Back to Back Theatre wins 'Nobel Prize for Theatre'

The Norwegian Ministry of Culture has today announced Geelong-based Back to Back Theatre as the 2022 recipient of the world’s greatest theatre prize, the International Ibsen Award.

Considered to be 'the Nobel Prize for Theatre', the International Ibsen Award is gifted every two years and comes with a 2.5 million Norwegian kroner ($400,000) cash prize.  It aims to honour an individual or company that has brought new artistic dimensions to the world of drama or theatre. Back to Back Theatre, a professional theatre company with an ensemble of actors with disabilities at its core, is the first Australian company to win this award. Previous recipients have included Peter Brook in 2008 and Taylor Mac in 2020.

Commenting on Back to Back Theatre's award, Ingrid Lorentzen, Chair of the International Ibsen Award Committee, stated “we are proud to be able to honor an outstanding and unique theater company that asks questions of their audience, of society and of each other through groundbreaking productions. Back to Back's work is exciting, unsettling and thought-provoking. It inspires us to be better artists and better people.

"Back to Back gives voice to social and political issues, and their work is a relentlessly collective practice, where several creators, ideas and perspectives are always present and create a space for inclusion and opportunities. This is part of what makes their work so memorable and so important. Back to Back's work has inspired and moved each of us in the committee, and we look forward to presenting this well-earned award to this theatre company.”

Welcoming the international recognition, Back to Back ensemble member Scott Price noted "it is an honour to receive this major award for our achievements in theatre. It means a lot. It means recognition of our art. It is a privilege and an honour. It was probably the proudest day in my career.”

Back to Back Artistic Director and Co-Che, Bruce Gladwin added "many amazing artists have collaborated with the Back to Back Ensemble over the last 30 years. The presentation of The International Ibsen Award honours not only the Ensemble’s talent and unique insight as social commentators but the richness and depth of Australian contemporary theatre.”

Coinciding with the birthdate of the celebrated playwright Henrik Ibsen in whose spirit the prize has been established, the Ibsen Award announcement will be followed by the 2022 award ceremony at the National Theatre in Oslo on 18th September.

Plans are then underway for Back to Back to perform a season of the award winning Ganesh Versus the Third Reich alongside the company’s most recent major work, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes, in Oslo from 16th to 19th September.

Back to Back Theatre is widely recognised as an Australian theatre company of national and international significance. The company is driven by an ensemble of actors who are perceived to be intellectually disabled or neuro diverse and is considered one of Australia’s most important cultural exporters.

From 2009 to 2022, the company has undertaken 72 national and 89 international seasons of its work. This includes presentations and screenings at the world’s pre-eminent contemporary arts festivals and venues such as the Edinburgh International Festival, London’s V&A Museum and the Barbican, Vienna, Holland and Theatre der Welt festivals, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Public Theater in New York, Festival/Tokyo, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong, and Buenos Aires International Festival. From 2009 to 2022, community and education workshops have been delivered to approximately 24,000 community members and students, with a focus on artistic excellence.

Click here to read the full International Ibsen Award Committee statement.

Image: Back to Back Theatre's 2011 performance of Ganesh versus the Third Reich. Credit: Jeff Busby.