Griffin Theatre Company Season 2016

Artistic Director Lee Lewis announced the 2016 Griffin Theatre Company season today (August 31, 2015). Five brand new plays will make their world premieres on the SBW Stables stage next year.

“The stories are urgent, the voices are powerful, the ideas are challenging and the talent on show will be extraordinary,” says Lewis. “These are the best new plays from around the country – and the best writing always attracts the best talent. Great directors, great actors and great designers are signing on to tackle these plays on the tiny Stables stage. We can’t wait to share these plays with the Griffin audience.

“Five absolutely new Australian works is an extraordinary achievement for any company and the fact that Griffin, one of the smallest companies in the country is contributing so much to the Australian canon is incredible,” says Lewis. “Griffin is the ideal place to grow a new Australian play: We have the best audience and the best space to see the ideas of Australian playwrights come to life for the first time. This is the hardest kind of theatre to make and we are just getting better and better. I have the best job in the country – I get to see it all first.”

2016 will feature a collaboration between two companies that usually sit at the opposite end of the theatre experience for audiences. Griffin and Bell Shakespeareare joining forces to bring to Sydney The Literati, a new adaptation by Justin Fleming of Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes, starring Kate Mulvany (pictured right). In a co-production that heralds great future adventures for both companies, Justin translates, twists and transforms the Parisian comedy from its 17th century roots into its 21st century Sydney peroxide extensions.

The Main Season will kick off with an audacious new work from Alana Valentine which will make you ask big questions about trust and truth. Ladies Day is a departure from the protocols of verbatim theatre, set in the gay community of Broome and is a brutally honest play from one of this country’s bravest playwrights. Did we mention that it’s really funny until it’s not? And the frocks will be fab.

From South Australia comes a fresh voice in Replay. Playwright Phillip Kavanagh will be making his mainstage theatre debut with a story about three brothers in the multiverse. A family comedy - does the eldest convince the youngest to jump off the roof onto the trampoline? – Replay is ultimately about how we learn to care in the digital age when nothing seems permanent and identity is only there to be stolen.

Benedict Andrews’play Gloria may seem to be a play about a fading superstar, but offers a portrait of society on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The anxiety, despair, paranoia and excess of a life lived in penthouses when far beneath you on the ground civil war is breaking out will be brought to life by Australian star of the stage and screen Marta Dusseldorp. Directed by Lee Lewis,this play speaks to the widening gap between haves and have-nots that is threatening to tear Australia apart.

Gale Edwards will direct the winner of the 2015 Griffin Award The Turquoise Elephant is a black, black, black comedy about environmental politics from the wickedly satirical mind of Queenslander Stephen Carleton. The closest Griffin will ever get to the grotesquerie of a Christmas pantomime, sacred cows, ivory towers and holier than thou’s are all fair game in this near-future farce.  Pictured below is Catherine Davies.

In addition to its Main Season plays, Griffin supports the work of talented independent theatre makers. “There are things that are possible in indie productions that you cannot do in a Main Season – this year, the plays are just outstanding and incredibly rewarding,” says Lewis.

The 2016 Griffin Independent season includes:

• The world premiere of Thomas Murray and the Upside Down River, a play by award winning writer Reg Cribb, about a family who have been farming the land along the Darling River for five generations.

• Finegan Kruckemeyer’s love story Those Who fall in Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor directed by Adam Mitchell.

• And Lighten Up, a tale of identity, cultural assimilation and bleaching your bits by Nicholas Brown and Sam McCool.

In addition, Griffin will host two special events: Tasmania Performs will bring their production of Tom Holloway’sA s We Forgive to Sydney for the first time, a great chance to see Tasmanian actor Robert Jarman directed by Julian Meyrick. Western Sydney’s Powerhouse Youth Theatre will create Tribunal, an ambitious new work, which will bring artists, human rights activists, lawyers and outlaws into the Stables for an urgent conversation.

To celebrate the launch of the 2016 season Griffin has released a limited Earlybird offer, for subscribers to purchase the four Main Season shows for only $136, plus add on Special Events and Independent Season shows at heavily discounted ticket prices. This offer is only available until Monday 21 September 2015. New this year, 35 is the new 30 - Griffin’s lowest ticket price has been extended to reach under 35s. For only $96, under 35ers’s can buy a subscription to three Main Season plays. 
For nearly 40 years, Griffin has been dedicated to bringing the best Australian stories to the stage. Griffin is a major force in shaping the future of Australian theatre: it is a home for the courageous and the curious, for the imaginations that inspire us.

Griffin acknowledges the generosity of the Seaborn, Broughton and 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 


MAIN SEASON

Griffin Theatre Company presents the world premiere of

LADIES DAY

By Alana Valentine

Directed by Darren Yap

5 February – 26 March

It’s Ladies Day at the Broome races and the divinely beautiful Mike is the toast of the track. Amongst the froth and festivity, a brutal act of violence reminds us that life is not just all swishy hemlines, debonair gents and fascinators galore. A new play by Alana Valentine that asks questions about tolerance, isolation, love, hope and the right to have your story told.

