State Theatre Centre of Western Australia

The State Theatre Centre is Perth's main venue for theatre, dance, and performance, opened in 2011 on the Perth Cultural Centre. The building is striking: a weathered steel facade cut with angular windows, set against the older brick buildings of the Cultural Centre behind it. Inside, two auditoria — the Heath Ledger Theatre (575 seats) and the smaller Studio Underground — handle everything from major touring productions to experimental work.

Black Swan State Theatre Company and Barking Gecko Theatre are the resident companies. The programming is adventurous by Australian regional standards, mixing local productions with touring work from Sydney, Melbourne, and overseas. Check the program before your visit; there is usually something worth seeing. The café-bar on the ground floor is a good spot for pre-show drinks in a well-designed space.

things to do performance architecture
A story
The main auditorium, the Heath Ledger Theatre, is named after the Perth-born actor who died in 2008. Ledger grew up in Perth and began his career in local theatre before moving to Sydney and then international fame. The naming was a rare piece of sentiment from a state that tends to be more pragmatic about such things.

Other places in Things to Do