iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

R.A.I.N: a green room award-winning duo reunite for a dance work that pulls apart meditation practices, unleashing alternative histories, futures, and an exploration of surrender, and the limits of repetition. tr.ee/6SfVXx

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R.A.I.N - Arts House

A bold and brilliant work of contemporary dance, R.A.I.N slips between hypnotic control, deadpan absurdity and sudden slapstick betrayal. Breaking and collapsing, past and future haunt each other....

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

COLD WAR 2.0: the most bizarre (in a good way) theatremakers i know unite for a an overwhelming punk experiment about global crises, ricochetting from the personal to the politics of state surveillance and overreach. tr.ee/ytYVES

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Cold War 2.0

An experimental punk show from the twilight of a global crisis.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

TWO BLOOD 雙血: an all star team including S. Shakthidharan (!!!) unite for a physical exploration of the permeability of culture, beginning from a forbidden colonial era love between a Tagalaka woman and a Cantonese man. tr.ee/i90c9m

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Two Blood 雙血 - MPAC – Monash University Performing Arts Centres

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

7 DANCES FOR 7 PEOPLE: it is what it says on the tin!!! a mix of dances exploring the number 7, and the mythology around it looking at the way 7 unites the physical + spiritual, and bending time and rhythym along the way. tr.ee/EHPcsH

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7 Dances for 7 People by Trà Mi Dinh

A transcendent invocation

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

HOW TO EAT RABBIT: indulge your 'hide in a burrow underground' fantasy with a play about disability at the end of the world: when the world is coming to an end, what are you willing to do for mutually assured survival? tr.ee/rQqv9S

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How to Eat Rabbit

Temperatures, sea levels, and fascists are rising. Retreat to a burrow to train for survival.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

HOLY FOOL: a clown ends up a saint and turns out to have the secret to world harmony!!! physical comedy and spirituality mashed together by a heavyweight of Narrm's clown scene. expect revelation and uproar. tr.ee/IgxTXB

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Holy Fool | Theatre Works

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

DIE! DIE! DIE! OLD PEOPLE DIE!: a puppet-based translation of Ridiculusmus' two hander about dying, mourning, and getting old which uses puppets and physical humour to unpick how we approach and relate to our own mortality. tr.ee/NIXLLY

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Die, Die, Die, Old People, Die — The Melbourne Festival of Puppetry 2026

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

KOREABOO: written by and starring Michelle Lim Davidson, this is a story of inter-country adoption and cultural dislocation: what do we do after we realise we don't fit in where we thought we belonged? tr.ee/jLBT1a

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KOREABOO

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

HE HUIA KAIMANAWA: a fusion of technology, design, and dance which explores language loss, revitalisation, and learning. looking specifically at te reo Māori's past + future, it charts the experience of second language learners. tr.ee/X45FhX

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He Huia Kaimanawa - MPAC – Monash University Performing Arts Centres

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

ELIZA: a 'psychological thriller' about the ethics of AI research set in the 60s. directed by Paige Rattray (Fangirls!!!), seems like a fascinating reckoning with what happens when we outsource our humanity. tr.ee/GoxFuB

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Eliza

A gripping psychological thriller about the birth of AI, and the ethical consequences of outsourcing our humanity.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

THE SCARECROW & WAA: maybe the show i'm most keen for in september!!! a Blak comedic circus tragedy about Waa the crow and a restless scarecrow bickering over the future of the world. made by a PHENOMENAL team! must see!!! tr.ee/bMDprZ

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The Scarecrow & Waa - MPAC – Monash University Performing Arts Centres

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

DR. PATHICUS' UNNATURAL ADVENTURES: sexy giant slug puppet theatre about queer ecologies, desire, pleasure, and the secrets that we don't want to discover inside ourselves. gooey icky fun made by the COOLEST emerging makers. tr.ee/Ory6gr

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DR PATHICUS’ UNNATURAL ADVENTURES — The Melbourne Festival of Puppetry 2026

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

THE RETURN: a lyrical story of a parent in Gaza waiting for his martyred children to return, bending space, time, and poetry to figure out what we do with this grief, and how we remain human in the face of genocide. tr.ee/3ClEYD