In association with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Griffin Theatre Company presents the world premiere of

REPLAY

By Phillip Kavanagh

Directed by Lee Lewis

2 April – 7 May

What if you could replay the past, and change it? What if you could press ‘pause’, intervene and then let things run on into a very different future. What would be gained? Or lost? For brothers Peter and John, the multiverse is real - when they attempt to reinvent the past, what they discover changes the course of their lives in the most unexpected of ways. Written by Patrick White Playwrights’ Award-winner Phillip Kavanagh and directed by Lee Lewis.

Griffin Theatre Company presents the world premiere of

GLORIA

By Benedict Andrews

Directed by Lee Lewis

26 August – 8 October

Gloria: a celebrated actor - a star, a celebrity. On the brink of making her triumphant return to the stage, Gloria must immerse herself in the most challenging role of her career playing the real-life survivor of a cruel and sadistic crime. Gloria is a beautifully complex and original work which is at once deeply Australian yet global in its perspective. Marta Dusseldorp stars in this astonishing new work by Benedict Andrews, directed by Lee Lewis.

Griffin Theatre Company presents the world premiere of

THE TURQUOISE ELEPHANT

By Stephen Carleton

Directed by Gale Edwards

14 October - 26 November

Meet Augusta Macquarie: Her Excellency, patron of the arts, formidable matriarch, and environmental vandal. Inside her triple-glazed compound, Augusta shields herself from the catastrophic elements, bathing in the classics and campaigning for the reinstatement of global reliance on fossil fuels. Outside, the world lurches from one environmental cataclysm to the next. A shockingly black political farce written by Stephen Carleton (Winner of the 2015 Griffin Award) and directed by Gale Edwards.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Griffin Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare present the world premiere of

THE LITERATI


By Justin Fleming after Molière’s Les Femmes Savantes


Directed by Lee Lewis

27 May – 16 July

Juliet and Clinton are in love. Guileless, sweet, all-encompassing love. But love is not without its impediments. Standing in the way of their eternal happiness are Juliet’s mother and sister, whose disapproval is of the most high-brow kind. Molière’s delicious satire on intellectual pretension, education and class is given a uniquely Australian once-over by Justin Fleming. A co-production with Bell Shakespeare, starring Kate Mulvany.

Tasmania Performs and Griffin Theatre Company present the Sydney premiere of

AS WE FORGIVE

By Tom Holloway

Directed by Julian Meyrick

11 May – 21 May

Accompanied on stage by a lone cellist, Tasmania acting legend, Robert Jarman, portrays three men at the edges of society trying to come to terms with the events in their lives. A searing investigation of contemporary morality, this absorbing production examines the motives, methods and meaning of forgiveness. As We Forgive unites acclaimed Australian playwright Tom Holloway with award-winning director Julian Meyrick.

Powerhouse Youth Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company and present the world premiere of

TRIBUNAL

Concept by Karen Therese

12 – 20 August

Bringing together artists, human rights activists, lawyers and outlaws Tribunal is an ambitious new theatre work by Western Sydney’s Powerhouse Youth Theatre. Each night, six presenters will offer provocations, thoughts and experiences in a curated conversation on issues which directly affect the communities of Western Sydney. You, the audience, are given the choice to actively participate or to observe and listen as the discussion unfolds before you. Curated by Karen Therese and Victoria Spence.

GRIFFIN INDEPENDENT

Stone Group and Griffin Independent present the world premiere of

THOMAS MURRAY AND THE UPSIDE DOWN RIVER

By Reg Cribb
Directed by Chris Bendall

13 – 30 January

The Murray family have been farming the land along the Darling River for five generations. For Tom Murray, it’s all he’s ever known. When his childhood friends Lucy and Billy reappear, deep friendships are tested, and secrets, long buried, are finally awakened - and Tom must make the long journey down-stream to reconcile for past wrongs and to fight for his wife. Written by award-winning writer Reg Cribb.

Jo Morris and Renee Newman and Griffin Independent present the world premiere of

THOSE WHO FALL IN LOVE LIKE ANCHORS DROPPED UPON THE OCEAN FLOOR

By Finegan Kruckemeyer

Directed by Adam Mitchell

20 July – 6 August

A love story that transcends time - moving from a Cold War Russian submarine, to a Parisian street, to an Appalachian snow field. It follows four stories and twelve characters as they navigate that timeless act of falling in love. Utterly charming, quirky and funny, Those who fall in love... is written by multi award-winning playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer and comes to Griffin direct from two sell-out and critically acclaimed Perth seasons.

Bali Padda and Griffin Independent present

LIGHTEN UP

By Nicholas Brown and Sam McCool

Directed by Shane Anthony

30 November – 17 December

John Green is an Anglo-Indian Australian actor who dreams of being cast in his favourite soap, ‘Bondi Parade’. The problem is, his coloured contacts can't hide the fact that his skin is more brown than white. Meanwhile, his skin-bleaching mum, Bronwyn, is adamant that he should be procreating with a blonde, white Aussie woman to rid the family of any sign of their ethnic heritage. You guess who he falls in love with. A universal tale of identity, cultural assimilation and bleaching your bits by Nicholas Brown and comedian Sam McCool.

Photorapher: Brett Boardman

Click here to read about other 2016 Seasons.