Sydney Theatre Company has announced its 2016 season, the last programmed by outgoing Artistic Director Andrew Upton who leaves the company at the end of 2015, handing the reins to his successor, Jonathan Church.

Among the highlights, Rose Byrne, Lisa McCune and John Howard - artists who have not been seen on STC stages for a decade or more - feature alongside STC audience favourites including Robyn Nevin, Sarah Peirse, Helen Thomson, Heather Mitchell, Ryan Corr, Genevieve Lemon and Josh McConville.

Leading directors bringing the shows to life include Neil Armfield, Simon Phillips, Rupert Goold and STC’s own Kip Williams and Sarah Goodes. Fresh explorations of Stoppard, Coward, Miller, Shakespeare, Feydeau, Nowra and Mamet are showcased together with STC commissions from Sue Smith, Angela Betzien, Declan Greene, The Listies’ Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins, Melissa Bubnic, Michele Lee, Nakkiah Lui, Hannie Rayson and Debra Thomas.

The Secret River, Andrew Bovell’s adaptation of Kate Grenville’s novel, is back. And there are two remarkable international attractions: the visual theatre company 1927 with the mesmerising Golemand the Almeida’s West End hit King Charles III.

Andrew will return towards the end of 2016 to direct Speed-the-Plow and for his adaptation of A Flea in Her Ear, directed by Simon Phillips. Andrew said:

“This, my last program for the Company, fills me with huge excitement - if a little tinged with melancholy. We have a range of fantastic classics forming the keel of our wonderful ship. Arthur Miller at last, Louis Nowra at last, Noel Coward at last. But also some new Australian works. Sue Smith is back and Angela Betzien joins us on the main stage for the first time. It’s a wonderful mix of actors and writers, directors and designers, many of whom our audience will know and love. Others still that they will be thrilled to see for the first time in a long time.

“There are rumours I’m going away next year but the plays on offer are so alluring I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep away. Though it is my last program, it is Jonathan Church’s first, and I think inheriting and overseeing it will be an opportunity for him to get to know the Company and our audience across its full range. He’ll work with some of our great writers, directors, designers and actors in work showcasing them and the STC at their best. I’m very excited for the Company as Jonathan comes in. I think he will be a great supporter of our vibrant theatre scene nationally and help keep our ship sailing internationally.”

 

THE PROUCTIONS

Sydney Theatre Company presents

THE GOLDEN AGE

By Louis Nowra


14 January to 20 February 2016, Wharf 1

Opening Night: Tuesday 19 January 2016

STC Resident Director Kip Williams unearths a classic by one of Australia’s foremost playwrights, Louis Nowra. The Golden Age, written 30 years ago and set at the time of World War II, is inspired by the true story of a lost tribe of European outcasts, descended from convicts, who were‘discovered’ in the Tasmanian wilderness. Since the mid-19th century this isolated community has developed a culture and dialect all their own. The play beautifully explores issues at the heart of our history; colonisation, the fragility of culture and the loss of innocence. Following defining performances in recent years in STC’s Endgame, Switzerland and Fury, Sarah Peirse features alongside a cast including Ursula Yovich, Rarriwuy Hick and Brandon McClelland.

Photo of Sarah Peirse by John Green.

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company and Allens present

THE SECRET RIVER

By Kate Grenville


An adaptation for the stage by Andrew Bovell

1 to 20 February 2016, Roslyn Packer Theatre

Opening Night: Friday 5 February 2016

Sold out in Sydney, Perth and Canberra in 2013, the multi award-winning stage version of Kate Grenville’s novel by two of Australia’s leading artists, Neil Armfield and Andrew Bovell, is regarded as one of the most significant Australian theatre works of the last decade. The Secret River explores the conflict between transported thief William Thornhill and the Dharug people on whose land by the Hawkesbury River he attempts to settle. The play confronts the brutality which ensues and depicts a turning point in the development of Australia; a fork in the road with the chosen path resulting in consequences the country must live with today. Original cast members Nathaniel Dean and Trevor Jamieson return for strictly limited seasons in Sydney, and on tour to the Arts Centre, Melbourne and for Queensland Theatre Company to Brisbane’s QPAC. 

