Our take: Divine Playhouse controversy, men in childcare & The Odyssey
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
A listener production.
Hello. Happy Saturday. Chris Spear with you. And look, normally this is where we'd sit down with the humans behind the headlines for the weekend briefing, but not today. Today we are launching something brand new that my co-host, Sasha Pavagat, is thrilled to be a part of.
Oh, no, I'm excited. This is going to be fun.
Yes, it is just us plus a few extras from around the business that we'll drag in along the way. Our ties are off.
What is the new Saturday format and how will this episode work?
Not that I wear a tie. No. Why do you?
You also scripted shoes off, but my shoes are firmly on my feet.
My shoes also, and I've got high tops on, so it's a bit of a journey to take them off. But this is where we look back at the week that was and, you know, all the things that we and you listening made of it. It's looser, it's chattier, it's a lot less serious, but all still factual. Correct. We are not just chatting mad... Oh, I'm not going to go into that territory.
Okay.
And the format of this episode is, you know, we've got our debrief where you and I, Sash, we unpack a story that we didn't get to during the week, something that we couldn't stop talking about all week long. Then it is our brand new weekend quiz. What? That is so fun. Then we take you inside our inbox where we read out your comments, DMs and emails. We even go through the broadcast channel prompts, which we, you know, we always talk about in headlines. And of course, because this is sitting on a Saturday, we're still going to do the weekend list where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to, which I got in the right order because I wrote it down. Okay, so let's kick things off with our debrief.
Ave Maria We pray for those who we pray to
So look, what you heard there was audio from a protest or this prayer vigil that 60 to 70 Catholic people staged out the front of a venue in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. So the venue was called the Divine Playhouse. It was a queer-led pop-up arts and performance venue. And that was their opening night.
And the important thing here is that it was in a deconsecrated church. Yeah. So this was a former church owned by the Catholic Archdiocese. It was deconsecrated way back in 1932, so it hasn't been a church for a very, very long time. It has been used as a theatre venue since then. The Catholic Archdiocese, though, formally sold it in 2024. Heapsgate, which is a party and events group, was given $100,000 from the government, the New South Wales government, to support a four-month art program at the venue. Now, it was initially called the Unholy Playhouse. They renamed it to Divine Playhouse after some backlash from religious group. And that only continued on opening night. As we heard, there were 60 to 70 Catholic protesters opposing it.
And the day after, the landlord issued a notice of breach saying it was engaging in offensive trade and it cancelled its tenancy. Mm-hmm. So this is one that we didn't cover in headlines or in a deep dive, but you and I at our desks after going and getting our morning coffee had a debate about. You and I both chatted about what we thought about this story and we have opposing views. We are on different ends of the spectrum.
Yeah, because... I think at least from my perspective, what was missing from this story and from a lot of the coverage of this story is why exactly it was being criticised. And early on, you know, we were back and forthing over this deconsecration stuff and I said, well, you know, it's the venue itself. I don't take issue with that. It's kind of what was happening inside the venue that I take a bit more interest in and I can understand where the opposition is stemming from. Now, full transparency, obviously. I'm a practicing Christian. I'm a practicing Greek Orthodox man. I just want to put that out on the record there. Well, it's important context to this story. Yeah, yeah, of course. But I mean, what I want to say about it is I fully see the other side of things in the sense of people from the queer community saying this is a reclamation.
This is a chance of reclaiming and a space that has caused hurt traditionally to them fully.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:30
2
What is the new Saturday format and how will this episode work?
0:30–6:53
3
What happened with the Divine Playhouse opening night protest in Sydney?
6:53–10:51
4
Why did the landlord cancel the Divine Playhouse tenancy and what laws are involved?
10:51–12:30
5
How do hosts debate offensive art vs. religious sensitivity at a deconsecrated church?
12:30–27:40
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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