About
Melbourne Stage Review is an independent publication devoted to theatre and performance in Narrm/Melbourne.
We publish reviews, essays, interviews and reflective musings, with particular attention to theatre, contemporary performance, dance and installation art. We're interested in what a work is attempting, how it works, and the embodied alchemy that occurs when performance meets audience.
For us, criticism is an act of serious attention. We aspire to approach each work with curiosity, generosity and intellectual rigour: meeting it on its own terms, remaining open to being surprised and moved, and being precise in our judgements without pretending they are the only ones possible.
We are particularly interested in the second life of performance: the questions a work leaves behind, the ideas it illuminates, and the conversations it invites us to continue. Often, those conversations extend beyond the work itself, into the social, political, cultural and economic conditions from which it emerges and to which it speaks.
Melbourne Stage Review was founded in July 2026 by Ellen M. Scott (she/her), a Narrm-based writer and researcher. She writes more fully about her approach to criticism in Circles in the water: A credo for theatre criticism.
Melbourne Stage Review is editorially independent. Complimentary tickets and other relevant relationships are disclosed alongside published work.
Acknowledgement of Country
Melbourne Stage Review acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Bunurong and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live, work and experience performance. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise the continuing cultures of storytelling and performance on these lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Inclusion
Melbourne Stage Review celebrates the diversity of Melbourne's performance community and is committed to respectful and inclusive criticism, including of LGBTQIA+, First Nations, culturally diverse, Deaf and disabled artists and work.
Contact
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