Griffin Theatre Company Season 2024
Griffin Theatre Company has unveiled its 2024 Season — including the monumental production of Louis Nowra’s The Lewis Trilogy, marking the final production to be staged at the SBW Stables Theatre before it undergoes major redevelopment works.
Spanning across five decades in changing Australia, Griffin’s sentimental production of The Lewis Trilogy chronicles the arc of Lewis’ life as he ages from a teenaged boy to a young man to a local veteran of Kings Cross. As the sun sets on Lewis’ journey, audiences will leave the cosy historic home of Griffin for the last time—seeing Kings Cross in a different light.
The remainder of the 2024 season has something for everyone including an exclusive season of the delicate performance poem swim presented at Carriageworks, a Queer pop spectacular in collaboration with Hayes Theatre Co, and two special return seasons.
Artistic Director Declan Greene said, “We're wishing a sweet (temporary) goodbye to the SBW Stables in 2024 - but we're looking at this as an opportunity to create theatre in ways we've never dreamed before, with our mates at Carriageworks, The Hayes Theatre Co, Sydney Theatre Company, and beyond. Oh, and before we hit the road, we're casually doing the biggest show in Griffin's history - the first ever production of Louis Nowra's entire "Lewis Trilogy"... All 5 hours of it. It's gonna be a hell of a year.”
GRIFFIN’S 2024 SEASON
The Lewis Trilogy: 9 February to 21 April
By Louis Nowra
Director Declan Greene
Associate Director Daley Rangi
Lighting Designer Kelsey Lee
Composer & Sound Designer Daniel Herten
Stage Manager Isabella Kerdijk
Script Consultant, Disability Christopher Bryant
Script Consultant, Inclusion Bayley Turner
With Thomas Campbell, Paul Capsis, Philip Lynch, Nikki Viveca
Trilogy one: Summer of the Aliens
When times are tough and you’re a teenager with an overactive imagination, extra-terrestrial life forms don’t seem all that absurd.
It's 1962, and Lewis is an average fourteen-year-old on the outskirts of working-class Melbourne. In the blistering heat of summer, he forages for shell casings at the rifle range, sneaks into sci-fi double features, and tries to understand how the hell you talk to girls.
Then, lights start flashing in the night sky. The adults start acting weird. And strangers arrive from distant lands.
Set against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, Summer of the Aliens is a sun-soaked coming-of-age classic all about class, closed doors, and global catastrophes of galactic proportions.
Trilogy two: Così
One of Australia’s great classics is given a fantastical makeover.
Lewis is a fresh university graduate who has been enlisted to direct a production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the in-patients at a mental health ward. As rehearsals begin, visions of theatrical grandeur soar—contrary to the lack of budget, talent, and willingness of most cast members.
Outside, Australia’s anti-Vietnam war movement is reaching fever pitch. Inside, tensions are becoming operatic.
Così is Louis Nowra’s most beloved play—a comic commentary on everything from the healing power of art as therapy, to Australia’s shifting approach to mental health, to the nature of theatre itself.
Trilogy three: This Much is True
Pull up a bar stool, pour yourself a Chardonnay and get ready for a good old-fashioned Darlinghurst yarn.
The maraschino cherry on the Trilogy, This Much is True is Louis Nowra’s ode to the old timers, motley crews, and unknowing raconteurs that commune at the local watering hole. Now middle-aged and divorced, Lewis weaves together the tales of the larger-than-life characters he calls friends at a historic inner-city pub.
Plonked between social housing and multi-million-dollar apartments, highflyers, and low-lying criminals, This Much is True is a divine comedy that examines the everyday.
Griffin Theatre Company & BLEACH* present
swim: 10 July to 27 July
By Ellen Van Neerven
Director Andrea James
Choreographer Kirk Page
Lighting Designer Karen Norris
Composer and Sound Designer Brendon Boney
With Dani Sibosado
Presented at Carriageworks
Sizzling hot concrete. Rainbow towels on half-dead grass. On a hot summer’s day, bodies of all shapes, colours, and sizes journey to the public pool longing to do one thing…swim.
Swim is the debut work for the stage from Mununjali poet Ellen van Neerven (Throat, Heat and Light).
Genderfluid protagonist E negotiates the space between the men’s and women’s change rooms. They flex in front of the cute pool attendant. As they step onto the diving blocks, the words of their Aunty come to them—and suddenly, the crystalline blue tiles give way too much deeper water.
Swim is delicate and tough, honest, and achingly beautiful—and its muses on everything from the sovereignty of water to gender identity and the binding strength of culture and family.
Also presented at BLEACH* Festival 2024, Yugambeh Country (Gold Coast)
1 – 11 August
Griffin Theatre Company and Hayes Theatre Co present
Flat Earthers: The Musical: 11 October to 9 November
Book & Lyrics by Jean Tong & Lou Wall
Songwriting by Lou Wall & James Gales
Music production by James Gales
Director Declan Greene
Presented at Hayes Theatre Co
Somewhere on the fringes of the internet, Ria e-meets Flick and instantly falls in analogue love... until Ria learns with horror that Flick is a ‘Flat Earther’. And Flick learns with equal horror that Ria is a ‘Globe Earther’.
Cue: a beautiful and chaotic musical epic that sees our star-cross’d lesbians plunge into the Dark Web and down YouTube rabbit holes to explore the one thing they know is real—their connection. But faced with malicious algorithms and a secret cabal (Illuminati confirmed), even Ria and Flick might not be able to Command+69 their way out of this one.
Flat Earthers: The Musical smashes irresistible bangers with iconic conspiracies to ask: can you really find common ground with someone who does not believe in the same ground?
SPECIAL EXTRAS
Jailbaby: 4 January to 21 January
By Suzie Miller
Director Andrea James
Set & Costume Designer Isabel Hudson
Lighting Designer Verity Hampson
Composer & Sound Designer Phil Downing
Intimacy and Consent Consultant Bayley Turner
Fight Choreographer Tim Dashwood
Stage Manager Madelaine Osborn
With Lucia Mastrantone, Anthony Taufa, Anthony Yangoyan
After a sell-out season and due to audience demand, Griffin has announced the return of Suzie Miller’s Jailbaby for a highly limited season to kick off 2024.
Golden Blood 黄金血液: 13 September to 30 November
By Merlynn Tong
Director Tessa Leong
Set & Costume Designer Michael Hankin
Lighting Designer Fausto Brusamolino
Composer & Sound Designer Rainbow Chan
With Merlynn Tong, Charles Wu
After a smash-hit premiere at the SBW Stables Theatre, Merlynn Tong’s Golden Blood 黄金血液 returns in 2024—with seasons presented by Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company.
Presented by Sydney Theatre Company
13 September – 13 October
Presented by Melbourne Theatre Company
25 October – 30 November
Subscriptions for Griffin’s 2024 Season are available now on the Griffin website. griffintheatre.com.au
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