News Archives - NORPA

Aug 16

NEWS: The Joinery with first public performance is POV

Posted by | Backstage, News | No Comments

MEDIA RELEASE // 13 August 2026

NORPA welcomes audiences to The Joinery with first public performance, POV.

NORPA presents re:group performance collective’s acclaimed production, POV, for a strictly limited four-performance season.

Opening the doors of The Joinery to the public for the very first time from 1–3 October, NORPA is proud to present POV, the acclaimed production from re:group performance collective that has captivated audiences across Australia with its inventive, funny and deeply human storytelling.

★★★★ “A hilarious and profound family portrait.” — TimeOut Sydney
★★★★1/2 “Innovative, provocative and often quietly devastating. Bravo.” — ArtsHub
“Tremendous fun, exhilarating, and emotionally powerful.” — The Guardian

POV invites audiences to enter the mind of Bub, an 11-year-old girl obsessed with documentary filmmaking. In the aftermath of her family’s breakdown, she turns to dramatised re-enactments in an attempt to piece together what really happened.

At each performance, two new unrehearsed, locally cast adult-actors step onto the stage. Guided by Bub, they discover the story in real time alongside the audience, creating a unique theatrical experience that is different every single night.

Bub wants to get to the bottom of her mum’s erratic behaviour. Can these two adults answer the tough questions of a child?

Playful, surprising and emotionally resonant, POV explores family, mental health, memory, and the questions children ask when adults don’t have all the answers.

NORPA Artistic Director Julian Louis said ;

“Opening The Joinery to audiences is a milestone we’ve been working towards for a long time. After years of imagining what this place could become, it’s incredibly exciting to finally invite people through the doors and share it with the community.

“POV feels like the perfect production to mark that moment. It asks audiences to lean in, stay curious and experience something together that can only happen live. Every performance is different because it relies on real people making real discoveries in the moment, and there’s something wonderfully fitting about beginning this new chapter for NORPA with a work that’s all about connection, imagination and shared experience.”

POV
The Joinery, Lismore
1–3 October 2026
Book tickets

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Leigh McGrane | [email protected]

Jul 02

NEWS: Live Edge EOI now open

Posted by | Backstage, News | No Comments

MEDIA RELEASE // 2 July 2026

NORPA invites Northern Rivers artists to create bold new work for their inaugural Live Edge 2026

Expressions of Interest are now open for artists to transform The Joinery through performance, installation and site-responsive art.

NORPA is inviting Northern Rivers artists, makers and creative practitioners to submit Expressions of Interest for Live Edge, a new annual multi-artform event at The Joinery in Lismore. Artists working across performance, visual arts, installation, music, sound, projection and interdisciplinary practice are encouraged to apply.

Selected artists will stage original works inspired by The Joinery’s distinctive industrial spaces, with audiences experiencing the program across two ticketed nights in November.

“Live Edge is a new initiative that will celebrate our region’s strong and diverse creative ecology,” said NORPA Artistic Director Julian Louis. “It creates a supportive platform for local artists to take risks, develop new forms, and connect their ideas with audiences in a live context. Lismore has always been a place where creative practice thrives at the edges, and this initiative celebrates that spirit — bringing emerging and established artists together to imagine new and exciting contemporary performance.”

Once a working joinery factory, The Joinery has long been a place where beautiful things are made. It’s currently being transformed into a 3,000m2 creative home for NORPA, designed as a space where artists can experiment, collaborate and create. Live Edge upholds that philosophy by inviting artists to use the building itself as a creative springboard for new work.

NORPA will provide cash, venue, marketing, producer and technical support for selected projects, attracting both emerging and established artists and a range of ideas including micro-commissions through to larger-scale performance, installation and interdisciplinary works.

Artists are encouraged to get in touch for a site tour and can discuss their ideas with the NORPA team before making their pitch.

Live Edge artist funding is supported by The Ian Potter Foundation and presentation partners Courtney Miller and Damian Kassagbi, and is focused on strengthening creative capacity and expanding artistic activity across the Northern Rivers.

For more details, and to submit an application, visit norpa.org.au/live-edge-eoi

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Leigh McGrane | [email protected]

May 07

NEWS: Love for One Night returns to the Eltham Hotel

Posted by | News | No Comments

MEDIA RELEASE // Wed 6 May 2026

After a sensational sold-out 2022 season, NORPA’s Love for One Night returns to the iconic Eltham Hotel for a strictly limited season under the stars from August 27 to September 12, 2026.

Winner of the 2023 PAC Australia IMPACT Award and hailed by critics as “pure joy” (Australian Stage), the much-loved site-specific work comes back four years on for those who never forgot it — and for everyone who missed out the first time.

From an iconic country pub in a town of just 332 people, world-class theatre erupts with dialogue, movement, music, live camera projections and a three-piece band. Love for One Night unfolds across the Eltham Hotel’s bar, beer garden and upstairs rooms, while audiences watch from a purpose-built seating bank in the carpark.

Conceived and directed by NORPA’s Artistic Director Julian Louis, Love for One Night transforms a country pub into a wonderland of the everyday.

A series of love stories, the production features twenty-four characters played by five actors; a single mum and hopeless romantic, childhood sweethearts bantering over schooners, two men who fell for the same woman, a man who loses the love of his life to a cult……these stories are drawn from the fabric of the Northern Rivers and brim with warmth, humour and recognition.

Love for One Night first premiered at the Eltham Hotel in September 2022, as the Northern Rivers community was still grappling with the aftermath of the devastating floods; an event that shattered so much of the region, including NORPA’s own home at Lismore City Hall.
In the shadow of the disaster, Love for One Night became something more than theatre: a gathering place, a collective exhale, a love letter to a community still finding its feet. Every show after opening night sold out, with extensive waitlists and extraordinary word-of-mouth.

The production went on to win the 2023 PAC Australia IMPACT Award, recognising its outstanding artistic and community impact. Now, four years later, Love for One Night returns to the place where it all began — reconnecting artists, audiences and community in a shared celebration of love, music and story, under the stars at the Eltham Hotel.

“Creating and directing Love For One Night the first time was an act of discovery. Bringing it back to the Eltham Hotel with fresh voices and a new musical director – that’s where we get to lean into the work and create even more magic. I can’t wait to be back in the world of this show,” said NORPA’s Artistic Director, Julian Louis.

“Ever since Love for One Night first took over the Eltham, we’ve had people coming up to the bar asking when it might come back. The response from our punters was incredible — people felt part of something special. Working with NORPA has been a brilliant example of what can happen when local business and the creative community come together, and we’re thrilled to welcome the show home again,” said co-owner of the Eltham Hotel, Luke Sullivan.

“As a work, Love for One Night is a salve. Like those Love for Lismore hearts, it beats for its people. Watching it from a crowd of local community members, all of them leaning forward in their seats – is a gift.” – The Guardian review of the 2022 season.

“What joy. Pure joy. As the last song played us into the night, the audience knew they had found pure gold.” – Australian Stage

LOVE FOR ONE NIGHT
The Eltham Hotel
27 August – 12 September 2026
Tickets

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Leigh McGrane | [email protected]