Photo of Trevor Jamieson by James Green

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

ARCADIA

By Tom Stoppard


8 February to 2 April 2016, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House Opening Night: Friday 12 February 2016

Widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest plays, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadiais a ravishing comedy, a literary sleuth story, a touching period romance and a scientific exposition all rolled into one. The dazzlingly conceived and constructed play interweaves two plotscrosscutting time frames in two different centuries, with two sets of characters sharing one great country house. As the past intermingles with the present, Stoppard alchemises theories of Romanticism and the Enlightenment, reason and irrationality, Newtonian physics and the second law of thermodynamics - to say nothing of a number of love affairs and illicit sex. Celebrating his 50th year as a director in 2016, Richard Cottrell (whose last Stoppard was STC’s 2009 hit Travesties) directs an exceptional cast including Ryan Corr, Blazey Best, Andrea Demetriades, Glenn Hazeldine and Josh McConville.

Photo of Ryan Corr by James Green

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents a Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia production

MACHU PICCHU

By Sue Smith


3 March to 9 April 2016, Wharf 1

Opening Night: Tuesday 8 March 2016

Lisa McCune returns to the STC for the first time in a decade in Machu Picchu, a delicate but unflinching look at relationships by Sue Smith. Two couples who have been friends for decades are suddenly confronted with a deeply shocking event. They must re-learn how to approach the way they live their lives. Smith explores the challenges of mid-life and long term relationships. This STC commission is directed by Geordie Brookman, Smith’s collaborator for STC’s Kryptonite in 2014. Also featuring Darren Gilshenan, Elena Carapetis and Annabel Matheson, the co-production with the State Theatre Company of South Australia will be seen in Adelaide following its Sydney season. 

Photo of Lisa McCune by James Green

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents a 1927, Salzburg Festival, Théâtre de la Ville Paris & Young Vic co-production

GOLEM

Created by 1927


16 to 26 March 2016, Roslyn Packer Theatre

Opening Night: Thursday 17 March 2016

The truly unique British theatre company 1927, described by London’s Evening Standard as “unlike anything you will have experienced before ... officially the sexiest theatre company in town”, seamlessly synchronise original livemusic, performance and storytelling with film and animation in Golem, a satirical take on the misuse of technology. The production is the follow up to 1927’s multi-award winning, critically acclaimed The Animals and Children took to the Street, which toured to 28 countries over 3 years, and their radical reimagined hit production of The Magic Flute created with the Komische Opera which has just opened at Edinburgh Festival.

Photograph from the 2014 West End production of Golem © Bernhard Mueller

 

Sydney Theatre Company and Adshel present the Almeida Theatre production

KING CHARLES III

By Mike Bartlett


31 March to 30 April 2016, Roslyn Packer Theatre

Opening Night: Saturday 2 April 2016

The Almeida Theatre production of the 2015 Olivier Award winner for Best Play, King Charles IIIimagines the aftermath of the death of Elizabeth II when Prince Charles finally ascends the throne. Confronting the contradictions of monarchy and democracy and exploring power andbetrayal, the ‘future history’ play turns a Shakespearean lens on relationships in the world’s most famous and exposed family. “Attendance is compulsory” pronounced the UK Telegraph’s critic Dominic Cavendish, and so it proved to be for the sell-out West End season of a work described by the New Statesman as the “boldest and most provocative play about the royal family in British theatrical history”. Written by one of Britain’s most significant young playwrights, Mike Bartlett, directed by the great Rupert Goold and produced by London’s adventurous Almeida, the Australia-exclusive season follows previous offerings by STC of the best of new international plays by those who created them, such asSteppenwolf’s August: Osage County, the National Theatre’s One Man, Two Guvnors and the Abbey Theatre’s Terminus.

Photo credit: Almeida Theatre

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

HAY FEVER

By Noël Coward


11 April to 21 May 2016, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Opening Night: Friday 15 April 2016

Heather Mitchell, Helen Thomson, Genevieve Lemon, Josh McConville and Harriet Dyer are amongst the cast who will wield of Noël Coward’s classic comedy of bad manners, Hay Fever. The Bliss family are a slightly mad, bohemian lot comprised of Judith, a once celebrated stage star; herabsent-minded novelist husband; their freethinking painter son and soulful fish- out-of-water daughter, Sorel. When each of them invites a potential love interest to spice up their weekend, the unsuspecting guests are in for a mind-bending, partner-swapping carnival. Having had the audience in stitches with the rollicking hijinks of 1980s suburbia in STC’s After Dinnerin 2015, director Imara Savage and designer Alicia Clements now adjust to the sophisticated altitude of Coward’s silken society of the roaring twenties.

