With standout productions like Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence and FLICK making waves, House of Oz provides crucial support — from travel to PR — ensuring these shows make a lasting impact on the global stage. Georgie shares how this backing is setting the stage for a bright future for Aussie talent.
What stood out to you about FLICK and Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence during the selection process? How do you think these shows will resonate with Edinburgh audiences in 2025?
We went to Adelaide Fringe Festival with two goals and found exactly what we were looking for. With Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence, the show had me at, "hello". We so wanted to find a fantastic musical theatre work this year and asked Andy Beecroft at Adelaide Fringe's Honey Pot what musicals were registered. The title says it all - I just love the magnificent mash up - the Scottish play, girl power and netball, and a total bonus was that the pop synth tunes are absolutely ace!!
With FLICK, I really wanted to find a credible piece of monologue drama - something that would have legs and, if the story was good enough, a life beyond Edinburgh, perhaps on the screen. I scoured the listings and kissed a few frogs and the show appeared.
The FLICK storyline and genre were clinchers in the selection process for us - imagine a work about a palliative care nurse which is comedy? How can it be true? And it is! There's a wee bit of tragedy in there too... but I won't reveal more...
In terms of resonating with Edinburgh Audiences, both, I reckon, will be huge hits. Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence is already getting must-see buzz and it's only April - the title just yells, "see me, I am fabulous!!" and I can so picture our ebullient cast all in netball gear bouncing around the main squares attracting attention with their netball hoop on a stick in one hand and flyers in the other.
FLICK will be a very satisfying watch - a perfect Summerhall fit - resonant and true - moving and surprising. It's a pocket rocket.
Can you tell I am excited to see both productions in situ?
The House of Oz Purse Prize is more than just an award—it offers a career-defining launchpad. Can you speak to how the support from House of Oz, particularly the backing for travel, accommodation, and promotion, helps these Australian artists break onto the international scene?
Most Aussie artists dream of coming to the Edinburgh festival. And most cannot afford it on their own. So for the majority, it's impossible. Not only does it cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the risk is hugely prohibitive.
If an artist does take the plunge, they are usually putting themselves into debt with a very real possibility, at the other end, of not making the money back. Yoz, one of our Purse Prize 2024 winners said they have not financially recovered from their 2018 foray to Edinburgh (without us) - 7 years on!
So when House of Oz bounds up to an artist (which is literally what I did to Yoz) and says, your work is wonderful, we want to have you on our Edinburgh program, we will pay your travel, accommodation, your own dedicated PR, marketing, registration, give you tech support, provide you with an industry platform and our festival knowledge and many more elements of day to day hand-holding - then all of that really helps artists put their best foot forward in the world’s largest arts marketplace so their work is optimally primed for maximum impact.
And all of this we provide with almost no or very little risk for the artist. And there's LOADS to gain - last year our Purse Prize winners received over 100 offers of onward bookings, which, cumulatively, means about eight years of global touring for them.
This partnership with Adelaide Fringe is crucial in giving Australian talent the chance to perform globally. Can you talk more about how this collaboration benefits not just the artists but also the global arts community?
Because of the impact our artists have had (see above) loads of people all around the world will see our artists and of course the global arts scene will be the richer for having more brilliant Aussie stories and voices within it.
The success of last year’s recipients, like Gravity & Other Myths and Michelle Pearson, has been significant, with sold-out performances and multiple booking offers. How does that success impact the expectations for this year’s winners?
Don't forget Lewis Major! His show sold out every single night, he won two awards and has 35 offers to tour his work and interest at the International Festival level. So I would say this year's winners know that they have a real opportunity here to hyperspace their careers.
The world stage of Edinburgh Fringe is known for its tough competition. What kind of preparation and mentorship do you offer the House of Oz winners as they gear up for this significant step?
We have years of experience in Edinburgh - now we have honed our knowledge of what kind of shows do well and where. We know where there is likely to be a certain crowd, a particular amount of footfall and at what time of day, what kind of appetite there is for which genre - so we make sure we place our artists in the best possible slots for their work. Then we are in touch with them regularly with advice on how to make your mark, industry pointers, promotional tips, we provide them with their own publicist, they receive tech support, admin support - we are always available to talk to them and answer any questions at almost any time. We work on both time zones!
House of Oz’s support extends well beyond Edinburgh. Can you share how you help these artists continue to develop their careers and reach international markets after their performances in Edinburgh?
The great news is because of the power of the Edinburgh festival and the concentration of venues, presenters and industry personnel who go there, we are also fielding offers from other festivals around the world who will resonate with what we do and who want to book our artists. We've had requests from various UK-based festivals and others in Brazil and the USA. We've been approached by really exciting companies who want to collaborate.
We've reached out to our wider industry contacts to source ongoing representation for artists and helped to clinch various onward bookings, and we are always advocating for our artists wherever we go. Now we are getting into the commercial production of them. And of course,e there are always the documentaries we produce and EP - they are all about Australian artists. We're in production right now on one about Lewis Major. And our social media channels are a continual source of promotion of House of Oz artists - current and from years gone by.
Given House of Oz’s track record of over 1,000 performances and international tours, what do you see as the next big step for Australian arts on the global stage, and how does House of Oz plan to help facilitate that growth?
Australian artists need to travel and collaborate to augment their careers in the relatively small market that is the Aussie Arts scene. The next big step is more festivals, more countries, more press attention, more documentaries - all the things we are doing now.
Looking ahead to Edinburgh 2025, how do you envision the festival experience for these artists transforming their careers, and what do you hope the future holds for Australian talent on the world stage?
Well, since last year our artists won five awards and received 100 offers of onward touring, my hope for our 2025 Artists is that they double that!
What I dearly hope for Australian talent on the global stage is that the world will come to know for performing arts what it knows in the sporting arena: just as Aussies are known as hugely talented world-class sportspeople, so, too, our creative artists are unmissably brilliant, talented and have really important, engaging and entertaining stories to tell.
With further shows in the season to be announced, FLICK and Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence are part of the House of Oz Edinburgh 2025 season. More information can be found here https://www.houseofoz.co.uk/