Griffin 2018 Season of New Australian Writing
Artistic Director Lee Lewis has announcedGriffin’s line-up for 2018 – urgent voices, intense experiences and the extraordinary visions of Australian playwrights.
“These are the stories that are burning to be told now,” Lewis says. “And these are the fearless storytellers who will reshape Australian theatre with each play they write. The conversations inspired by these plays will confront us and provoke questions in us. Each is deeply intimate and powerful, striking at some of the big anxieties of our time. Witty, incisive and at times ferocious, each play is written by an Australian, for Australians and in response to the complicated present and hopeful future of our nation.”
Season-opener Kill Climate Deniersis 2017 Griffin Award-Winner David Finnigan’s searing and controversial take on the climate change ‘debate’ in Australia. The original production was shut down following the outrage the play’s title provoked from Andrew Bolt and conservative bloggers, leading Finnigan to fold the scandal into the revised play. “We’re continuing Griffin’s legacy of programming risky writing and urgent boundary-breaking voices”, says Lewis, who will direct a cast that includes Lucia Mastrantone, Rebecca Massey and Sheridan Harbridge. “A play within a play, an action film inside a documentary, a satire inside a rave, this is the theatre of theatre at its best.”
Shortlisted for the 2017 Griffin Award, Brooke Robinson’s Good Cook. Friendly. Clean. is an examination of homelessness and the housing crisis. Marion Potts directs Tara Morice and Fayssal Bazzi in a devastating portrait of someone slipping through the cracks. “How do we take care of the most vulnerable people in our society?” Lewis asks. “This isn’t a comfortable play, but a critical and timely one. Gladys Berejiklian must see this play.”
Winner of the Judges’ Award in the UK’s prestigious Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, Kendall Feaver’s The Almighty Sometimes is a quick-witted and honest study of a young woman trying to discover where her illness ends and her identity begins. Lee Lewis directs Hannah Waterman in a compelling look at the “the complex terrain of parenting, the choices you make in your child’s best interests and what can happen when you no longer have a say.”
The Feather in the Web is Nick Coyle’s unpredictable take on infatuation and self-discovery. Directed by Griffin’s former Artistic Associate Ben Winspear with Tina Bursill, Gareth Davies, Michelle Lim Davidson and Nikki Shiels, the play skewers our obsession with couples and careers asking just how much we’re willing to give (and lose) for love. “Nick effortlessly and inventively shifts between the playful and the disturbing,” says Lewis. “The result is a powerful bellow about owning your decisions and finding your voice.”
Following the success of The Literati, playwright Justin Fleming and Lee Lewis reunite to satirise polite society in a co-production with Bell Shakespeare at the Sydney Opera House. Following on from Molière, The Misanthrope is reimagined in a female voice featuring Danielle Cormack in the title role. For Lewis, “there couldn’t be a better time for an Australian playwright to rethink this play in order to hold up a mirror to the Emerald City.”
FAG/STAG is the first Special Event of 2018. From writer-performers Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs, this is a brutally honest exploration of contemporary masculinity.
Playwright and author Hannie Rayson brings her comedic one-woman show to Griffin. Directed by Matthew Lutton and featuring select stories from her acclaimed novel Hello, Beautiful!, Rayson shares tales from an adventurous life to seek out the extraordinary in the everyday.
At 29, Daniel Tobias found out he had Stage Four testicular cancer. Combining storytelling and cabaret, The Orchid and the Crow is his comedic and outrageous look at faith, sex and identity with songs from the writers of Otto & Astrid (Die Roten Punkte).
Anthony Skuse directs Jessica Bellamy in her unique (and not so traditional) dinner-turned-performance where the rituals and customs of a Shabbat Dinner are recreated in a celebration of culture and togetherness.
In the final special event The Smallest Hour, Susie Youssef and Griffin’s Artistic Associate Phil Spencer – perform their romantic comedy about broken dreams, second chances and velcro pants.
In the inaugural Batch Festival, a line-up of storytellers, poets, comedians and non-traditional performance makers take over the Griffin stage for a three-week fiesta of alternative writing.
In addition to its Main Season and Special Events, Griffin welcomes Australian Theatre for Young People to the Stables stage. At the forefront of emerging practice, ATYP will present three world premieres across 2018:
• Intersection 2018: Chrysalis, written by 2017 Studio Writers
• Michael Andrew Collin’s Impending Everyone
• Charlie Pilgrim (or A Beginners Guide to Time Travel) by Sam O’Sullivan
All single tickets on sale from 4 December 2017
Griffin acknowledges the generosity of the Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation in allowing it the use of the SBW Stables Theatre rent free, less outgoings, since 1986. Griffin Theatre Company is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
SEASON OVERVIEW
Main Season
Kill Climate Deniers
Preview 23 – 28 February
Season 3 March – 7 April
Good Cook. Friendly. Clean.
Preview 4 – 8 May
Season11 May – 16 June
The Almighty Sometimes
Preview 27 – 31 July
Season 3 August – 8 September
The Feather in the Web
Preview 5 – 10 October
Season 13 October – 17 November
Special Events
The Misanthrope
Preview 28 – 30 August
Season 1 – 28 September
FAG/STAG
10 – 27 January
Hello, Beautiful!
9 – 14 July
The Orchid and the Crow
17 – 21 July
Shabbat Dinner
10 – 15 September
The Smallest Hour
5 – 15 December
Batch Festival
9 – 28 April
ATYP@Griffin
Intersection 2018: Chrysalis
31 January – 17 February
Impending Everyone
20 June – 7 July
Charlie Pilgrim (Or A Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel)
21 November – 1 December
Photographer: Brett Boardman
Griffin 2018 from Griffin Theatre Company on Vimeo.
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