Photo of Heather Mitchell and Tony Llewellyn-Jones by James Green

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

DISGRACED

By Ayad Akhtar


16 April to 4 June 2016, Wharf 1 Theatre

Opening Night: Thursday 21 April 2016

Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, receives its Australian premiere directed by STC Resident Director Sarah Goodes. Hotshot lawyer Amir is living the dream. He’s happy, in love, and about to land a huge promotion. But to get there he’s had to renounce his culture and his faith.

When he and his artist wife, Emily, host an intimate dinner party, it doesn’t take long for the civilised surface to crack and urbane chit chat is abandoned in a tense battle. This intelligent, thought provoking play of urgency and relevance illuminates issues of prejudice, race, religion and the sort of moderndemonisation that is simultaneously shocking and unsurprising. The cast exploring this best of new international writing includes Sachin Joab, Paula Arundell, Glenn Hazeldine and Sophie Ross. Disgraced will also tour to Wollongong, Parramatta and Canberra.

Photo of Sachin Joab by James Green

 

Sydney Theatre Company and UBS present

ALL MY SONS

By Arthur Miller


4 June to 9 July 2016, Roslyn Packer Theatre Opening Night: Thursday 9 June 2016

Twentieth century drama would not be the same without Arthur Miller and All My Sonsis one of his greatest plays. Set after the Second World War in the American wave of optimism, a dark secret - indeed the founding hypocrisy of this spirit of progress - is thrown to the surface. As elemental as a Greek tragedy, the play strips bare theKeller family and demolishes the American dream. John Howard returns to STC as misguided businessman Joe Keller, alongside Robyn Nevin as matriarch Kate. STC Resident Director Kip Williams, who picked up a Helpmann this year for directing Nevin in Suddenly Last Summer, is at the helm, once again collaborating with designer Alice Babidge and lighting designer Nick Schlieper.

Photo of Robyn Nevin and John Howard by James Green

 

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

THE HANGING

By Angela Betzien


28 July to 10 September 2016, Wharf 1

Opening Night: Tuesday 2 August 2016

STC’s 2014 Patrick White Fellow Angela Betzien’s unsettling new play, The Hanging, explores the Australian gothic motif of lost children and loss of innocence in a vast, uncompromising landscape. Three teenage girls have disappeared. When one is found and the police investigation intensifies, she has no recall of what hasoccurred. Her teacher is enlisted to get to the core of the girl’s confusion and anxiety. It is a cat and mouse game and everyone has something to lose. STC Resident Director Sarah Goodes brings her trademark dramaturgical insight tofind the truth within the play, directing a haunting, tense crime thriller featuring Ashleigh Cummings of Network Ten’s Puberty Blues alongside Genevieve Lemon and Luke Carroll.

Photo of Ashleigh Cummings  by James Green

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

By William Shakespeare


12 September to 22 October 2016, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House


Opening Night: Friday 16 September 2016

Continuing his explorations of Shakespeare (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet) STC Resident Director Kip Williams tracks the explosion of yearning and desire that is unleashed as four young people defy parental expectation and go running into the dark to pursue a different kind offuture for themselves in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The sense of magic and enchantment is as heightened as ever in the forest-realm, but this is a place of liberation and exploration, of transgression, and ultimately transformation for the quarrelsome quartet of lovers. Williams investigates the Dream as a story of sexual awakening to reveal a comedy as complex and detailed as any tragedy. Robert Collins (The Lion King) and Honey Debelle (ABC TV’s Carlotta) make their STC debuts.

