“The reality of missing out twice paints a picture for your future. Once, you feel you can recover from. Twice, you think this requires significant change, it is no longer viable for us to base our business model on government funding.”

Creative Australia funding of $300,000 annually represents roughly one-third of La Mama’s income over the past decade, with $225,000 from Creative Victoria a year and just over $100,000 from the City of Melbourne.

About $350,000 a year comes from the theatre’s box office, of which an unusually high 80 per cent goes to artists and 20 per cent to operational costs. These figures are from the organisation’s core operational budget, with occasional additional grants from philanthropy.

In a statement, Creative Australia said it met with La Mama representatives after the decision was announced to provide feedback and to talk through future opportunities for funding. “We acknowledge La Mama’s significant decision to pause public performances while it reviews operations,” it said.

La Mama has experienced a number of significant challenges in the past few years, including a catastrophic fire in 2018 that destroyed much of the original building as well as precious artwork, historic documents, diaries and ephemera.

Remarkably, the organisation raised $3 million, through philanthropy and public donations, which enabled it to rebuild the original building – with a “fire mark”, showing where the original building stopped, and the new one began – and add a new space.

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Ironically, that setback gives Dullard hope for the future. “We just went through this disaster that was the fire, and what came from that is this beautiful, new, sustainable building that really respectfully honours our past and looks to our future,” she said.

“It has shown us that we can do it, because we just did it with a literal building. We’ve got this sensational asset now, and I was emboldened by that experience. I won’t pretend [the funding decision] didn’t break my heart, so did the fire; I truly believe that just as much good can come from this decision.”

Polyglot is the only Victorian theatre company in the small to medium category to receive Creative Australia funding. “That painted a picture for me as to what the national theatre sector was going to look like, and I am wary that foundational companies like La Mama are not represented, but yet are the feeders of the whole ecology,” said Dullard, who last year took over from Liz Jones, who clocked up 50 years as CEO.

In a statement, Victorian Creative Industries Minister Colin Brooks said: “La Mama has been a creative leader for more than 50 years and the Victorian government continues to be a proud and long-term supporter of the organisation.”

During the 12-month period that La Mama is not presenting shows, its venues will be available to artists for free for use as residencies.

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