Griffin Theatre Company has announced the plays in its 2012 Main and Independent Seasons – some things old, some things new – bound together, according to artistic director Sam Strong, by a strong sense of urgency and immediacy.
MAIN SEASON
Written by Gordon Graham
Directed by Sam Strong
Starring Josh McConville
Presented in association with the Sydney Festival
A powerful, dangerous, visceral descent into the darker parts of our city and our selves. Twenty-one years ago, they were lining the streets to see the original Griffin production of The Boys. Since then, it’s become a classic of the Australian stage and screen (winning along its way an AWGIE and four AFI Awards). Following the success of his sold-out production of Speaking in Tongues, artistic director Sam Strong reimagines another Griffin classic for a new generation and the Sydney Festival.
Sam Strong: “For me, The Boys is all about an experience in the theatre – it’s about what that play does to you. It is dangerous, visceral and powerful. To be forced into that intimate space with those characters was an unforgettable experience 21 years ago, and we want to make it an unforgettable experience again. It’s a play you can’t capture in words. You’ve got to come and see it.”
Written by Bojana Novakovic after the writings of Mary MacLane
Directed by Tanya Goldberg
Starring Andrew Baylor, Bojana Novakovic, Tim Rogers, Dan Witton
Presented in association with Malthouse Theatre, Merrigong Theatre Company and Performing Lines
Promiscuous prophet or philandering fool? Mary MacLane is a woman you’d be mad not to meet. More than one hundred years ago, The Story of Mary MacLane set America aflame. A shocking confessional from a 19-year-old girl who refused to succumb to the corset-bound prudery of her age, Bojana Novakovic brings Mary’s writings to the stage in a bold and magical ‘monologue for two’ with original music composed and performed by Tim Rogers of You Am I fame.
Sam Strong: “Mary MacLane is such a potent cocktail of historically fascinating undiscovered material with a contemporary slant. It features two of the most captivating people you’ll ever see on stage – with live songs.”
Written by Paul Capsis and Julian Meyrick (with associate writer Hilary Bell)
Directed by Julian Meyrick
Starring Paul Capsis
Paul Capsis’s evocative and beautifully staged piece of autobiographical theatre was the sell-out smash hit of 2010. Now, Griffin welcome Paul and Angela’s Kitchen back to the Stables before heading off on a national tour. If you missed it the first time or simply want to see it all again, this is your chance to join the hordes of people who fell in love with Angela and her family in 2010.
Sam Strong: “A beautiful and heart-warming story that you’ll want to see again even if you’ve seen it three times. Angela’s Kitchen is a piece built around the virtuosity of its performer – it’s tailor-made for Paul and Paul’s talents. You get to be in the kitchen not just with Paul and Paul’s extended family, but with one of the most amazing performers this country has produced in the past 25 years.”
Written by Rick Viede
Directed by Lee Lewis
With Shari Sebbens
A Griffin Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company co-production
Inspired by the recent spate of fabricated ‘misery memoirs’, the 2011 Griffin Award-winning play A Hoax is a vicious satire on the politics of identity, modern celebrity and the peddling of abuse culture. With its wickedly irreverent humour, A Hoax will make you gasp with delight and despair in the same breath.
It’s exceptionally rare that a Griffin Award-winning play hits the stage immediately – but, according to artistic director Sam Strong, A Hoax “demanded to be programmed”.
Sam Strong: “A Hoax is a provocative new comedy about identity. It’s a play about a literary hoax, but it’s a play by someone who has one of the naughtiest and most devilish turns of phrase going around. But as wicked and naughty and funny as Rick is, the play has a sting in its tail/tale. It’s a play that asks serious and provocative questions. It makes you laugh and cringe at the same time.”
By Ian Meadows
Directed by Sam Strong
Starring Maeve Dermody and Ian Meadows
An urgent and searching new play about the most pressing issue of our times, Between Two Waves asks an anxious, warming world: how do we find happiness in the face of an uncertain future? A politically charged relationship drama set against a climate change backdrop, Between Two Waves is the first play to be produced out of the Griffin Studio, by one of the most exciting new voices in the country.
Sam Strong: “It’s a play about the most pressing issue of our time – climate change. But also a relationship drama against a climate change backdrop. It’s very firmly rooted in the here and now of Sydney, but interweaves global challenges with personal challenges. And it features some of the hottest actors in the country right now.”
INDEPENDENT SEASON
Griffin’s five-strong Main Season will be interspersed with four works in its Independent Season: Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom, lyrical Irish blarney at its best directed by directorial supremo Kate Gaul; Vanessa Bates’s dessert-filled take on modern life Porn.Cake directed by Shannon Murphy; Elise Hearst’s The Sea Project, a beachside mystery directed by Paige Rattray; and, wrapping up 2012, Rapid Write – a bold new project headed by English director Tim Roseman that will tackle exactly whatever it is that is topical and newsworthy in Sydney in late 2012.
For a limited time you can subscribe to Griffin’s Main Season for $140, or sign up for all nine Main and Independent shows for $220. Flexible subscription packages will be released at the end of September. For more about the 2012 Season and the company’s other ventures, visit Griffin Theatre Company.
Newsletter
RSS feed
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Foursquare
iPhone App
Other Time Out cities
Magazine subscription
Print
Email
