Who is Katherine Sortini?
Katherine Sortini (she/they) is a queer, first-generation Italian South Australian theatre-maker, writer, performer and producer, and the founder of award-winning independent company Deus Ex Femina. A 2018 Honours graduate of the Flinders Drama Centre, Katherine works across acting, playwriting, spoken word, directing, dramaturgy and producing.
Her original works include All The Things I Couldn’t Say, which premiered to a sold-out season at the 2022 Adelaide Fringe, won the Adelaide Festival Centre inSPACE Award, and later returned for an extended 2023 season; and Dirty Energy, which premiered at the 2024 Adelaide Fringe to sold-out audiences, strong reviews, and a Holden Street Theatres Award. In 2025, Katherine and Deus Ex Femina were awarded a two-year residency at Goodwood Theatre & Studios, and her work Beneath the Mountain was selected for The Mill’s Theatre Residency.
Katherine’s writing has also been recognised nationally: her play Heroes was selected for ATYP’s The Intersection Festival in 2021 and published by Currency Press. In 2023, she won the South Australian Spoken Word Championship and performed at the Sydney Opera House for the Australian Poetry Slam Grand Final. In 2025, she received the Frank Ford Young Achiever Award at the Ruby Awards.
What would you do differently from what you do now?
I feel very lucky to be making the kind of work that I do and that people pay me to do it and then people buy tickets to watch me do it. That rocks. Maybe I’d sleep more, delegate better, and stop pretending I can do everything at once.
Who inspires you and why?
I’m drawn to artists like Michaela Coel and Debris Stevenson – people whose work feels fearless, formally interesting and deeply human. I’m also especially in love with local, independent makers who keep creating with intelligence, grit and very little safety net.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
I think storytelling can make a real difference because it gives people a way into experiences they may never have understood otherwise. I want to keep making work that helps people feel less alone, especially those who don’t often see themselves reflected with complexity on stage. If I can create work that makes people feel seen, challenged, and a little more connected to one another, that matters to me.
I’ll always remember a moment after Dirty Energy, my play about the hospitality industry and the toxicity that can exist within it. A woman came to the show with her father. I later found out she was a chef and had recently left a toxic job in a male-dominated kitchen.
After the performance, her father came up to me and said he hadn’t really understood why she had quit, and had been worried about how she would survive, but the play had helped him finally understand why she had to leave and how unhappy she’d been. That, to me, is what making a difference looks like.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Italy. Always. It feels ancestral, chaotic, beautiful, indulgent and emotional.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
I’m very Adelaide in this regard;my instinct is always to take people somewhere with good wine, good food and a bit of sky. So ideally, we’d head to one of the wine regions like the Adelaide Hills, Barossa, McLaren Vale or Clare, because they’re such an easy reminder of how lucky we are here: beautiful countryside, brilliant produce, and people who care deeply about what they make. But I also love the smaller, local version of that feeling – a really good suburban bar that I can walk to, have a Guiness, or if I am lucky a Kilkenny, and feel properly at home.
What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading Project Hail Mary because I must read the book before I watch the film, once that impulse kicks in, there’s no undoing it. I’m also reading Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ- translated by Lin King, which just won the International Booker Prize 2026.
What are you currently listening to?
At the moment, a lot of The Wiggles, the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack, and the Cars soundtrack. Yes, I have children. Yes, we go hard. Outside of that, Runway – Lady Gaga & Doechii
Happiness is?
My family, always. The perfect cup of tea. Hearing a little voice say “I love you” before falling asleep. Going into my study at 11pm to start work knowing the morning belongs to play. Writing a new play knowing kind of what I am writing about. Journaling. Good stationery. A creamy, thocky keyboard with pink RGB lighting. Answering the phone to someone you’d been thinking about. And a very well-placed 3pm coffee.
What does the future hold for you?
More writing and more touring, including taking this little baby on the road (and when I say this I refer to my play The Damage is Done and not my actual baby.) I’ve also recently stepped into a new role at Feast Festival, where I’m now helping lead the artistic vision so the future looks like making more work, backing more independent artists, building bold queer cultural experiences, and continuing to spend as much of my life as possible in and around theatre – making it, watching it, falling in love with it.
Katherine presents and performs The Damage is Done at The Loading Dock Theatre – Qtopia Sydney from 25 – 27 June 2026, as part of Qtopia Sydney’s Pride Fest. For more information, visit: www.qtopiasydney.com.au for details.
Image: Katherine Sortini – photo by Jamois