to make way for an apartment block, a group of enterprising actors and theatre-lovers created a dual syndicate, imaginatively titled Company A and Company B. They sold 600 shares, saved the building, renamed it the Belvoir Street Theatre and created Company B theatre company (later renamed Belvoir Theatre Company).
With a 330-seat upstairs theatre, and 80-seat downstairs theatre, Belvoir’s program has always been a mix of established works, new works, popular, edgy, experimental. They have been particularly proactive about championing Australian, indigenous, LGBTQI+, and diverse cultural works.
