About Us

Fabricated Rooms is a contemporary theatre company based in Melbourne. The company exists to facilitate the ongoing work of writer-director Patrick McCarthy and his collaborators, operating at the meeting point of experimental new writing and innovative theatrical forms. 

 

Fabricated Rooms combine rigorously developed original texts with alternative devising and design methodologies, creating works that generate space for quiet contemplation and subtle transformation. The company is commencing the creation of a body of work that is theatrically adventurous and highly idiosyncratic. 

 

Bringing together some of Melbourne’s finest actors and designers, Fabricated Rooms aims to foster a creative environment of ongoing collaboration and experimentation.

 

The first two productions by Fabricated Rooms have received significant critical acclaim, including multiple award nominations:

- Best Composition/Sound, 2018 Green Room Awards: Robert Jordan (The Sky Is Well Designed)

- Best Performance, 2017 Melbourne Fringe Festival: The Sky Is Well Designed

- Best Writing, 2016 Green Room Awards: Patrick McCarthy (Grief and the Lullaby)

- Best Male Performer, 2016 Green Room Awards : Ben Pfeiffer (Grief and the Lullaby)

- Best Set Design, 2016 Green Room Awards: Andrew Bailey (Grief and the Lullaby)

- Best Lighting Design, 2016 Green Room Awards: Lisa Mibus (Grief and the Lullaby)

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Artistic Director

Patrick McCarthy is a Melbourne based playwright and director. He has been Artistic Director of Fabricated Rooms since founding the company in 2015. In 2014 he was Writer in Residence at Chamber Made Opera, and from 2008-13 was Artistic Director of the multi-award winning independent company Mutation Theatre. He holds a Masters in Writing for Performance from the VCA, University of Melbourne. In addition to his creative practice, he works as an arts industry leader and advocate in his role as Executive Director of the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres. 

 

His most recent work, The Sky Is Well Designed (Fabricated Rooms/Chamber Made/Darebin Arts Speakeasy), was nominated for Best Performance at the 2017 Melbourne Fringe Festival, and received a Green Room Award nomination for sound/composition. In 2016 his play Grief and the Lullaby (Fabricated Rooms/Theatre Works) received four Green Room Award nominations, including Best Writing. 

 

He was Contributing Writer on the site-specific, interdisciplinary work Wake, created by Chamber Made and presented in Ireland as part of the 2014 Limerick City of Culture Festival. He directed Tom Holloway’s Love Me Tender, and also adapted Shaun Tan’s graphic novel The Arrival for the stage. His other work as a writer-director includes So Blue So Calm (Mutation Theatre/Melbourne Fringe, 2011), and Habitat (Mutation Theatre, 2010).

 

His work has been developed and presented by leading Australian companies including Playwriting Australia, Next Wave, Theatre Works, MTC, and Darebin Arts Speakeasy.

 

He has been mentored by Raimondo Cortese, Daniel Schlusser, and Angus Cerini, and was an assistant director to MTC’s Associate Director Aidan Fennessey. He undertook Next Wave’s Kickstart Program during Emily Sexton’s tenure as AD. In 2010 he trained with Alexander Devriendt, Artistic Director of acclaimed Belgian company Ontroerend Goed.