It took months for an LGBTQ+ arts pop-up to resurrect an old church – but just three days to shut it down

Gogo and Aunty Jonny Hawkins were among those helping pack up the Divine Playhouse. The group have been given until 5pm on Friday to vacate the premises. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

It takes months of love and care to make an empty building come alive, but only three days to tear it all down.

This week, the gothic signage and queer absurdist art commissioned for Divine Playhouse had to be removed and placed into storage, as volunteers whitewashed a vibrant mural that had been painted on its walls.

After sitting empty for a year, Sydney’s St John the Evangelist church – which was deconsecrated in the 1930s – had been resurrected as an LGBTQ+ inclusive arts space, opening on 8 July with a year-long permit.

For just three days, Divine Playhouse existed as intended, hosting an opening night party, a queer comedy night and a disco.

But a day after religious groups gathered outside to protest its opening and called on the New South Wales government to withdraw its $100,000 arts grant, the venue’s landlord ordered the promoters, Heaps Gay Events, to cease “engaging in offensive trade” or risk eviction before terminating their lease a few days later.

Heaps Gay had until 5pm on Friday to vacate, which gave them three days to clear a space that had been months in the making. Their lawyers, meanwhile, are exploring whether they can sue for damages and make a sex discrimination claim.

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“It’s not just about Divine any more, it’s about censorship,” the promoter and founder of Heaps Gay, Kat Dopper, told Guardian Australia.

“If we were to walk away, these groups will just get stronger and more powerful and louder.

“We can’t allow that to happen.”

‘Offensive trade’: legal questions raised over eviction

Located in the heart of Sydney’s central business district, the former church has housed a children’s school and a theatre since being deconsecrated nearly 100 years ago. As Divine Playhouse, it was intended to be a safe and inclusive queer-friendly arts space, organisers said.

At its opening night party, titled the First Rite, hundreds gathered for performances from drag artist Etcetera Etcetera, a DJ set by Stereogamous, performances from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and a speech from the city’s deputy lord mayor, Jess Miller, who spoke of the “intergenerational magic” of spaces like this.

From the stage, Dopper announced the venue had changed its name from Unholy Playhouse at the last minute, answering concerns raised by people from the Christian community.

But Christian groups, including Fit for the Kingdom and the Prodigal Sons, still gathered to protest, taking issue with what a spokesperson from Fit for the Kingdom described as “hateful blasphemy that mocks what we hold most sacred”.

They pointed to social media images from the First Rite, featuring drag queens dressed as nuns, an attender wearing a corpus from a crucifix on a leather choker, and a performer in a pig costume offering french fries as holy communion.

A day after that party, lawyers acting for the landlord sent a notice of breach to Divine Playhouse, claiming its “offensive trade has caused … grievance and disturbance”; “offensive trade” was later cited as grounds for the eviction under section 129 of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW).

The building is owned by developer Redevelop, founded by billionaires Anthony El-Hazouri and Charbel Hazzouri.

The landlords and their lawyers did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but told the Sydney Morning Herald they were not aware of how the space would be used and said it was “equivalent to hate speech” because it targeted people’s religious views.

“The events … they were targeting Christian beliefs … and, for us, it’s the height of offence to say it’s about arts and culture when you’re derogating an entire group’s belief,” El-Hazouri told the Sydney Morning Herald.

But the law firm representing Heaps Gay, Marque Lawyers, argues they did not have a proper basis for termination.

The notion of “offensive trade” finds its roots in 1840s English law and was historically used to regulate things like noxious smells, the managing partner of Marque Lawyers, Michael Bradley, said.

Its definition in the Conveyancing Act says lessees must not use, exercise, or permit “any noxious, noisome, or offensive art, trade, business occupation, or calling”.

“It’s never been applied to moral offensiveness in the way the landlord is seeking to do,” Bradley said. “We don’t doubt that the landlord is offended by what Heaps Gay was doing, but that’s a subjective personal question.”

Cathy Sherry, a Macquarie University professor and land law expert, said there was a “very strong possibility” that the definition referred to things that were physically offensive, as “noisome” and “noxious” were physical descriptors.

Allowing a landlord to define “offensive” to include what they found “morally offensive” could also pave the way for Australian property law to become more like the US, where restrictive covenants were used by developers to facilitate racial segregation and discrimination, she said.

“If one landlord can evict a tenant because they claim what they’re doing on the premises is offensive, then every landlord can.”

In a statement to the Guardian, Catholic group Fit for the Kingdom said nobody had stopped Divine Playhouse’s organisers from publishing, fundraising, speaking or performing, but that they welcomed the landlord’s decision to “refuse to allow their premises to host hateful content”.

“The prayer vigils [outside the venue] were always for prayer and public awareness of the issue: the targeted ridicule of our Catholic faith,” a spokesperson said.

“We don’t suggest the organisers or performers are less deserving of human dignity or safety, or target them as individuals.”

‘I’m so sad no one’s going to get to see the space’

Before they were evicted, Divine Playhouse had already made hundreds of bookings and was set to support more than 1500 artists, producers, performers, technicians, small creative businesses and staff during its year-long lease, organisers said.

Should the church’s landlords be found in breach of contract, Heaps Gay could claim substantial damages.

Lawyers are also examining whether the venue can make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, which could conduct conciliation to try to resolve the dispute.

If the complaint is not resolved, Heaps Gay could take the matter to the federal court.

While the legal options are being considered, Divine Playhouse is busy looking for a new home.

More than 18,000 people have signed a petition to back the venue and $41,000 has been raised to help cover artist fees, pay for lawyers and fund its move.

“I’m so sad that no one’s going to get to see the space,” Dopper said.

“It was such a nugget: it could have a stage in the round for bands, it could be a cabaret with the long catwalks and theatre … It was literally perfect.”

For days, volunteers and stakeholders have been flowing in and out of the building, rolling out speakers and putting commissioned artwork into storage.

But Keekee James’s mural, painted on to the walls of the building, can’t be packed away.

“It does feel like our version of blasphemy to paint it over,” Cecily Hardy, a Divine Playhouse representative, said. “Art throughout the ages has been censored, and this is our local version of that.”

Dopper maintained organisers were not mocking the church, and said they had responded to community concerns, including by adjusting its program.

Regardless of intentions, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties president, Tim Roberts, said Australians should be able to make fun of powerful institutions.

“If we cannot even mock a religion, that’s a silencing of our speech and discourse,” he said.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, previously said it was “hard to believe that this is the best location for that kind of event”, while other Labor MPs including the NSW arts minister, John Graham, and Stephen Lawrence have since backed Divine Playhouse.

“[Christians] have the right to feel offended and to express that publicly,” said Lawrence, who is gay and was raised Catholic. “But we should jealously guard the right to artistic freedom and the way state grants accommodate that.”

Dopper is organising a fundraiser show for cancelled artists and a protest, which will be held on Saturday.