About Us

Rebus Theatre creates social change through powerful, inclusive theatre.

‘Engaging’
‘Transformative’
‘Incredibly telling and powerful’
Arts Activated Conference, Sydney

‘Engaging’

‘Transformative’

‘Incredibly telling and powerful’

Arts Activated ConferenceSydney

We run programs, create original performances and deliver theatre-based workplace training.

A young man with disability is used to workers speaking for him. He speaks from a stage under lights, feeling heard for the first time.

A dancer contorts her body. The audience feels, viscerally, the pain and fear behind the warnings of a climate scientist.

Public servants watch as an actor portrays a colleague experiencing a panic attack. They explore ways to support her.

Injured service people stand in a circle playing a game, and remember how to laugh.

This is some of the work that Rebus does.

Why theatre?

Theatre is uniquely powerful. It can bring about change, in an individual, a community, or a whole society. Theatre engages the body and the emotions, as well as the mind. It makes deeper and more lasting change possible. The stage is a place where we can imagine any reality, any future. It’s where we can be the change we want to see in the world.

Forum Theatre

All of our workplace training and some of our other work uses Forum Theatre. This is a form developed in Brazil and Peru by Augusto Boal. In Forum Theatre, actors present a problem based on lived experience. Members of the audience may choose to step onto the stage to play characters trying to solve the problem. They engage their bodies, minds and emotions in rehearsing change. They take part in a theatrical dialogue searching for ideal solutions. Those who choose not to participate on stage watch and listen. They may engage in discussion and dialogue.

Why ‘Rebus’?

A Rebus is a puzzle in which pictures represent words. A picture of an eye, a can of soup and the ocean might mean ‘I can see’. We challenge audiences to take real-life pieces of social puzzles, change behaviour and assemble a positive new picture.

Our vision

We believe in a sustainable and ethical society that is inclusive, creative, compassionate and accessible to everyone.

Our mission

Rebus is an inclusive company using theatre and other arts to stimulate healing and provoke social and environmental change. We work with people with lived experience of marginalisation to create innovative, powerful performance in diverse contexts.

What We Do

A group of actors pose in various positions

Rebus acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work, and pays our respect to elders past, present and emerging.

We practice radical empathy through theatre and other arts to stimulate healing and provoke social and environmental change. Together with our donors and friends, Rebus is embarking on a bold new path to reach more of our marginalised than ever before. Play your own part by making a tax deductible donation to support our mission here!

Donate to Rebus!

The Rebus Staff Wellbeing Program is supported by Hands Across Canberra in partnership with the Chief Minister’s Charitable Fund and the Canberra Foundations Collective.