Australian Theatre Live, which films live theatre productions in order to screen them in cinemas around the country, is to make three of the shows in its catalogue freely available to viewers online over the next two weeks.

Filmed in front of a live audience, the three productions from Griffin Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company will be presented on the Australian Theatre Live Facebook page under the banner of the (Virus) Free Theatre Festival Online. Each will screen at 8pm on two days.

Mitchell Butel, Kelly Paterniti, Lucy Bell and Benjamin Winspear in Emerald City at Griffin Theatre Company. Photograph © Brett Boardman

Launching the online festival is STC’s The Wharf Revue – Celebrating 15 Years, which screens tonight and tomorrow. Griffin Theatre Company’s production of David Williamson’s Emerald City will be available on April 2 and 3, and Mary Rachel Brown’s comedy about greyhound racing, The Dapto Chaser, also from Griffin, will follow on April 10 and 11.

“We have so many mates who are actors and theatre producers and once the theatres started going dark [because of the coronavirus] it was like ‘we have got the product here, how can we do...