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I'm Ryan, Narrm's fat/queer culture critic

I’m an award-winning fat/queer indie theatremaker, producer, and writer based in Narrm (Melbourne) who tells stories about place, otherness, and utopia.

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I was born in Sydney on Gadigal country, raised around the world in Barcelona, Athens, London, Vancouver (where I lived on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land), and the Gold Coast (beautiful Kombumerri country).

I now live and work in Narrm across Bunurong and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country. I pay my respects to their elders, past & present. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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If you're a settler like me, I encourage you to join me in paying the rent for the stolen land on which we live and work.

I'm a theatre critic

In the Round is my newsletter/blog where I upload theatre criticism, generally a couple of times a month. I like to write longer form criticism including these two that I'm particularly proud of. You can get my new posts in your inbox by subscribing.

I love criticism which gets at the personal through the political: 'how can theatre be a force for good in the world, and how does it act through me as an audience member?' Here's some of my favorite writers who are doing it better than me.

I see a lot of shows in Narrm (Melbourne) each year, generally more than I can write about here, so I also try to be pretty active on Instagram and TikTok. Over there I make off-the-cuff reflections and upload them to a combined audience of 3500 theatre lovers.

My criticism at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival led me to win the Funny Tonne award, which was judged by a panel of ArtsHub staff. It was pretty cool winning an award at MICF as someone who is profoundly not a comic.

I think criticism is something we should practice broadly and inclusively, and to that end I co-organise a COVID-conscious theatre club where we see shows together and discuss them afterwards as a group. Criticism is for everyone, you know?

Since 2024 I’ve been a member of the Green Room Awards Independent Theatre panel and as of August 2025 have been elected to Vice-President of the association.

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I would love to review your show. Here’s what to expect.

I’m a queer theatre maker

First and foremost, I consider myself a theatre maker. The work I create is often queer, site-specific, and verbatim, and looks to make our world a bit better.

I’m most proud of having made a show called Full Cream. It's a story about fat kinship and liberation that I made with Em Keagan, Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara, and Georgie Wolfe. Full Cream was presented Geelong Arts Centre, Fringe World Perth (Weekly Award Winner), Radically Soft, A Plus Market, and Melbourne Fringe (Emerging Company Incubator Award).

Nowadays I make and produce work with Georgie Wolfe as Pigeon Pigeon. Our work together is intimate, soaked in sentimentality, and like our avian namesakes, found in the city’s cracks.

I’m an indie producer

I’m proud to have produced a variety of queer and experimental work as a freelance producer in venues such as Theatre Works, The Butterfly Club, Trades Hall, a working blacksmiths, and my living room.

I love site-specific work, and most recently I produced I Promise This Isn't About You (Even If It Feels Like It Is) in a carpark for Melbourne Fringe 2025. This show sold out it's entire season three times, and took home the Crowd Pleaser Award.

During university I organised a series of developments with showings in my living room. One of these shows was by Paris Balla which became Owl & the Albatross. Owl went on to premiere in 2022 at Theatre Works St Kilda and was selected for the VCE Playlist.

In 2024 I produced Beowulf: Reforged at Melbourne Fringe Festival. Reforged was a presentation of Felix Nobis’s original translation of Beowulf from old English, presented in one of Narrm’s last working blacksmiths—with the fire raging throughout. The show was the recipient of two Green Room Award nominations, for performer Felix Nobis and sound design by Su Min Lee.

I’m a digital marketer

When I’m not in a rehearsal room or watching a show, I’m a freelance digital marketer with experience in organic content creation, web development, EDM growth, marketing strategies for theatre, graphic design, podcast production, and paid social advertising.

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If you need to create content, set up your web presence, or to sell tickets, I’d love to help.

My education

I am a graduate of Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business. I studied at the (now defunct) Centre for Theatre and Performance, but I spent most of my time being mentored by professionals and peers at Monash Uni Student Theatre. MUST was the highlight of my studies and is where I got my start making and producing theatre.

The lowest point of my time at Monash was when Professor Sharon Pickering (then the Dean of Arts) axed the course and school I was studying at. At the same time, the high point of my studies was banding together with my peers leading a campaign to save the course. Here's what I had to say about it in The Age.

Fun Stuff

Thanks for scrolling this far!

  • I record a weekly-ish podcast called Broadly Relevant, a quick-fire overview of the week’s news ft. a sufficient amount of shit-talking with one of my high school besties
  • You can add me on Duolingo where I'm learning Hindi
  • Check out our compatibility via Co — Star
  • Stalk my board game collection on BoardGameGeek
  • The font used in the logo is Hooey, and the rest of this site is in Poppins. This site is hosted on Ghost, my favourite newsletter platform.