LGBTQ+ theater troupe fights back after being kicked out of venue for “hateful blasphemy”

“If a landlord’s personal beliefs can shut down an arts venue, no stage in this country is safe."

The Divine Playhouse — an LGBTQ+ theater troupe in Sydney, Australia — is fighting a landlord who terminated the lease to their venue (a former church) over the group’s allegedly “offensive” religious-themed work. The artists are speaking out, holding a counter-protest, and raising legal funds to fight the termination.

The landlord, KCSYD Pty Ltd. (part of the Revelop property group), terminated the lease under a 1842 New South Wales law which empowers landlords to shut down “offensive trade,” the Star Observer reported. However, the law was originally intended for use against “industrial nuisances such as foul smells and waste,” the artists told the publication, and has never been tested in court against alleged moral offensiveness.

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The Divine Playhouse received a $100,000 grant from the New South Wales arts council to create an LGBTQ+ performance space in the venue, a 150-year-old church that hasn’t been used as a place of worship since the 1930s. However, local  Catholic groups began protesting the troupe’s work when photos revealed that the venue’s opening night performance included one actor dressed as a pig offering McDonald’s French fries as holy communion; performers dressed as nuns waving sex toys; and drag queens reenacting the birth of Christ.

The landlord issued an order, telling the group to stop “engaging in offensive trade,” saying the show “insulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians,” and warning the group about possible lease termination. Catholic groups also protested the troupe, calling their performance a form of “hateful blasphemy.”

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“It’s over. Our lease terminated, our artists canceled, our venue being cleared out,” Divine Playhouse founder Kat Dopper said, noting that her group was given just three days to move out all of its materials from the space. “We believe this termination was unlawful and unjust. I am devastated. I am angry – for us, for our artists, for this city and its people,” they added.

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To protest the lease termination, The Divine Playhouse is uniting supporters for a “sing-in” protest at Hyde Park at 12 p.m. on Saturday, July 25. Supporters of the group have also signed a petition (currently with over 17,000 signatories) and are seeking developers, landowners, and private venue owners to help find a new venue. A fundraiser has raised over $36,000 for the group’s legal fund, and another benefit show is being organized to help pay performers who will no longer profit from the group’s scheduled performances now that the group has been ejected.

“If a landlord’s personal beliefs can shut down an arts venue, no stage in this country is safe. Who decides what art is acceptable? Right now, the answer is whoever owns the building,” Dopper said.

“That’s why we’re fighting this – not just for Divine Playhouse, but for you,” they continued. “For every artist, every show, every venue, every community, every collective, every expression of unfamiliar or uncomfortable ideas, that could be next.”

New South Wales Greens Member of Parliament Cate Faehrmann said Divine Playhouse should be celebrated as the kind of venue that Sydney “desperately needs more of.” She called on the state minister for music and the night-time economy, John Graham, to “publicly defend Divine Playhouse, its organizers, staff, artists, and patrons” in the face of threats from religious extremists and a landlord caving to their demands.

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