Melbourne Theatre Company 2016 Season

Melbourne Theatre Company Artistic Director Brett Sheehy AO has announced MTC’s 2016 Season.

‘2016 marks the fourth Melbourne Theatre Company season I’ve had the great privilege to curate,’ Brett Sheehy said. ‘Navigating a theatre company through this second decade of the 21st Century is both a joy and a challenge as we strive to achieve the right balance of stories and art which excites our loyal, intrepid subscribers and also speaks to new audiences about their lives in an arresting and compelling way.

‘In this 2016 program I believe we have found a perfect mix of works – a suite of plays which can speak with great meaning to any of the six million citizens of our State. The combination of exciting Australian premieres of the best new international plays, world premieres of fresh Australian works, and new productions of much-loved classics guarantees there is something on offer that will entertain, challenge and enlighten all our lives, and enable us to see the world in original and enriching ways,’ Mr Sheehy said.

MTC’s 2016 Season features 11 mainstage plays, a family production, NEON NEXT, its Education Program, the Cybec Electric play reading series, a Women in Theatre program, regional and interstate touring, MTC CONNECT and a range of other artist development initiatives.

MTC’s 2016 season features actors including Kat Stewart, Shaun Micallef, Colin Friels, Kate Atkinson, Bert LaBonté, Mark Leonard Winter, Sarah Peirse, Christen O’Leary, Bobby Fox, and Ash Flanders; and directors including Kip Williams, Nadia Tass, Simon Phillips, Clare Watson, Peter Houghton,Sarah Goodes, MTC’s Associate Artistic Director Sam Strong and Associate Director Leticia Cáceres.

Playwrights from Australia and abroad including Joanna Murray-Smith, Kate Mulvany, Tom Holloway, Carolyn Burns,Young Jean Lee, Duncan Macmillan, Deborah Bruce, Ayad Akhtar, David Hare, Neil Simon and August Strindberg.

MTC’s 2016 Season opens in stylish fashion with Ladies in Black, a new musical which features music and lyrics by Tim Finn and sees the return of the creatives behind North by Northwest, Simon Phillips and Carolyn Burns.

Kate Atkinson and Bert LaBonté star in the Australian premiere of Lungs, a two-hander by British writer Duncan Macmillan, directed by Clare Watson.

Leticia Cáceres leads the Australian premiere of The Distance, a smash-hit from London with big laughs and moral dilemmas that examine the emotional fallout when a woman walks out on her husband and children.

2015 Helpmann award-winning director Kip Williams brings Miss Julie to MTC for a modern revival, starring the Mark Leonard Winter.

Straight White Men, the razor-edged new comedy from one of American theatre’s most acute observers of race and identity, Young Jean Lee, directed byLeticia Cáceres.

One of the greatest crime novels of our times, Double Indemnity, is given a stage adaptation by Tom Holloway with direction by Sam Strong.

Led by award-winning director Dean Bryant, David Hare’s contemporary classic Skylight returns to MTC starring Colin Friels and Anna Samson as the estranged lovers who reunite and old passion sparks.

The novel Jasper Jones is transformed into a stage production, adapted by Kate Mulvany and directed by Sam Strong.

Kat Stewart and Mitchell Butel star in Disgraced, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that proves politics and dinner parties are never a good mix, directed by Nadia Tass.

Joanna Murray-Smith’s two-hander, Switzerland, comes to MTC with the original Sydney Theatre Company team of actors Sarah Peirse and Eamon Farren, and director Sarah Goodes.

And MTC’s 2016 mainstage season closes with Shaun Micallef and Francis Greenslade playing the famous mismatched duo in The Odd Couple, directed by Peter Houghton.

In addition to the mainstage productions, MTC presents family production Egg, a world premiere co-production with Terrapin Puppet Theatre, from creative team Angela Betzien and Leticia Cáceres.

