Riverside Theatre

It’s a good place to spend your time and effort to make sure you are looking for something different.

It’s small but it’s good! If you’re ever looking for local talent that are trying to get their names out there, this is where you should come! Many a time my friends and I are looking for a show or some form of entertainment and we hop onto the website and find something good! Never disappoints

Hopefully this place lasts for a hundred years, as there aren’t too many places like it in the surrounding areas.
The last time I was there was for a movie première, and although we had a little difficulty finding parking, once inside everything was great and the staff were friendly.

Sprawling along the banks of the Parramatta River, Riverside Theatres is a respected, long established Arts venue. With year-​round performances ranging from cartoon exhibitions, to comedy, theatre and talks, the Riverside complex has had a lot to do with de-​Ugging Parramatta’s long term «bogan» image crisis.
I was here for a fantastic series of talks curated by Festival maestro and patron of the Arts John Pinder. The talks coincided with the annual Between The Lines exhibition of the best political cartoons of the year, and the centre was abuzz with the exhibit taking up one end of the foyer, the talks held in the theatre, and the bar open and serving decent and reasonably priced wine.
I also come here for the Laugh Garage Comedy Club’s monthly Comedy night which is a great night in one of Riverside’s three theatres. Well worth a trip out West just to confirm that Western Sydney is no longer a one-​hairstyle town, and the Riverside often presents shows that you can’t get in the inner-​city.

I’ve only been disappointed once when I went to the Riverside theatre and that was the play not the building. It’s in a beautiful position next to the river in Parramatta. They have a full season of shows from comedies to mysteries and they’re open most nights.
I have been to several first nights there were they have served canapes but I am sure they also serve food from the bar. They’re fully licenced so a quick drink before the play is available.
The seats are comfortable and they have future productions listed on the boards outside.
However, I would recommend the Wine and Meat Company restaurant which is conveniently located next door — a fantastic duo!

Heading out to Parramatta for the night, as you do, we drove along the M4, not sure of what to expect, given that the Chalk Art Festival and Crave Food Festival was on that weekend, but the reason we were driving along that highway, the awards night for the 48 Hour Film Project.
We got to our destination, the Riverside Theatre on Church Street. A large brick structure next to the very brown Parramatta River. Parking was an issue but as luck would have it, the ‘Our Lady of Mercy’ had a park just for us.
Inside the theatre we looked around, the Riverside Theatre has a number of different spaces, a small stage, where they were playing the National Theatres ‘One Man, Two Guv’nors’ filmed production which I had seen earlier that week at the Sydney Theatre and a much larger 700 seater where our event was to be screened.
Pop corn was cheap at $ 2 for a small bag and we took advantage of that deal, but unfortunately the beers didn’t follow in this tradition, priced at $ 7 for a Crown, the same for a Corona and again, $ 7 for a VB. Which makes about as much sense as paying the same price for a rump steak as you would for the hoof.
The seating was comfortable and the sound was clear. We sat on the side of the seating arrangements and could still see the screen that had been placed above the stage perfectly well.
There is a smokers courtyard in the middle of the structure and plenty of restaurants and shops surrounding the space, given that it is in the centre of the town.
A fine theatre with seemingly interesting productions on offer for the upcoming season, only problem is, it’s quite a way out of the centre of Sydney, although Parramatta is technically the centre of Sydney, both geographically and population wise.