The Last Salon is a new site-responsive immersive theatre experience created for historic properties and the stories held within them.
For an evening, audiences enter a world of faded glamour, music, magic, mystery and intimate encounters, where past and present begin to blur.
Follow your curiosity. Meet characters. Uncover histories. Discover clues.
But a storm is brewing…
A salon for the living and the lost.
You are invited to commune with the past.
BE Bold -
BE Daring -
BE Innovative -
BE Ambitious -
BE Original -
BE Bold - BE Daring - BE Innovative - BE Ambitious - BE Original -
The Next World
Broad Encounters creates immersive theatre that places audiences at the heart of the experience.
Since 2018, more than 176,000 people have entered our worlds around Australia through productions including A Midnight Visit, Love Lust Lost, When Night Comes and Maho Magic Bar.
The Last Salon is the next world we're building. This time, we're inviting you to help build it with us…
BE CURIOUS.
BE IMMERSED.
BE AT THE HEART OF IT.
Help Bring It To Life
Last year, our supporters helped put The Last Salon on the page. Now, as part of AusArt Day 2026, we're asking you to help bring it to life.
In 2025, 58 supporters contributed $7,255 to the first creative development of the work.
Now we're raising $20,000 to take The Last Salon from page to performance - bringing artists into the room, rehearsing the work and inviting its first audiences inside the world.
Our audiences don't watch from the sidelines - they step inside the experience.
This time, we're inviting you inside the making of it.
Be At The Heart Of It
SUPPORTER: $10 - $99
Join the journey and help us take The Last Salon from development to performance. We'll keep our supporters close to the creative process with news and behind-the-scenes updates as the work evolves.
ADVOCATE: $100 - $999
Make a significant contribution and get closer with priority news and exclusive VIP secrets from The Last Salon - perhaps a fragment, letter, photograph or clue from the developing work.
CHAMPION: $1,000+
Step into the very heart of The Last Salon. Your exceptional contribution will mean you are kept close to the journey through opportunities to discuss the work with Writer/Co-director Drew Fairley and Creative Producer/Co-director Kirsten Siddle. With your permission, we may also find a way to acknowledge your support within the world of The Last Salon itself - perhaps through a character name, or by having your name woven into the work itself.
Donations of $2 or more through the Australian Cultural Fund are tax deductible.
Every Property Changes The World
The Last Salon is designed to inhabit extraordinary heritage places.
The theatrical framework travels, but each presentation responds to its location - its architecture, atmosphere, history and stories.
A grand mansion. A former hospital. A historic ship.
Each becomes part of the experience.
Our ambition is to create an original Australian immersive work that can travel between remarkable places, transforming each into a world audiences don't simply watch, but inhabit.
Creative Leads
KIRSTEN SIDDLE
Kirsten is a creative director, producer and curator whose practice places audiences at the heart of the experience.
She co-created, creative-directed and produced the award-winning immersive theatre experience A Midnight Visit, and created, directed and produced Maho Magic Bar. Recent Broad Encounters productions include When Night Comes, Love Lust Lost and A Journey Most Unusual with Hendrick’s Gin.
Her career spans independent producing and senior artistic leadership roles at Melbourne Recital Centre, QPAC and the Barbican in London.
For The Last Salon, Kirsten is Creative Producer and Co-director.
DREW FAIRLEY
Drew is an actor, writer and director with more than thirty years’ experience across theatre, television and film.
A long-time Broad Encounters collaborator, he has worked as either performer or as Artistic Associate on A Midnight Visit across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, Love Lust Lost Brisbane and Melbourne, A Journey Most Unusual Sydney and When Night Comes Sydney.
His recent work includes As Luck Would Have It, commissioned and presented by Merrigong Theatre Company, Cheeky Cabaret and Ghost Salon.
For The Last Salon, Drew is Writer and Co-director.
Partners
Broad Encounters is fundraising as part of AusArt Day 2026 - a national day bringing Australians together to MAKE ART HAPPEN.
The First Believers
We thank the generous souls who helped make the creative development of The Last Salon a reality.
Champions
Christa Critchley
Nicole Carmichael
Advocates:
Anonymous (7)
Andy Thomas
Debora Rothmond
Eve Ansell
Jack Daly
James Dutaillis
Janelle Christofis
Kristine Hancock
Lucinda Shaw
Mark Snell
Mary Dewar Dutaillis
Melanie Loudovaris
Michelle Connery
Mirco Hering
Natalie Richardson
Nicky Tillyer
Ross Ogilvie
Suzanne Daley
Supporters
Anonymous (13)
Cameron Eldridge
Cath Wadling
Fiona McLeod
Gary Meade
Gavin Bowman
Gemma Rodrick
Ivy Fisher-Elshaug
Jessica Nicholas
Joyce Semaan
Julie Whitebrook
Kyle MayLisa Tummers
Michelle Blackwell
Rebecca Trapp
Rochelle Wallis
Sami King-Gee
Scott Kaus
Shaney Maull
Spooky Medlin
Broad Encounters
“The leading creator of exciting and thoroughly
immersive theatre in Australia right now.”
- Arts Hub
“Sets a new standard in immersive theatre."
- Dance Life
“At the forefront immersive theatre in Australia.”
- Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane
"Re-defining the immersive experience by creating a truly all encompassing world."
-Australian Arts Review
“Leaving audiences not just entertained, but feeling part of something truly special.”
- Theatre Travels