Hot Plays in 2015
Stage Whispers correspondents cast their eyes over the best drama on offer next year.
Melbourne Theatre Company
Coral Drouyn says it’s been a long while since she has been as excited by an MTC season as she is about 2015, the third season under Artistic Director Brett Sheehy.
There’s something for everyone, including a couple of world premieres. For me it’s a veritable feast but there are certain must-sees that I have already got in the diary.
I’m excited by the idea of North by Northwest, an iconic Hitchcock movie, as a stage play. It will be directed by Simon Phillips and adapted by his wife Carolyn Burns.
Then there’s Ash Flanders, a charismatic performer who is beyond gender, who will bring us Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Tollins, another Australian Premiere of a play which took Broadway by storm. He will undoubtedly channel his inner Barbra Streisand and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
I can’t think of any theatre lover who doesn’t want to see Susie Porter in Ariel Dorfman’s Death and The Maiden. Ostensibly a political thriller, Dorfman will delve much deeper into the human psyche. It’s a fabulous play and a co-production with the STC. This really promises theatrical magic.
Those are my three top picks for MTC 2015, but I have to add the family show The Boy At the Edge of Everything, written by the astonishing young Australian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer. I’ve promised my inner child an outing to that one.
Pictured: North by Northwest
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company’s 2015 program features many of Australia’s top performers and directors in a season that combines new Australian and international plays, fresh explorations of classics and stage adaptations of literary masterworks by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
Highlights include Geoffrey Rush and Neil Armfield’s King Lear; Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in a new adaptation of Chekhov’s first play; Hugo Weaving and Andrew Upton teaming up for more Beckett in Endgame; Robyn Nevin’s return to STC for the first time since 2010, in two roles; Susie Porter in a revival of heart-stopping thriller Death and the Maiden; and the season-beginningrevival of Andrew Bovell’s first play After Dinner.
Alongside classics of drama and literature, the season features new writing by playwrights Melissa Bubnic, Caryl Churchill, Kylie Coolwell, April De Angelis and Sarah Ruhl.
Andrew Upton said: “STC’s 2015 program has some great alignments including: Armfield, Rush and Shakespeare; Hugo Weaving and Sam Beckett; Roxburgh, Blanchett and Chekhov; Robyn Nevin and Tennessee Williams.
“A number of works kept coming to the fore that presented fresh angles on familiar material, or that used language in ways that suggest more experimental theatrical form. This presented itself as an opportunity to set up a great juxtaposition between works of the canon that comprise half the program (nearly) and newer works with a particular emphasis on female voices that constitute the other half (almost).”
Pictured: Susie Porter in Death and the Maiden.
Queensland Theatre Company
Queensland Theatre Company’s 2015 season will feature four world premieres, a mainstage program of eight major works and a DIVA program celebrating women on stage.
The year starts with David Mamet's Boston Marriage and ends with the World Premiere of a new musical called Ladies in Black (see our musicals feature).
Artistic Director Wesley Enoch said: “2015 stands as our most ambitious and wide-ranging in terms of content, actors and delivery.
“There’s the very funny stage adaptation of the hit TV show Mother & Son; two more world premieres - Brisbane, about the infamous Battle of Brisbane during WWII told through the eyes of a young boy, and Country Song, focusing on Indigenous country and western legend Jimmy Little, with lots of great songs.
“There are also three iconic plays: Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Chekhov's The Seagull and Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.
“In addition to the mainstage, there is a special celebration of amazingly talented Queensland women in a suite of works called DIVA.”
In DIVA, Chenoa Deemal tells touching, funny stories of tears and reconciliation in a celebration of Indigenous survival in The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman; Libby Munro is a deadly Air Force pilot brought back to earth with a bump when she falls pregnant in Grounded; Margi Brown Ash shares her life story in Home, bouncing across several continents as actor, therapist, schoolgirl, soapie starlet, wife and mother; and Naomi Price transforms into pop star Adele inRumour Has it – a Grammy goddess ready to spill her guts about the man who wronged her.
La Boite.
For its 90th birthday year, La Boite Theatre Company has unveiled what it describes as ‘the most culturally diverse 2015 season to grace any stage in the country’.
It ranges from star-studded classics to a story of a Congolese child soldier.
Next year will be Artistic Director and CEO Chris Kohn’s first program at the helm.
“I am very excited about Prize Fighter by a Congolese-Australian playwright, featuring an African cast and inspired by real-life stories from war-torn Congo,” he said.
Written and conceived by current La Boite Artist-in-Residence, Future D. Fidel, Prize Fighter follows a boy who is orphaned by war and forced to become a child soldier before building a new life as a professional boxer in Brisbane.
