Alys Daroy

This creative research output mobilises historically informed performance as a methodological lens for climate-responsive adaptation, testing how early modern theatrical aesthetics, such as live music, candlelit intimacy, and the sensory conditions of indoor late Renaissance playhouses, can be reactivated to think through contemporary ecological crisis. By situating Twelfth Night within a distinctly Western Australian coastal imaginary, Gretchen E. Minton's Salt Waves Fresh translates Shakespeare’s preoccupation with shipwreck, fluid identity, and maritime uncertainty into an embodied exploration of climate precarity, rising seas, and environmental instability. The production advances adaptation as an epistemic practice rather than a representational update, demonstrating how early modern dramaturgy can function as a critical apparatus for environmental humanities research. As the first staging of this adaptation in Western Australia, the work intervenes in local Shakespearean performance history while contributing a regionally specific model of eco-adaptive theatre that aligns global Shakespeare studies with place-based climate discourse.

Agriculture is routinely perceived as bucolic, benign or beneficial, while behaviours of wild species are often understood as reflecting natural patterns. Anthropogenic underpinnings of food systems and animal behaviours can be invisible in standard cinematography without multi-modal cues to increase perception and prompt deeper understandings of less apparent forces. In Grained responds to the need for creative, practice-led research inquiry to prompt deeper interpretation. An interdisciplinary collaboration spanning landscape studies, sound design, filmmaking and performance reveals how industrial food systems reconfigure place, species relations and crucially, our perceptions of such entanglements. Focused on the Ord River Irrigation Scheme on Miriwoong and Gajirrabeng Country, this original audiovisual work stages deceptively bucolic drone footage of sorghum harvesting contrasted by suggestive glitching visual intrusions and a two layer sound design with scripted performance. Visual and sonic material suggests layered socioecological infrastructures—remaking catchment scale ecologies for freshwater capture and redistribution, visible and hidden architectures of industrial agribusiness, empire and racism, labour and capital flows, and multispecies codependence on agri-systems. In Grained combines original and archival cinematography, place-attuned sound design, scripting and acted audio performances and gallery staging with dedicated props to invite sustained, embodied attention and slow contemplation. It was exhibited at Form Gallery in Claremont, Perth, 30 Oct–25 Nov 2025 in an exhibition titled ‘Transversal’, curated by Moving Image Lab Perth (MILP). Eleven artists works’ spanned video art, expanded cinema, and experimental documentary, and were refined during a laboratory residency.

Australian playwright David Finnigan's Scenes from the Climate Era is a controversial and exciting new work exploring climate change's impacts and trajectories through a series of postmodern vignettes. This production combined pedagogical inquiry and practice-based innovation to explore how the original black box theatre staging at Belvoir Theatre, Sydney, could be reimagined into an immerse multimedia experience. Murdoch University's final year Theatre and Creative Production students performed in-the-round in a white box Sound Stage illuminated by three sides of original video scenography created by Dannon Wu. Research outcomes include new scenographic methods incorporating historical footage, animation, soundscape by Leo Murray and lighting by Tim Brain to enhance the audience's sensory experience of the play and its ecological messaging.

Multi-award-winning Australian performer Michaela Burger's new show, The State of Grace, premiered in 2024 at Edinburgh Fringe Festival for House of Oz with development at Nexus Theatre, Murdoch University. Created and performed by Burger with dramaturgy by Alys Daroy, this practice-as-research production investigated new methodologies combing verbatim theatre, original music and eulogy to draw attention to social justice in the sex work industry. The production received five stars at the Assembly Rooms Edinburgh, with reviews including ;Simply mesmerising ... This is a must-see(Bouquets and Brickbats), A superb piece of theatre (One4Review) and "deftly captures all the complexities and intricacies ... successfully challeng[ing] common misconception(ArtsHub).