Also in 2016, MTC’s NEON Festival evolves into NEON NEXT – an incubator for commissioning, developing and presenting independent works for the stage. NEON NEXT sees Sisters Grimm return to the company with their new production Lilith: The Jungle Girl, commissioned and presented by MTC, and Daniel Schlusser and Nicola Gunn commence work on new commissions. Throughout the year NEON NEXT will also provide opportunities for independent theatre practitioners to take part in free professional development workshops and masterclasses.

MTC’s Education Program continues with a brand new work for VCE students, along with a range of unique learning opportunities and resources for students and teachers. Peddling by Harry Melling will make its Australian premiere as MTC’s Education production, and will tour to regional Victoria and Tasmania after its season at Southbank Theatre. In 2016, MTC’s Sharing the Light initiative, supported by Crown Resorts Foundation, enters its second year, enriching the lives of young people throughout the state with subsidised $5 tickets for eligible schools and families, an Indigenous Scholarship Program and a regional tour of MTC’s Education production.

Alongside the work taking place on MTC’s stages, the Cybec Electric play reading series returns, as do MTC’s many initiatives designed to foster, develop and support the creative talent of Australian artists. These initiatives include the Assistant Directors Program, MTC Commissions, MTC CONNECT and the Women in Theatre Program – an expansion of MTC’s Women Directors Program to embrace all areas of the theatre industry.

Brett Sheehy said, ‘There’s no shortage of remarkable theatrical experiences, activities and learning opportunities at MTC in 2016. In addition to presenting a program of exceptional theatre we continue to nurture the individuals who make up the creative industry we are so lucky to have in this country.

‘I invite you to join me on the theatrical journeys which our dozens of extraordinary artists – writers, directors, actors, designers and other creatives – are passionate about taking us on,’ Mr Sheehy said.

mtc.com.au

The Productions

Ladies in Black

Book by Carolyn Burns, adapted from the Madeleine St John novel, music and lyrics by Tim Finn

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

16 January – 27 February

Opening Night: Wednesday 20 January

Cast includes Andrew Broadbent, Carita Farrer Spencer, Bobby Fox, Kathryn McIntyre, Sarah Morrison, Christen O’Leary, Naomi Price and Greg Stone

Director: Simon Phillips

Musical Director: Isaac Hayward

Designer: Gabriela Tylesova

Lighting Designer: David Walters

Orchestrations: Guy Simon

MTC opens its 2016 season with the QTC production of the musical Ladies in Black, a celebration of glamour, gowns and growing up in 1950s Australia.

In 1950s Sydney when the city is on the cusp of becoming cosmopolitan, young high school graduate Lesley takes a holiday job at Goodes, the most prestigious department store in town. In that summer of innocence, a world of possibilities opens up as she befriends the ladies of the women’s frocks department – including her new mentor, the exotic European Magda, mysterious mistress of the gowns.

Director Simon Phillips said, ‘It’s always great to work on a brand new piece, but this one has so many ingredients that I love, that it promises to be really special. The original novel is a rare jewel, a funny and life-affirming tale that turns small lives into a captivating page-turner and Carolyn’s adaptation perfectly and economically catches its charm and the poetry of its intertwining narratives. Add to that the wonderful, witty melodies of Tim’s score – from laconic bush ballads to soaring, romantic odes to fashion and possibility - and you have a heady mix, a theatrical event with its own beguiling, twinkly-eyed style.’

Lungs

By Duncan Macmillan

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

5 February – 19 March

Opening Night: Thursday 11 February

Kate Atkinson (Wentworth, The Waiting Room) and Bert LaBonté (Birdland, The Mountaintop) star in the Australian premiereof Lungs, by British writer Duncan Macmillan.

In Ikea – of all places – a man tentatively suggests to his partner that perhaps they should start a family, and whoosh – out fly all her pent up anxieties for the future. What follows is months of this couple’s unending questioning of their impending parenthood compressed into one seamless, funny conversation. And while they fret and bicker over the biggest decision of their lives, the real question becomes whether there’s enough love in the mix to hold things together.

Director Clare Watson said, ‘I’m thrilled to be returning to MTC with Lungs, it’s a play that is both hilarious and devastating. This couple are bitingly witty, they banter and riff off one another but their fundamental question is bleak: if the planet stands a chance, shouldn’t humans stop making more humans?