In another World Premiere, Ashleigh Cummings will make her La Boite debut in Samson, a brutally honest and poignant coming-of-age story by 2013 Playwright-in-Residence Julia-Rose Lewis which tells the story of four teenagers grappling with the death of a friend in an Australian country town.
Pictured: A Midsummer Night's Dream
State Theatre Company of South Australia
Lesley Reed reports from Adelaide.
According to State Theatre Company Artistic Director Geordie Brookman, 2015 “will see some of our finest artists evoke a fascinating range of worlds, characters and stories.”
It starts with the Beckett Triptych, featuring Paul Blackwell, Peter Carroll and Pamela Rabe, brought together especially for the 2015 Adelaide Festival.
Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll returns to the Dunstan Playhouse in a 60th Anniversary production.
UK author Kit Williams’ iconic children’s book Masquerade will be adapted for the stage by award-winning Australian playwright Kate Mulvany. Adelaide’s Nathan O’Keefe stars as the bumbling Jack Hare, alongside Helen Dallimore, in a production that will also play at the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals.
Harold Pinter’s ruthless exploration of the complexity of the human heart, Betrayal, will premiere in Adelaide before seasons in Canberra and at Melbourne Theatre Company.
In a new adaptation by Adelaide writer Emily Steel, Paul Blackwell swindles his way through the corrupt city of Venice in Ben Jonson’s satirical 1605 comedy Volpone.
A modern crime thriller, Mortido, is a World Premiere co-production with Belvoir Theatre, starring Colin Friels (read more in our Belvoir preview).
Silliness completes the 2015 season, with a new production of The Popular Mechanicals. The play follows the back-story of the Rude Mechanicals from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In its first international tour in six years, State Theatre Company’s co-production with Windmill Theatre of the multi award-winning Pinocchio will play New York’s famous New Victory Theatre, the only Broadway Theatre devoted to work for young audiences.
Pictured: Beckett Triptych. Photographer: Kris Washusen
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2015 season contains a mix of classics, comedies, a new Australian work, a musical and a family production.
The year begins with Venus In Fur by David Ives as part of the FRINGE WORLD Festival, followed by Dinner by Moira Buffini, Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet and Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
The World Premiere of Extinction by Hannie Rayson follows, with a first in family theatre for the company with Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, adapted by Hilary Bell and featured as part of the AWESOME Festival.
The year concludes with the Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical Next To Normal with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt.
Bell Shakespeare
Coral Drouyn reflects on a landmark season for Bell Shakespeare.
It doesn’t seem possible that 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the Bell Shakespeare Company, with John Bell recently announcing his retirement from the company that bears his name at the end of the year.
The year begins with As You Like It, directed by Bell Shakespeare’s Co-Artistic Director Peter Evans. John Bell is taking on the melancholy role of Jaques and one of Shakespeare’s most famous passages; All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
Damien Ryan, off the back of directing the critically acclaimed Henry V for Bell Shakespeare in 2014, will deliver a new production of Hamlet, infused with the passion, contemplation and emotion that Shakespeare’s compelling poetry cries out for.
Rounding out the season, John Bell, having performed in The Tempest three times, will for the first time direct this enchanting tale. A superb cast led by Brian Lipson, along with Julie Lynch’s design, will capture the lightness and beauty of one of Shakespeare’s last and greatest works.
In an exciting new collaboration, Bell Shakespeare will share the stage with The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, presenting a new arrangement of words and music. John Bell will direct excerpts from the play, Romeo And Juliet, as renowned conductor Simone Young weaves music from Prokofiev’s thrilling ballet score through the performance.
Pictured: Matilda Ridway and Josh McConville (Hamlet) Photographer: Pierre Toussaint
Belvoir
Ralph Myers’ fifth and final season at Belvoir prioritises new Australian plays, alongside a renewed commitment to Indigenous-led theatre and inventive interpretations of the classics.
The season includes seven new Australian plays. “I feel a new generation of artists has really blossomed and that we’ll be seeing the fruits of that labour for many years to come on stages here and around the world,” says Myers.
Angela Betzienwas commissioned to write Mortido - a crime thriller that travels from Sydney’s Western suburbs, to Berlin, through Bolivia, and back to leafy Woollahra, following a trail of cocaine. It stars Colin Friels as a hard-bitten detective looking for one big scalp before his imminent retirement.
Seventeen by Matthew Whittet is a whimsical comedy about the last night before a bunch of 17 year olds step out into post-school adulthood, but these teenagers will be played by actors well past their teens.
Nakkiah Luiwill play herself in Kill the Messenger, a funny and shocking play about institutionalised racism.
Other highlights include Robyn Nevin in Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, as well as Ewen Leslie in Chekov’s Ivanov. Resident Director Adena Jacobs creates a modern fable based on L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.