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"THE RETURN" play - Melbourne, Ballarat, Castlemaine

In war-torn Gaza, Marwan, a grieving father waits for his martyred daughters to return from the clouds, only to embark on a surreal spiritual journey.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

BALLKIDS (OR, SCENES FROM A FRIENDSHIP): one of the absolute best shows i saw in 2024!!! your favourite indie theatre makers telling a heart-aching story of friendship over the decades. perfect theatre about the relationships we overlook the most!!! tr.ee/pdcei4

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Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship) » fortyfivedownstairs

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

"theatre is useless."wrong! here's 14 shows challenging the status quo that you won't wanna miss this september in narrm (melbourne)

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 31/08/2026

i just find backlash against arts criticism so funny. like do you really think it's better if we never say anything negative? ur audiences may not be posting about it but they definitely won't be coming back!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

it's coming to Melbourne Fringe from 30 sep – 4 oct at Festival Hub: Trades Hall and I would LOVE to see you there early bird closes TONIGHT so if you book in before then you can lock in $30 tickets. head to pigeonpigeon.co/fckurfunding to learn more!

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Fuck Your Funding

A theatrical fight to the death over the way we fund and make art in this colony.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

and if you're curious about the show these ticket prices are for, it's a play FUCK YOUR FUNDING that I wrote, and it imagines what would happen if a bunch of fed up indie theatre makers took an arts minister hostage demanding more arts funding.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

i particularly want to extend this offer to all First Peoples, disabled folk, people of colour, trans folks, and anyone else experiencing financial hardship. when i say EVERYONE deserves arts and culture, i mean it. please take advantage of this!!! you deserve to come to the thatre!!! please!!!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

we’re so devoid of community and theatre IS the solve for that—i don’t want to exclude anyone from that just because of their financial situation. so if you DM me asking for a free ticket i will ALWAYS organise you one. no questions asked.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

so sometimes I give away free tickets! at the end of the day, i’m not making theatre to get rich. i’m doing it because i think that when we come together and tell stories we make the world a little better.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

I set Blak tix at $10 not much to say here really!!! First Peoples have been fucked over by this colony and as a white settler it’s on me to think through ways to undo that harm. cheap Blak tix is a no brainer. but even then, sometimes $10 isn’t cheap enough to get everyone to the theatre...

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

and this discount works! last year i think almost a third of tickets were sold in group bookings!!! this is a great way of getting people into the theatre who normally wouldn’t come and means that the vibe at the show is always heaps more rowdy.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

it’s always useful to think about the cost of getting an someone to book a ticket. you have to spend money to make money, so instead of spending however much per person on social media ads, i’m just putting that cost towards word of mouth.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

basically, i’m paying folks to help market my shows with a 44% discount if they drag along 5 more people!!!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

I set group (6 or more) tickets at $24.50 this is the second cheapest price, and it might be my absolute favourite. a massive discount for group bookings (of 6 or more people) incentivises people to pull together their friends and get to the show.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

I set early bird tickets at $30. i love an early bird discount. it does away with all the stress of selling tickets, plus gives people an even bigger discount. if you’re excited and committed enough to book in early, i want to say thank you!!! so i take $14 off full price tickets or 31% off.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

i usually base my budget around this price because in my head this is the one that i actually want everyone to pay for, but nevertheless, financial accessibility means we gotta have even CHEAPER tickets...

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

to make this work i have an email automation set up that sends out the code the second you sign up—so they never have to wait. this saves audiences money, and means when i have another show to market it’s heaps easier. win win!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

there’s a ton of research that email lists are more effective than social media for marketing because you don’t have to battle the algorithm to get seen by folks. so to incentivise people to join my newsletter, i give EVERYONE an $11 discount off full price tickets if they’re on it.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

I set newsletter subscriber tickets at $33. one of the HARDEST parts about producing a show is the marketing. how do we actually find and stay in touch with audience? the answer is emails!!!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

I set concession tickets at $34. ok hello $10 discount for concession tickets!!! that’s almost 25% off full price!! you love to see it. doesn’t it feel so much more rewarding than getting $3 off of a $37 ticket? that's price anchoring in action baby!!!