The Distance

By Deborah Bruce

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

5 March – 9 April

Opening Night: Thursday 10 March

Cast includes Susan Prior

Director Leticia Cáceres

Set & Costume Designer Tracy Grant Lord

Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook

Turn to your friends in times of trouble. That’s sound advice and just what Bea does after leaving her marriage in Australia and returning to Britain. All her friends sympathise with her until she announces that her two small children will stay in Melbourne with their father. She’s not cut out for motherhood. Doesn’t like it one bit. So why should she pretend? She’s flown the coop and there’s no way this pigeon is flying back.

Director Leticia Cáceres said, ‘With great humour and emotional intelligence, Deborah Bruce has written one of the best new plays to come out of Britain in the past year. Whether you are a parent or not, The Distance has universal themes of friendship, family and the anguish of adult responsibilities that everyone can relate to. It’s a wild ride of emotions, laughs and surprising honesty.’

Miss Julie

By August Strindberg

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

16 April – 21 May

Opening Night: Thursday 21 April

Cast includes Mark Leonard Winter

Director Kip Williams

Lighting Designer Paul Jackson

Miss Julie is wild again tonight. Midsummer’s Eve is her time, a night when rules are broken, when class barriers are set aside and the young mistress of the manor can dance with whomever she pleases. She chooses Jean, her father’s valet, and for a few hours, through the long twilight, they play a dangerous game of What If? But the enchantment cannot last and soon the dawn will break.

Director Kip Williams said, ‘Miss Julie is one of the canon’s great psychological thrillers. It drips with an intoxicating sexual tension and a dangerous power play. For generations, theatre makers have been drawn to it to reinvestigate questions of class, gender, and sexuality.’

Straight White Men

By Young Jean Lee

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

6 May – 18 June

Opening Night: Thursday 12 May

Cast includes Steve Mouzakis, Luke Ryan

Director Leticia Cáceres

Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook

Christmas is for family, and brothers Matt, Jake and Drew gather at their Dad’s house for the usual observances of the holiday season, adding a few rituals of their own, such as playing politically-correct board games and worrying about what Mum would think. Although she’s been dead for some time now, their liberal, feminist mother still casts a vast shadow. She taught them how being heterosexual white males gives them an unfair advantage in America, but, as carefree youth gives way to mid-life anxiety, privileged is the last thing they feel.

Director Leticia Cáceres said, ‘In Straight White Men Young Jean Lee has created an intriguingly tongue-in-cheek study of social identity, privilege and the unsettling habit of holding whole social groups accountable for the acts of individuals. From work-to-work Young Jean Lee refuses to settle for a single theatrical form, pushing boundaries and earning her the reputation of one of America’s most exciting contemporary theatre makers. This is perhaps her most conventional play to date but no less fearless in the themes it tackles.’

Double Indemnity

By Tom Holloway, adapted from the book by James M Cain

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

30 May – 2 July

Opening Night: Friday 3 June

Cast includes Lachlan Woods

Director Sam Strong

Set Designer Andrew Bailey

Costume Designer Esther Marie Hayes

Lighting Designer Paul Jackson

Composer Kelly Ryall

Voice & Dialect Coach Leith McPherson

Insurance agent Walter Huff has nosed around the business long enough to smell a scam, so when he meets Phyllis Nirdlinger to talk about her husband’s insurance coverage he gets a perfumed whiff of trouble. But she has a persuasive way of putting things. Can’t a wife fix a little security for herself? After all, a beloved husband can suffer a fatal accident just as easily as an honest guy can fall hard for a dame who’s no good.

Director Sam Strong said, ‘Some of my most cherished theatrical experiences have been collaborating with Tom Holloway as writer and director, so I’m delighted to be bringing one of our mutual favourite stories to life for Melbourne audiences. Tom’s adaptation of James M Cain’s classic novel captures the crackingly sharp dialogue, the twinkle-in-the-eye sense of humour, and the evocative Californian Noir setting. But Tom has also added a layer of psychological complexity to the galloping edge-of-your-seat plot. This version of Double Indemnity will be a morality tale for an immoral age – a play that thrillingly dissects just how far we will go to get what we want. Devious, dangerous, compelling and sexy as hell, the characters of Double Indemnity are a treat for actors and audiences alike.’

