DIVINE PLAYHOUSE evicted over “offensive trade” with no scrutiny of demolition plans & questionable allies
The venue opened last week & has already been forced to cease its trade.
The owners of a deconsecrated church on Gadigal Land/Sydney, which has not been a church in more than 80 years, has ordered local organisers hosting queer events to stop “engaging in offensive trade”, after a campaign launched by religious groups.
The venue, originally named Unholy Playhouse but later changed to DIVINE PLAYHOUSE after requests from the local Christian community, opened last Wednesday and will now be forced to cease its trade.
The campaign against the pop-up in the space, which has operated as a theatre for over 80 years, began last Wednesday, coinciding with the venue’s opening night, with NSW Police estimating that around 70 people were in attendance. In footage taken by protesters and in photos shared by guests of Divine Playhouse, this number is clearly dwarfed by those in attendance at the opening, which, among many, included NSW’s 24-Hour Economy Commissioner, Michael Rodrigues.
DIVINE PLAYHOUSE’s promoter and founder, Kat Dopper of Heaps Gay, was awarded a $100,000 grant by Create NSW, to assist with the running of the space which was set to house the likes of Fredas, Kerfew, RONA., Vv Pete, Mincy, Setwun, Cult Shotta and many more.
Heaps Gay has become an undeniable force in its city, now regularly collaborating with local government and bigger business on more large-scale events. In February of this year, Heaps Gay was involved in the first iteration of Mighty Hoopla Sydney, coinciding with Mardi Gras 2026.
Originally from London, Mighty Hoopla has been subject to global scrutiny and boycotts as one of the festivals in the portfolio of Superstruct Entertainment and KKR Investments, due to KKR’s investments in military technologies, companies operating on Occupied Palestinian Territories and ownership of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline.
READ: KKR-owned Mighty Hoopla announces first-ever Australian edition
PHOTO: ANNA HAY, PICTURED: MICHAEL RODRIGUES @ DIVINE PLAYHOUSE
In its breach notice to Heaps Gay shared last Friday, the landlords of the Kent St church claimed that it “insulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians.”
“We note that the trade carried on by HG Events has been the subject of significant protest and public criticism, given its offensive nature,” the notice continues, as reported by Guardian Australia.
“Such offensive trade has caused, and will continue to cause, grievance and disturbance to owners of adjoining properties and to the general public.
In circumstances where future public protests are almost certain to occur and are likely to endanger members of the public, our client considers that the time by which the offensive trade is to cease is reasonable,” it continued.
While the protests at its opening night were attended by relatively few, Catholic men’s group Fit for the Kingdom and Christian brotherhood the Prodigal Sons, as well as an online petition, “Stop NSW Government Support for the Mockery of Christianity” which at the time of writing has 5,040 signatures.
A counter petition to save the venue, ‘Keep Divine Playhouse (420 Kent Street) Open as a Queer Performing Arts Venue’, has been launched and at the time of writing has 2,153 signatures.
“Sydney has already lost too many live music venues, theatres and queer spaces. We cannot afford to lose another,” it reads.
Alongside protests by organised groups, divisive internet personalities Spanian and Big Chocky weighed in last week. Spanian was convicted in 2011 for running a criminal group that recruited underage children, serving an eight-year sentence for the crime. In 2023, he posted homophobic and transphobic rants comparing the queer community to “child groomers”, which led to him being dropped by his management company.
Alongside the blatant homophobia and transphobia of his video, Spanian also shares a swathe of antisemetic comments, conflating Jewish people as being responsible for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestine, claiming that those organising events inside the church “...stand up for Palestine and understand what the Jews are doing there.”
He then says that “youse people in here are more Jew than Benjamin Netanyahu. Right? Your socialism, your communism, your transsexualism, it’s all Jewish thought. It all comes from Jews.”
Spanian’s Kebabs, run by the figure, has a store on King St in Newtown, positioned right next door to Stonewall Newtown, the second home of the iconic Oxford St venue. Spanian has, thus far, not publicly criticised his neighbour with the same virulence as DIVINE PLAYHOUSE.
While groups have pointed to “mockery” as a means to deplatform DIVINE PLAYHOUSE, the reliance on divisive influencers to communicate this ire to a wider audience has seemingly not come with the same scrutiny.
The venue’s previous tenants, the Genesian Theatre company, moved from the church space into a new theatre in 2025. Among many performances, the group has since its move featured works adapted from the work of Oscar Wilde, a Stephen Sondheim musical and an adaptation of a Federico García Lorca play set to run in November of this year.
Each of these writers, though not explicit in their lifetimes, is widely known to have had queer relationships.
While many protesters and commenters online have pointed to the venue’s history as one that should be respected, the acknowledgement of the Genesian Theatre’s own alignment and platforming of the work of queer artists has not seen such protest.
Yesterday, NSW Greens MP Cate Feahrmann shared her dismay at the landlord’s decision, calling on the NSW Government to defend the space.
“DIVINE PLAYHOUSE is bringing life, creativity and community into the heart of Sydney,” she said. “Instead of defending this exciting new venue and the artists behind it, we’re seeing a wave of manufactured outrage from dangerous conservative activists who want to police what art can exist and who gets to belong in our city.”
“The LGBTIQ community has a long history of creating art that is bold, disruptive, radical and challenging,” Faehrmann said, “That’s not something to be ashamed of, it’s something Sydney should celebrate.”
The owners, identified in the breach notice served to Heaps Gay (named as HG Events), are KCSYD, run by AFR Rich List members Anthony El-Hazouri and Charbel Hazzouri and owners of Revelop, a property development company which has earned the pair an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion.
Though DIVINE PLAYHOUSE’s lease of the space was set to be four months, beyond that, the City Of Sydney is considering a proposal to turn the church into a sixteen-storey apartment building.
One can only assume that such a development would similarly draw the outrage of Christian groups, lest this uproar be labelled as homophobia and little more.