The Downstairs Theatre will be home to four new Australian plays. Sisters Grimm will take Verdi’s La Traviata as a leaping off point for an entirely new operatic extravaganza on the smallest of scales.
Also Downstairs, Ralph Myers will direct a new play that’s actually two plays -The Dog / The Cat; two interlinked romantic comedies about pet ownership and serial monogamy. The Dog is by Brendan Cowell, while The Cat is by Lally Katz.
Pictured: Seventeen - Peter Carroll, Maggie Dence, John Gaden and Barry Otto by Ellis Parrinder.
Ensemble Theatre
Frank Hatherley reflects on Sandra Bates’ final season at the Ensemble.
There are juicy plums in this the final season under long-serving Artistic Director Sandra Bates. Of course there’s a new play from David Williamson — Dream Home is about buying property in Sydney; there’s a premiere production of Blood Bank by rising young writer/composer Christopher Harley; and a double bill of new plays (one each from Geoffrey Atherden and Vanessa Bates) commemorating the 2015 Anzac Day centenary.
This season’s Broadway treat is Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally; otherwise there’s a more British flavour, though, to be fair, Educating Rita has been “updated and transported to Australia”. My Zinc Bed, written in 2000 by always-brilliant David Hare, is a must-see.
The Book Club by Roger Hall, adapted by Rodney Fisher” is presumably a new production of the one-person play that HIT Productions toured widely in 2013, though that one was billed “by Rodney Fisher from the play by Roger Hall”.
The departing Sandra Bates gets to direct Neil Simon’s 1973 classic The Good Doctor; and, as an actor, she revives (alongside fellow Ensemble star Lorraine Bayly) John Misto’s award-winning WW2 drama The Shoe-Horn Sonata, which started life with the same two actors at the Ensemble 20 years ago.
Pictured: Sandra Bates and Lorraine Bayly in The Shoe Horn Sonata
Griffin Theatre Company
Artistic Director Lee Lewis’s second season for Griffin Theatre Company, in its Main and Independent seasons, will present or co-present six world premieres of new Australian plays.
“The stories in 2015 will take you to magical lands, journey into suburbs, pull apart minds, give in to revenge and travel around the world to find answers to questions we wrestle with today,” Lewis said.
The year begins with Masquerade, at the Sydney Opera House (see State Theatre Company of South Australia above).
The World Premiere of Caress/Acheby Suzie Miller will attack the complex issue of human frailty and need on a global scale. Psychological thriller The House on the Lake, a twisting labyrinth of playwright Aidan Fennessy’s devising, follows.
Angus Cerini’s 2014 Griffin Award winning play The Bleeding Tree, a darkly macabre comedy about revenge and violence, will receive its World Premiere. The final work of the year will be Kit Brookman’s new work A Rabbit For Kim Jong-iI, a comic espionage about betrayal, forgiveness and regret that is unbelievably based on a true story.
In addition to its Main Stage Season, Griffin will again support the work of Australian independent theatre makers - The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’by Zoey Dawson; Nicholas Hope’s Five Properties of Chainmale; Mary Rachel Brown’s The Dapto Chaser; Anna Barnes’s MinusOneSister; and Benito di Fonzo’s A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth.
Pictured: Masquerade - Helen Dallimore. Photographer: Brett Boardman
Malthouse Theatre Season 2015
Season 2015 marks a major new era in the life of Malthouse Theatre with the program offered to audiences as three ‘chapters’.
The result is three acts, involving shows, panel discussions and extra events occurring in all the theatres, as well as the courtyard.
Each chapter will include a special event. One involves participation with personal trainers, another a quiz and the last a banquet.
The first chapter is Body // Language, which asks questions about the relationship between our bodies and our identity. Artists including Kate Champion, Anouk van Dijk and Victoria Chiu will bring very different perspectives to this question.
Next is Post // Love. Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, is an Australian Premiere, as Churchill offers her latest provocation about life and love in a post-digital era. Continuing the conversation is Lally Katz on post-culture and Ash Flanders on post-gender in the YouTube age.
Ritual // Extinction explores the things that unite societies – ancient rites of passage and modern-day rituals. There’s a young Antigone looking for a way to honour her dead brother in a new adaptation of Sophocles’ play by Jane Montgomery Griffiths, along with ancient rites of passage and modern-day rituals are investigated by artists including Matthew Lutton, Declan Greene and Nicola Gunn with David Woods.
An irreverent epilogue is provided by The Listies, who, with their particular brand of unadulterated silliness, will ruin Christmas for everyone.
Image: Ritual - Antigone.
Originally published in the November / December 2014 edition of Stage Whispers.
More 2015 Seasons
Check our links to seasons announced since this feature.
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