Skylight

By David Hare

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

18 June – 23 July

Opening Night: Thursday 23 June

Cast includes Colin Friels, Anna Samson

Director Dean Bryant Lighting

Designer Matt Scott

Composer & Sound Designer Mathew Frank

Voice & Dialect Coach Leith McPherson

A few years ago, Kyra broke off her relationship with a wealthy married man, having caused more hurt than she could bear, and settled for a more meaningful life as a teacher in a disadvantaged school. But is it idealism that drives her or her need for repentance? When her former lover Tom tracks her down to her cold London flat to rekindle their relationship, she must decide whether she could ever again be the person she once was.

Director Dean Bryant said, ‘Rarely do the personal and political come together in such an exciting and theatrical evening. It’s a thrilling opportunity to experience actors on fire up close. Skylight is funny, sexy, sad and even more relevant to who we are as a society now than it was twenty years ago.’

Jasper Jones

Based on the novel by Craig Silvey, adapted by Kate Mulvany

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

1 August – 9 September

Opening Night: Friday 5 August

Late one summer night in 1965, young Charlie is startled by fierce rapping on the window of his sleep-out. It’s Jasper Jones, the baddest kid in the wheatbelt town of Corrigan. Steer clear of him, parents say, he’s nothing but trouble. And now he’s outside Charlie’s window asking for help, begging him to come see something, something awful, something that’ll change his life.

Director Sam Strong said, ‘After working with Kate on Masquerade, I’m thrilled to be teaming up with her again to give her adaptation of Jasper Jones a lavish mainstage production. Kate has a remarkable talent for imaginatively transforming novels into theatrical works of art in their own right. In Craig Silvey’s novel, she has rich material to play with. Jasper Jones is a coming of age story for all ages, so it’s little wonder the novel has already captured the hearts of a generation of Australians. I can’t wait to create a production that is every bit as charming, haunting, playful, and tender as the story of Jasper Jones.’

Disgraced

By Ayad Akhtar

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

19 August – 1 October

Opening Night: Thursday 25 August

Cast includes Mitchell Butel, Kat Stewart

Director Nadia Tass

Set Designer Shaun Gurton

Composition & Sound Design Russell Goldsmith & Daniel Nixon

Director Nadia Tass said, ‘For me, this is a story of our new world - of one man wrestling with his Islamic roots and the consequences of denial and suppression. As Ayad Akthar’s emotionally charged scenario explodes before our very eyes, we see the veneer of social nicety stripped away to reveal that little has changed, and racism, infidelity, ambition and self-loathing loom large. It is a fine piece of relevant, insightful writing that I am proud to present to a Melbourne audience.’

Amir is an American living the American Dream. On track to make partner in his law firm, he lives with his artist wife Emily in their spacious Upper East Side apartment, where occasionally they’ll throw a dinner party. Tonight’s guests are Jory, a work colleague, and her husband, Isaac, an art dealer, and, with so much in common, the conversation flows easily. Then, as it inevitably does in today’s conflicted America, the topic turns to race, religion and identity. Now, how quickly things fall apart.

Switzerland

By Joanna Murray-Smith

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

16 September – 29 October

Opening Night: Wednesday 21 September

Cast Eamon Farren, Sarah Peirse

Director Sarah Goodes

Set and Costume Designer Michael Scott-Mitchell

Lighting Designer Nick Schlieper

Composer and Sound Designer Steve Francis

Inspired by crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, Switzerland is an original thriller that begins with a knock at the door and spirals into a calculated contest of wits and words. An earnest, clean-cut young man sent from Highsmith’s publisher’s office turns up at her alpine retreat to convince her to write a final book. But Patricia decided long ago that she didn’t like people, and she certainly doesn’t like this young man. But he’s wilier than she first supposes and their confrontation soon turns into a cat-and-mouse game – but who is cat and who is mouse? Highsmith created some of the greatest suspense novels in modern literature, writing dozens of works that would become notorious for their startling violence and unstable, morally ambiguous characters. She became best known for the Ripley series and its eponymous criminal hero; a seductive, amoral libertine who gets away with murder. Patricia Highsmith was born in Texas in 1921 and died alone in Switzerland in 1995.