This updated reimagining of Shakespeare Cymbeline, or Imogen was a collaboration between Collingwood Arts, Melbourne, Heartstring Theatre and Burning House Theatre. The production explored 1) gender diversity, reframing Imogen as storyteller rather than the titular character of King Cymbeline and the Queen as controlling the court; 2) merging early modern set design with contemporary immersive staging (as presented at the British Shakespeare Association 2024 by Daroy and 3) performance techniques for actors character inhabitation. Performed by Elisa Armstrong as Imogen and Alys Daroy as the Queen alongside an acclaimed cast, the project investigated how combining novel and traditional performance methods might enhance actor impact, with reviews for Daroy including a fabulous Queen, utterly (Chris Boyd, The Australian) and Daroy slithered, simpered, and snarled about the stage like a nasty femme fatale akin to the prowess of Cate Blanchett—her Queen combined regal pomposity with visceral nastiness, demonstrating adroit acting talent. Her career trajectory should be one to monitor; I found her mesmerising. Her work was intelligent and commanding (Toorak Times).

Anthropoiesis is a soundscape installation created for the 2023 Venice Biennale containing poetic spoken word, music, location sound recordings, and sonifications inviting us to reconfigure our relations with time, space and existence in the Anthropocene age. It asks: what does it mean to live enfolded by deep time when humans have become a new geologic agent? Given that poiesis is to make, transform, or bring forth, how can we reimagine our geologic future? Where is beauty to be found amidst the terror of biodiversity loss and climate change and how can we create a sublime poetics of kin-making? This assemblage of ‘sound debris’ combines organic and human-constructed landscapes recorded on sites across Western and Central Australia and beyond. These reflect the many scales and layers of more-than-human existence, from the granular to expansive. Sounds are layered with new writing and text adapted from David Farrier’s Anthropocene Poetics (2019).

This production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing explored how eco-theatrical techniques and biophilic scenography might be applied to indoor proscenium arch theatre for greater liveness. Staged at Murdoch University's Nexus Theatre with the final year Theatre and Creative Production students, the production examined integrating sustainability initiatives to reduce environmental impact and enhance the play's sensory connection to the natural world. Soundscapes, dynamic staging techniques and upcycled materials were applied to pedagogical practice for public performance. Direction and scenography by Alys Daroy, with Sarah Courtis and Stephen Platt as co-directors and Tim Brain as set designer and lighting and sound designer/manager.

Botanica Lumina: Twelfth Night was a professional eco-theatrical production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The production tested biophilic scenography and ecodramaturgy in an open-air context. Audiences were limited to 300 people per show due to Covid-19 restrictions and sold out, spurring a second run at Carrick Hill, South Australia. Featuring award-winning performers with original music by Michaela Burger, the production was featured in Glam Adelaide, the Advertiser, ABC FM, Radio Adelaide and collaborated with leading South Australian businesses Amalfi, Mothervine, Mum Cha, LVX, Koonara Wines. The production supported biodiversity restoration through collaboration with First Nations land management companies. Reviews include: Captivating—the entire cast is impeccable(Theatre Travels), Utterly delightful from start to finish. Wonderful energy, comic prowess, evocative music and an interpretation of the text to make it feel almost contemporary (Glam Adelaide), Magnificent—Loved it so much (Jo O'Callaghan, Executive Director at the Adelaide Fringe), A finely tuned ensemble. Lively, engaging and enchanting (Weekend Notes) and Simply perfect theatre. A masterclass in Shakespeare (Butterfly Shakespeare).

This unique multidisciplinary performance project combined historic research, live music and dramatic performance. Original script written and performed by Alys Daroy, drawing on historic source material. Internationally-acclaimed musicians Thomas Rann (cello), Vatche Jambazian (piano) and Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba (violin) curated and performed an exquisite selection of Ludwig van Beethoven’s key works. Drawing on Beethoven’s tempestuous life, loves, heartache and physical struggles, the performance united new writing with Beethoven’s music and his own words. Performances took place in Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).