Back in the 90s a committed group of local theatre-makers transformed a run-down butter factory into a professional theatre, a home for the region’s new theatre company, HotHouse. The Butter Factory’s location on Gateway Island - a significant meeting place for this region’s First People - reflects the theatre’s role as a cultural bridge connecting two Australian states and many communities.  

Collaborations and co-productions on the Butter Factory stage have connected HotHouse with major metropolitan theatre companies, exceptional independents and literally hundreds of leading Australian performers. HotHouse has commissioned or auspiced over 50 new Australian theatre scripts, many of them stories of this region.  

The Butter Factory Theatre has for three decades been a place for storytelling for our local community. In 2003 when fires tore through the region, part of the community’s recovery process was the development of Campion Decent’s award-winning verbatim play Embers, based on interviews with locals and co- produced with Sydney Theatre Company.  

Even though our story has largely unfolded in this iconic theatre, HotHouse has never been limited by the walls of the Butter Factory. Like its parent company the Murray River Performing Group, HotHouse’s stage is the Border region itself. Our first performances (Waterworks in 1996) happened in swimming centres across the region, and legendary moments have been shared by artists and audiences in halls around the region on Small Towns Tours and under the stars in outdoor performances of Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Amphitheatre in collaboration with our cousins the Flying Fruit Fly Circus.