Pram Factory

1994, 56 Minutes

Home to a Melbourne theatre collective, the Pram Factory in Carlton was a focal point for intellectual, artistic and political life during the turbulent 1970s.

In the early 1970s, a theatre collective - the Australian Performing Group - based itself in a building called the Pram Factory, now synonymous with the people and events that laid the groundwork for a renaissance in Australian culture. The Pram was a ‘scene’, a 24-hour happening, a radical alternative to the mainstream. Those who lived and worked at the Pram expected the world to come to them - and for a while it did. (The building was eventually demolished to make way for a supermarket.)

The performers talk about the conflicts and passions which dominated their lives at the time. Theirs was an explosive combination of personalities who saw alternative theatre as a step toward an alternative society. They went on to be among Australia’s leading actors, writers, directors, musicians, artists, designers and theatre performers.

The Pram Factory was a unique cultural experiment that tells a story of the 1970s - one that continues to reverberate in contemporary Australian art and culture.

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.