Darlinghurst Theatre

The Darlinghurst Theatre produces new Australian and new international plays and delivers seasons of high quality, diverse and innovative theatre. Every year over 100 emerging artists stage some 16 different productions with the company.

2011 SEASON

Open for Inspection - the Real Estate Musical
by Tim Bosanquet
Directed by Sandra Stockley,

Enter a world of black SUVs, dummy bidders and blue-haired harridans as two ruthless, rival agencies battle for buyers during a property slump. Set in the cutthroat world of Sydney real estate, Open for Inspection is a wickedly black, new musical comedy. After a short sell-out season at Darlinghurst Theatre Company in 2010, the musical about a real estate agent who becomes a serial killer returns to the stage with ten per cent more hair gel.

With wonderfully catchy songs by Lucy Egger and an all singing, all dancing cast, this hilarious musical is sure to bring the house down this summer. If you only see one musical about real estate this year – make sure this is it.

Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography + Gorgeous Bastard!
Written and directed by Steven Dawson

Prepare for an outrageous evening of nudity, smut and dreadful wigs, as Out Cast Theatre delivers a hilarious double bill from award-winning author, Steven Dawson.

Jane Austen’s Guide to Pornography imagines authors Jane Austen and Brett (a 21st-century pornographic playwright) turning to each other for creative inspiration. Jane’s on her last lung and desperately wants to go out with a bang, while Brett is intent on writing something that involves more than sex and one-liners.

Fresh from a sell-out season at 2009’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival this thoroughly improper comedy promises sex without sensibility and perversion without prejudice!

Gorgeous Bastard! Is a whimsical, dirty tale, in which weaves a story of celebration, temptation and sexual frustration. Three gay men are invited to a straight wedding and everyone knows the groom… intimately!

Orange Flower Water
by Craig Wright
Directed by Byron Kaye

Two married couples live with their children in relative bliss … until two of them begin a passionate affair.

Penned by Six Feet Under co-writer Craig Wright, Orange Flower Water is a dark, funny, and ultimately life-affirming examination of the cruelties people inflict on the ones they love – or once loved – in order to stay alive.

Darlinghurst Theatre Company is pleased to welcome back Stella Green Productions who revived Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce in 2009. Cutting to the core of Orange Flower Water, the Stella team will unveil the humanity and desperation behind the sometimes inexplicable choices we all seem capable of making.

I Only Came to Use the Phone
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Directed by Netta Yashchin

Full of beautiful, humorous, magic and tragic moments, this psychological thriller exposes a calculated and unforgiving society. Set in the twilight years of Franco’s Spain, I Only Came to Use the Phone follows the journey of Maria whose car breaks down on a lonely stretch of road on the way to Barcelona. She hitches a ride on a ramshackle bus full of women and arrives at a nightmare destination.

Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, Colombian born Marquez published the short story I Only Came to Use the Phone in the collection Strange Pilgrims in 1992. He is now considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century.

Director Netta Yashchin stays true to the original text and brings her unique expression of magical realism to the Darlinghurst Theatre stage.

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer
Devised, performed and animated by Tim Watts

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer is an award-winning show that blends a unique mix of mime, puppetry, live and recorded music and animation.

A last ditch effort to save the human race requires journeying down through the mysterious depths of the deep blue sea to find a new place for us to live. Alvin Sputnik, who has just lost his wife, accepts this perilous mission so that he may follow her soul down to the underworld and be together once more.

Dive with creator and performer, Tim Watts into this visual feast that will enchant audiences of all ages while exploring the next and oldest frontier: the deep blue sea.

The Coming World
by Christopher Shinn
Directed by Caroline Craig

Brace yourself for the Australian premiere of a small human story that asks big questions. The Coming World is an intimate piece of theatre – a funny, moving and thought provoking thrill ride about love, loss, guilt and forgiveness.

Set on a New England beach at night, this haunting story follows Dora and her relationship with twin brothers, Ed and Ty. Featuring the character complexity of a Jonathan Franzen novel, the cinematic structure of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the political microcosmic entanglement of Eugene O'Neill, this enchanting play resonates long after it ends.