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

plus, a higher full price helps punters recognise the cost of making performance. even if they don’t pay full price, it’s anchoring the value of a ticket—making subsequent discounting feel more impactful.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

i set full price tickets at $44. now i know this feels a little high for the average fringe show but, as you’ll read, i think discounting is a really useful marketing strategy. and if you set full price tickets too low, there’s a limit to how much you can discount.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/08/2026

theatre shouldn’t only be for the rich BUT artists deserve to make a buck. so here's how i price my tickets as an indie fringe producer trying to balance my beliefs and my budgets.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 25/08/2026

Theatre in this country has an affordability problem, and I just don't see how we can defend an artform that charges $104 dollars to see theatre about working class lives. What's theatre for if the only people who can access it are those with privilege? (I saw Break of Day at Malthouse Theatre).

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 24/08/2026

That character comes returned as a ghost. I was bawling!! How could I not after so many hours of being deeply present in this theatrical world.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 24/08/2026

As much as I complain about theatre longer than an hour, I do really love shows that deliberately take up time. I saw a production of The Inheritance a couple years ago which was a six-hour epic about gay people and one of these characters died of AIDS in the first act and then FIVE HOURS LATER…

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 23/08/2026

The world isn't going to be changed in a theatre. But we might be changed in a theatre. And that can help us figure out and talk through the things that we know we have to go out and do to make the world better.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 23/08/2026

When I was a bit younger, a bit more naive, I thought that theatre shouldn't just comment on politics things. It had to materially do something to change the world as well. What I have learned is that performance isn't going to materially save the world.

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

that's my recs for August! follow along for more theatre recommendations, reviews, and commentary from gorgeous narrm <3

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

11. GG at Arts House from 26 – 30 Aug Experimental performance which fuses street dance with video game worlds using motion capture, real-time animation, and puppetry (!!!) to explore agency, control, re-presentation, and the logics of play. tr.ee/QLD64G

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GG - Arts House

A world premiere street dance x gaming performance that reworks contracts of embodiment and agency through world-building logics of gaming. GG. GG brings together...

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

10. Break of Day at Malthouse from 7 – 29 Aug Sarah Goodes (Golden Shield, my fave <3) directs Kat Stewart in a world premiere about what it takes for a mother and daughter to break the cycle of poverty in a place that the rest of the country forgets. tr.ee/XnDeIp

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BREAK OF DAY

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

9. Animal Farm at Arts Centre Melbourne from 12 – 22 Aug The Bloomshed has been having a *year*, and now they're back with a blockbuster detonation of Orwell, which won Best Show at the Green Room Awards—a sendup of auspol as savage as it is side-splitting. tr.ee/qZ100A

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Animal Farm

<span>This isn’t the farm you thought you knew.</span>

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

8. Cleopatra & Antony at fortyfivedownstairs from 20 Aug – 13 Sep It's Shakespeare, but flipped. Director Sonya Suares reimagines the classic through Cleopatra's eyes in an epic ensemble-based retelling of Willy's story of empire, romance, and ambition. What a cast! tr.ee/ciIdUf

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Cleopatra & Antony » fortyfivedownstairs

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

7. The Nightline at Malthouse from 13 – 29 Aug A personal must-listen! Iconic director Roslyn Oades has curated hours of late night confessionals from regular folks into a meditative listening experience where you commune with voices of the night. COOL!!! tr.ee/oNy7ih

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THE NIGHTLINE

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Ryan Hamilton 🇵🇸 🏳️‍⚧️ @ryanhamilton.work · 30/07/2026

6. Cut Chilli at Northcote Town Hall from 12 – 23 Aug A comedy about the politics of international adoption following one Sri Lankan adoptee who, upon falling in love with a podcaster, unearths his ancestry, and tough questions of family, home, and inheritance. tr.ee/m8wW2J

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Cut Chilli by Chenturan Aran

A scorching pressure cooker comedy of family secrets

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