Madelaine Nunn’s work
Shoelace chaser
A WORLD PREMIERE: 9 — 27 May 2026
Shoelace Chaser is a warm, funny and heart-hitting exploration of chasing your dreams, teenage friendship and caregiving – a celebration of the unsung ways we show up for one another every day.
Being 17 is hard enough – hormones, homework, the looming question of what comes next. Add caring for your mum to the mix, and Thea’s juggling act is nothing short of Olympic.
Smart, self-sufficient and secretly just holding it together, she’s spent the last two years keeping her life under wraps. No-one knows she’s a carer. Not even Syd, her endlessly chatty new running partner who pushes her to pursue a university athletics scholarship and dream of something more. But chasing that future means leaving her mum behind – and the last time Thea tried that, things didn’t quite go to plan.
A moving new play sensitively explores our responsibilities to those we love, the untold strength of care and the courage to know when to lean on others for help.
Melbourne Theatre Company
Southbank Theatre,
The Lawler
w
A WORLD PREMIERE: 29th May - 14th June 2026
Inside the locker room of an elite AFLW club, one season tests everything: leadership, resilience, and the price of staying in the game.
Set inside the high-pressure world of AFLW, ‘W’ tracks an elite women’s football team throughout their season as they push towards finals. At its centre is Rosie, the team’s star captain, navigating leadership, legacy, and the cost of staying at the top.
As the team trains, wins, and fractures, personal lives collide with professional expectations. Ambition, motherhood, and media scrutiny sit alongside the raw physicality of the game. Success on the field demands sacrifice off it - and every choice has a consequence.
Fast-paced, funny, and emotionally charged, ‘W’ is an intimate and gritty look at women’s sport at a turning point: where bodies are pushed, relationships are tested, and legacy is anything but guaranteed.
FLICK
Winner of the House of Oz Purse Prize
Nominated for Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence, Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award
Nominated Best Solo Show, What The Fringe
Nominated Best New Writing, What The Fringe
★★★★★ What’s The Show
★★★★★ Stage Whispers
★★★★★ Fifty+SA
★★★★.5 One4Review
★★★★.5 The Student
★★★★ The Scotsman
★★★★ The List UK
★★★★ The Wee Review
★★★★ Entertainment Now
★★★★ The Spy in the Stalls
★★★★ What the Fringe
Outstanding Show Fringe Review
"One of the best single-actor shows... her comic timing is impeccable." Theatre Travels
sitting, screaming
Shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award
Longlisted for the Griffin Award
Winner Fringe World Perth Weekly Award
★★★★★ Stage Noise
★★★★★ Perth Happenings
★★★★★ Fringe Feed
★★★★ Suzy Goes See
★★★★ Sydney Arts Guide
★★★★ Arts Hub
★★★★ Spot on Sydney
“Brilliantly crafted... It’s deeply moving and intensely inspiring.” Theatre Red
“…One of Australia’s finest writers.” Australian Arts Review
CACTUS
Winner of the ATYP Rebel Wilson Theatre Maker Scholarship
Shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award
Nominated for an Australian Writer’s Guild Award
Shortlisted for the Natural Born Writer’s Award
“Vivid and touching and effortlessly funny.” Sydney Morning Herald
“A brilliantly written work.” Australian Arts Review
“Incisive and hard-hitting.” Stage Whispers
“Whip smart.” The Blurb
“Funny, heartbreaking and captivating from start to finish.” Theatre Travels
Cactus - concept film
A short concept film adapting Cactus for the screen.
plays for young people
Madelaine has written a number of award winning plays for young people with a focus on ensemble casts. You can read or request the rights to perform her work.
The Chapel, The Fire and the Dead Cat
Winner ATYP Foundation Commission
Nominated for an Australian Writer’s Guild Award.
SAAM
Winner of the Martin Lysicrates Prize
Winner of the Australian Writer’s Guild Award
Summer at Suspended Stone Camp
Winner of the Eldersee Commission
Nominated for an Australian Writer’s Guild Award
Unicorn Girl
Shortlisted for the Martin Lysicrates Prize
Bin Chicken
Selected for ATYP National Studio
kinder suRprise
A competitive comedy about a middle-aged mum and her 21-year-old daughter discovering they are pregnant at the same time. A nine-month duel ensues.
Kinder Surprise was originally written for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric Program. It then went on to be picked up by ABC Radio National and was produced as a radio play for ABC RN’s Room Series.
Writer: Madelaine Nunn
Cast: Madelaine Nunn, Heidi Arena, Glenn Shea
Series producer: Fiona Pepper
Sound Recordist: AJ Bradford
Sound engineer: Richard Girvan
Composer: James Brown
Duration: 23min 11sec Broadcast: Sat 17 Oct 2020, 1:05pm
Three birds theatre
Three Birds Theatre is an independent theatre company established in 2015 by Madelaine Nunn, Candace Miles, and Anna Rodway (graduates of the VCA). TBT strives to make visually striking, bold pieces of work that showcase the multi-talents of a female-driven ensemble.
Three Birds Theatre’s work include:
Garage Girls
Enter Ophelia
Will This Show Take Off?
LadyCake
Three Birds One Cock
rollercoaster theatre
Madelaine is currently the Artistic Director of Rollercoaster Theatre.
Established in 2006, Rollercoaster Theatre is Australia's largest professional ensemble of trained actors with intellectual disabilities. Rollercoaster Theatre creates powerful productions that celebrate diverse perspectives and break down barriers. Elevating the voices of people with intellectual disabilities and neurodivergence through authentic artistic representation.