On
stage.
Two decades of Melbourne independent theatre — Shepard, Mamet, Guirgis, McDonagh, Wilson — and two companies founded to keep the work happening. What follows is the record: the productions, what the critics wrote, and where they wrote it.
Trained at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. Co-founder of Human Sacrifice Theatre and The KIN Collective.
“…the intensity of Mark Diaco, who channels shades of Brando in Streetcar.”
“Mark Diaco gives his McMurphy a livewire larrikinism, knockabout on the one hand and dangerously physical when provoked.”
“Diaco has this spring to his gait, a roll to his physique that makes him seem like a mountain lion come straight out of the stinking hot desert.”
“Mark Diaco barrels in as Pale at 100 miles an hour, and his energy and commitment meet the tall task of the character.”
True West
Sam Shepard, directed by Lee Mason. Mark and HST co-founder Justin Hosking alternated the roles of Lee and Austin night to night — the device Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly made famous on Broadway in 2000.
“A mountain lion come straight out of the stinking hot desert at night in search of prey.”
Theatre Travels
“Both Diaco and Hosking have left an enduring timestamp on audiences’ minds with their absolutely flawless performances.”
Pen to Paper Media
Burn This
Lanford Wilson, directed by Iain Sinclair. Ten years chasing the rights to a role first played by John Malkovich and since by Edward Norton, Peter Sarsgaard and Adam Driver — and the first play to open in Melbourne after the lockdowns lifted.
“A torrent of abuse and sexual innuendo — and, in Mr Diaco’s performance, sexual energy.”
Stage Whispers
“He throws himself into the part, both physically and emotionally.”
Keith Gow
Twenty years, one stage door at a time.
2023 True WestSam Shepard · Lee / Austin · HST +
fortyfivedownstairs, 19 April – 7 May 2023. Directed by Lee Mason, with Justin Hosking, Kevin Summers and Fiona Stewart. The two leads alternated roles nightly.
Two estranged brothers — one a disciplined screenwriter, the other a drifting petty criminal — are thrown together in their mother’s suburban California home. As they collaborate, feud, and gradually trade personalities over a Hollywood screenplay deal, the play becomes a savage comedy about identity, sibling rivalry, and the mythology of the American West.
“Australian actors Mark Diaco and Justin Hosking also succeed in playing and alternating the two lead roles.” ArtsHub
2021 Burn ThisLanford Wilson · Pale · 16th Street +
fortyfivedownstairs, 26 January – 7 February 2021. Directed by Iain Sinclair, with Jessica Clarke, Dushan Philips and Jacob Collins Levy. Set and costume by Jacob Battista, lighting by Clare Springett.
A grieving young woman shares a Manhattan loft with two roommates in the wake of a close friend’s sudden death. Late one night, the dead man’s volatile, unpredictable brother turns up unannounced, and what begins as an intrusion becomes a raw, combustible romance between two people who are each other’s emotional opposites.
“He’s one of those explosive people that you love to watch tear around a room.” Keith Gow
2016 The Long Red RoadBrett C. Leonard · HST +
A critically acclaimed, sold-out season at fortyfivedownstairs — the family tragedy that cemented HST's reputation for high-end drama.
A once-promising rodeo rider, now a broken alcoholic, is confronted by the family he abandoned years earlier — his ex-wife, his daughter, and the ghosts of a tragedy he’s never faced. The play moves between past and present as he’s forced to reckon with the accident that destroyed his life and the people he left behind.
2015 Reservoir DogsLive cold read · fortyfivedownstairs +
A one-night live cold read of Tarantino’s heist-gone-wrong at fortyfivedownstairs, 14 December 2015 — all proceeds to The Lost Dogs Home and Crohn’s & Colitis Australia. Diaco read Mr Blonde.
A jewelry heist goes catastrophically wrong, and the surviving crew — career criminals known to each other only by colour-coded aliases — regroup at a warehouse rendezvous. As paranoia mounts over who tipped off the police, loyalties fracture in real time, building to a bloody standoff of accusation and betrayal.
2014 Killer JoeTracy Letts · Joe Cooper +
Tracy Letts' southern gothic black comedy — the title role, for Blackwater Productions.
A desperate, down-and-out Texas family hatches a plan to collect on a life insurance policy by hiring a police detective who moonlights as a contract killer. When they can’t pay his fee upfront, he demands the family’s daughter as collateral — setting off a pitch-black spiral of greed, sex and violence.
2014 THE LEENANE TRILOGY · THE LONESOME WESTMcDonagh · The KIN Collective +
The KIN Collective, co-founded in 2012 with Noni Hazlehurst, Marg Downey, Chris Bunworth and Michala Banas — Martin McDonagh's epic trilogy, and the original work Glimpse.
Martin McDonagh’s Leenane plays: on a remote Irish stage, small-town grudges, thwarted love and family cruelty escalate into absurdist, blood-soaked comedy — savage satire of tribal loyalty and senseless violence, played pitch-black funny.
2011 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestRandle McMurphy +
A rebellious, freedom-loving new patient arrives at a repressive psychiatric ward and quickly clashes with the ward’s controlling head nurse. As he rallies the other patients toward small acts of defiance and self-respect, the story becomes a stark battle between individual spirit and institutional authority — one with devastating cost.
“HST's brilliant rendering will no doubt make audiences sit up with keen interest.” Theatre People
2010 The Last Days of Judas IscariotStephen Adly Guirgis +
HST assemble a massive cast of 25 actors to bring Guirgis's courtroom drama to the stage as part of the company's run of high-end American writing.
Set in a surreal courtroom in Purgatory, Judas Iscariot is put on trial to determine whether his betrayal of Jesus condemns him to eternal damnation. Historical and biblical figures take the stand, and the play becomes a wide-ranging, irreverent and ultimately compassionate meditation on guilt, forgiveness and redemption.
2008 The Late Henry MossSam Shepard · Ray · Australian premiere +
Chapel off Chapel, 10–27 July 2008, with Lee Mason, Bruce Kerr, Marcella Russo, Justin Hosking and Alex Pinder.
Two brothers reunite in a run-down New Mexico house after their estranged father, Henry Moss, dies alone. As they try to piece together the circumstances of his final days, competing versions of the truth emerge, unearthing old family wounds, guilt, and the violent, unresolved relationship between father and sons.
“A wonderful achievement for Human Sacrifice Theatre.” Australian Stage
2007 Glengarry Glen RossDavid Mamet · Ricky Roma · HST +
Mamet in the HST season that followed True West — the Pulitzer-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, staged at Chapel off Chapel and directed by Matt Scholten.
A group of desperate real estate salesmen, ranked and threatened by a looming sales contest, resort to lying, bribery and eventually theft to hold onto the leads that could save their jobs. A ruthless portrait of American capitalism, masculinity and the pressure to close at any cost.
“Mark Diaco was absolutely outstanding in his role as Ricky Roma… controlled, believable, and portrayed a masked desperation which felt hauntingly real.” Paul Kooperman · Australian Stage →
Named from Michael Chekhov's To the Actor — an actor on stage publicly displays what most people conceal. Founded on return from New York, opening with True West, and still setting the bar for high-end drama in Melbourne.
Founded with Noni Hazlehurst, Marg Downey, Chris Bunworth and Michala Banas — an actor-led company built to keep serious ensemble work on Melbourne stages.
Written elsewhere.
Stage door · still open