Photo of Robert Collins and Honey Debelle by James Green

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

POWER PLAYS

Five new short plays by Melissa Bubnic, Michele Lee, Nakkiah Lui, Hannie Rayson and Debra Thomas


17 September to 15 October 2016, Wharf 2


Opening Night: Thursday 22 September 2016

Power Plays, by a quintet of Australia’s finest playwrights, is a collection of five 20-minute plays relating in diverse ways to the role and function of control in people’s lives. Who really has clout and how does authority affect identity, survival, love, hate and sex? Melissa Bubnic,Michele Lee, Nakkiah Lui, Hannie Rayson and Debra Thomas each have a knack for the political and a gift for the comedic. STC’s current Richard Wherrett Fellow, director Paige Rattray (Boys will be boys) will be at the helm, with DavidFleischer (Love and Information), Ross Graham (Boys will be boys) and Steve Toulmin (Little Mercy) creating set, costumes, light and sound.

Power Plays image by James Green

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

A FLEA IN HER EAR

By Georges Feydeau
, In a new adaptation by Andrew Upton


31 October to 17 December 2016, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House


Opening Night: Friday 4 November 2016

Andrew Upton’s new adaptation of the notorious French farce A Flea in Her Earby Georges Feydeau will be realised in all its clockwork-precision glory by the dream team behind STC’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern areDead: director Simon Phillips, designer Gabriela Tylesova and lighting designer Nick Schlieper. When Raymonde suspects her husband Victor of having an affair, she lays the perfect trap to catch him with his pants down at a seedy hotel. But her scheme spectacularly goes awry in a vertiginous romp of mistaken identity, misplaced honour and mischievous doubling; the spiral of chaos all initiated by Feydeau but escalated by Upton.

Photo of David Woods & Helen Christinson by James Green

 

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company and Colonial First State Global Asset Management present

SPEED-THE-PLOW

By David Mamet


8 November to 10 December 2016, Roslyn Packer Theatre

Opening Night: Saturday 12 November 2016

Rose Byrne (back at STC for the first time since 2001) and Lachy Hulme are confirmed for David Mamet’s satire on the ruthless nature of Hollywood and the movie industry, Speed-the-Plow, directed by Andrew Upton. A studio head honcho is faced with a life-changingdecision. Should he make his best friend's formulaic, mindless prison film - a likely commercial hit sure to impress the top brass? Or will he be swayed by his enigmatic temporary secretary, Karen, who is gunning for an arty adaptation of an apocalyptic, spiritual novel? She might just save his soul. Or does she have other ambitions? A master at hucksters and sharks - and there may well be a few of those in Hollywood – Mamet’s tight, hilarious and unflinching dialogueensures the stakes are always high in this late-20th-century modern morality play.

Photo of Rose Byrne by Rebecca Lorrimer

 

SPECIAL SEASON OFFERS

Two other shows complete STC’s offerings of 2016

Sydney Theatre Company presents

THE TRAGEDY OF

HAMLET: PRINCE OF SKIDMARK

A Badaptation of the Bard


By The Listies


16 June to 17 July 2016, Wharf 1 Theatre

Opening Night: Sunday 19 June 2016

For its family show this year STC brings together children’s favourites The Listies, who according to The Guardian “know all the right buttons to push to make children shriek with laughter”, and playwright and director Declan Greeneof Sisters Grimm (Calpurnia Descending, Little Mercy). Hamlet: Prince of Skidmarkis a very comic, somewhat scatological retelling of Hamlet: an aBUMdance of bodily fluid jokes and outright anarchy to hook in theatre first-timers, while the more experienced theatre-goers can delight in a satirical riff on one of the best- known plays in the canon.

Photo of The Listies by James Green

 

 

Sydney Theatre Company presents

THE WHARF REVUE

Written and created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott


19 October to 23 December 2016, Wharf 1


Opening Night: Thursday 20 October 2016

They sing, they dance, they wear funny hats. Paul Keating once said that politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers and maddies. All of them will be knocked down a peg or two in The Wharf Revue. From Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott comes another instalment of what has become a Sydney institution. From the movers to the shakers,from the winners to the losers, the stage will be filled with a year’s worth of foolishness. And if there’s one thing that a federal election year brings, it’s a smorgasbord of satirical goodies.

Photo of Phillip Scott, Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe by James Green

 

 

2016 Season Tickets are on sale from 8 September

To receive a 2016 season brochure call (02) 9250 1777

sydneytheatre.com.au/2016

Click here for other 2016 Seasons