Pulitzer award winning playwright Christopher Shinn catapults us from an analogue world into a digital age, following a desperate quest for love and connection.

Boats
by Finegan Kruckemeyer
Directed by Frank Newman

Join mariners Jof and Nic on a captivating journey as they flee their past and embrace adventure. School holiday fun for children aged 5 to 12.

Shipwrecked and alone on his travels, Jof meets Nicholas on a deserted island. Together they begin a magical journey home, cutting a boat from bread, tying a bird from rope, hiding a circus in a jacket and brewing a storm with a teacup.

Using acrobatics, object manipulation, a microphone that goes in water and enchanting fantasy, Boats is a moving story that leaves a lump in your throat and a smile on your face.

Drake the Amazing + La Dispute
by Andy Hyman
Directed by John Kachoyan

A tantalising double bill by writer Andy Hyman: two sharp sweet comedies exploring love, desire and transformation.

Drake the Amazing is a laugh-out-loud funny, brilliantly theatrical tale of love in the wings and one man’s transformation from plain-old Alden, to Drake the Amazing. Legend persists that one autumn night in 1911, Alden Drake – an otherwise unremarkable actor, became the best in the business. Join us for the world premiere – you’ll never believe how he did it.

Following is La Dispute – the critically acclaimed 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit. La Dispute is a comic, physical re-telling of an ageless story of teen love, teen sex and those who like to watch.

Two boys and two girls, raised in complete isolation for 20 years – from the world and from each other – are about to meet for the very first time.

La Dispute traces a chaotic journey through the joys and devastations of romantic love. Adapted for the 21st century by award-winning playwright Andy Hyman, this brilliant re-telling is superbly realised by rising director, John Kachoyan.

The Libertine
by Stephen Jeffreys
Directed by Terry Karabelas & Damien Rice

The Libertine is a stunning theatrical exploration into the decaying facade of ‘civilised’ values.

Set in the restored court of Charles II in 17th century England, The Libertine follows the exploits of John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester. Wilmot makes himself the subject of his own life experiment and throws himself into the seedy underworld of taverns, brothels and theatres and he rebels against the highly polished world of court and King. When he falls in love with actress Elizabeth Barry, relationships are tested, and ideals and moral codes are challenged.

Delving into themes of morality, self-expression and liberation, Sport for Jove unravels Jeffreys’s bold exploration on the nature of personal freedom and love.

10,000 Beers
by Alex Broun
Directed by Lee Lewis

10,000 Beers is a confronting examination of the relationship between men, sport and friendship.

The Panorama Pirates are a Rugby team from Adelaide. They had a good year. Not a great year, but a good one. As is traditional at the end of the season they head to Sydney for their end of season tour. Their aim is to drink 10,000 beers over the course of one weekend. That's one hundred beers. Per man. Per day. This is what happened.

Alex Broun, a rugby journalist, is unafraid to delve deeply into the psyches of the men he depicts.

Leading Australian director Lee Lewis dissects this searing satire where mateship, larrikinism and competition are taken to extremes and beyond.

No Way to Treat a Lady
Book, music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen after William Goldman
Directed by Stephen Colyer

No Way to Treat a Lady is a comic musical that follows Christopher ‘Kit’ Gill, a failed and unknown actor, who turns his hand to murder to become famous.

Detective Morris Brummell is appointed the case and is hungry for recognition as he brings him to justice.

Appropriating the serial murder crime genre using wit and brilliantly crafted show tunes, No Way to Treat a Lady is based on the 1964 novel and '68 film by screenwriting guru and novelist, William Goldman (The Princess Bride). It won the prestigious Richard Rogers Grant and was nominated for two "Outer Critics Circle Awards".

Following the success of 2009’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, director Stephen Colyer is once again delighted for the chance to showcase the best of Australia's musical theatre talent in the thrilling intimacy of the Darlinghurst Theatre, the perfect sized space for this enormously entertaining show.

A comprehensive subscription package for their 2011 Season comes with a 33% saving and the flexibility to subscribe to anywhere between three and 11 plays. Your choice! Visit Darlinghurst Theatre to purchase online.