Director Sarah Goodes said, ‘Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland is a thrilling ride into the dark centre of one of the great writers if our time. A thriller at its heart it is also a journey into a psychological space that explores transformation and the act of creativity.’

The Odd Couple

By Neil Simon

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

5 November – 17 December

Opening Night: Thursday 10 November

Cast includes Francis Greenslade, Shaun Micallef

Director Peter Houghton

Set & Costume Designer Christina Smith

Lighting Designer Matt Scott

Composer & Sound Designer J David Franzke

Everything’s set for the regular poker game at Oscar’s place, but where’s Felix? He’s never late. A call to his wife reveals that she and Felix have split up and he’s taken it pretty hard. When he finally arrives, in shock, distraught, with thoughts to end it all, Oscar makes a proposal. Why not move in here with him? Think about it – two bachelors living together, fancy free, no wives getting on their nerves. It’ll be paradise!

Director Peter Houghton said, ‘It is rare to be given a piece to direct that you’ve always loved. When I first saw the film as a kid the precision comic writing of Neil Simon blew me away. Every line was a pearl, every exchange was a gem and the characters were cut like crystal. I walked around dropping one-liners like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon for months afterwards. So directing this is like coming home – the play is without doubt, a work of comic genius. My goal is to let the play sing, to allow it to be its magnificent self and with the cast we’re putting together it will raise the roof. I’m lucky, with Shaun Micallef and Francis Greenslade, to have a comic duo that will bring Felix and Oscar into ribshattering life.’

Egg

By Angela Betzien

Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

29 June – 19 July

Opening Night: Thursday 30 June

Egg is a brand new family production that mashes together puckish pranking and wide-eyed wonder in an eco-adventure about hope and the promise of renewal.

MTC Associate Director Leticia Cáceres said, ‘It is a joy to be working with my long-time collaborator Angela Betzien and the wonderful Terrapin Puppet Theatre on this exciting new commission. Egg will capture the imagination of audiences young and old when it takes over the Lawler next July, and transport them into this futuristic tale with an important message at its core.’

Across a dry and dusty desert, two tinkers, Clyde and Horse, drag an enormous egg. They can’t remember how long they’ve been dragging it, or why they’ve been dragging it, or where they are dragging it to. All they know is that it’s really important. Life on their big bald egg of a planet depends upon it. So there’s nothing to be done but to go on. Let’s tug this great big googy into the future. And who knows? Maybe something wonderful will hatch.

Lilith: The Jungle Girl

A Sisters Grimm Production

Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

1 September – 1 October

Opening Night: Saturday 3 September

Cast includes Ash Flanders, Genevieve Giuffre

Director Declan Greene

Set and Costume Designer Marg Horwell

Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne

Composer and Sound Designer THE SWEATS

Dramaturg Nakkiah Lui

When a young wild girl is captured in the rainforests of Borneo, all of Holland is set abuzz. The year is 1861, and pioneering neuro-scientist Charles Penworth is called upon to raise the child from the pit of her animal nature. But as Lilith learns to tame her feral heart and live amongst the glitterati of colonial Amsterdam, she begins to wonder, who, indeed, is the real savage?

Director Declan Greene said, ‘The Sovereign Wife was one of the biggest, wildest shows we’ve ever made and it’s really exciting to be coming back to the Lawler three years later, a little older and a little wiser, to make another mess. It was a crazy-amazing honour to be part of the first season of NEON, alongside some of the best, bravest theatre artists in the country, and we’re delighted MTC has invited us to kick off its next incarnation.’

Click here for other 2016 Seasons