From stage to screen: why Australian cinema is so in love with the theatre

Recently there have been more Australian screen adaptations of plays than ever been before – but how much is too much?

• Book now for Guardian Australia’s screening of The Daughter

In the second half of last year, six stage-to-screen feature film adaptations sourced from locally produced plays made their big-screen premieres, marking the most concentrated blast of them in Australian cinema history.

Last Cab to Darwin, Holding the Man and Ruben Guthrie recently arrived on DVD and online. The Daughter, Girl Asleep and Spear, which first screened at 2014 festivals, are either in cinemas, or soon to be.