Welcome to Sydney Theatre Company’s 2024 Season!
This year my team and I have gathered a collection of incredible plays that showcase the amazing range and variety that the theatrical form has to offer. It is a program that takes in everything, from the hilarious to heartrending, the intimate to operatic, and the international to homegrown.
"It is a program that takes in everything, from the hilarious to heartrending, the intimate to operatic, and the international to homegrown."
Australian plays have always been the lifeblood of STC and this year we continue this tradition with the world premiere of four brand new Australian plays; Van Badham’s hilarious love-farce A Fool in Love, Anchuli Felicia King’s electrifying one-performer show American Signs – both directed by our newest Resident Director Kenneth Moraleda – and the latest addition to Angus Cerini’s ongoing fascination with the Australian landscape and character Into the Shimmering World, directed by our Director of New Work and Artistic Development, Paige Rattray. In addition to these, I am thrilled to be writing and directing the climactic part of the cine-theatre trilogy, Dracula, adapted from Bram Stoker’s classic novel, which follows on from The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
As well as premiering these brand-new works in 2024, next year will see three recent new Australian plays cement their position in the canon with encore seasons. I am delighted to share that in 2024 we are mounting the much-anticipated return seasons of Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Sarah Goodes, RBG: Of Many, One by Suzie Miller and directed by Priscilla Jackman and No Pay? No Way! by Dario Fo, adapted by Marieke Hardy and directed by Sarah Giles. We are thrilled to be presenting two transfer productions, created by our colleagues at Melbourne Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company, respectively: Sunday by Anthony Weigh and directed by Sarah Goodes, and Golden Blood by Merlynn Tong and directed by Tessa Leong. It also gives me great pleasure to be able to announce that Julia and RBG: Of Many, One will also both be continuing to national tours in 2024.
And as we look to add these works to our canon, we also look to reinvestigate an existing Australian classic, which this year is Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison’s 1996 seminal play Stolen; given vivid new perspective by our Richard Wherrett Fellow and Wilman Noongar man Ian Michael who will direct an extraordinary ensemble cast.
"Australian plays have always been the lifeblood of STC"
For our youngest audience members, we are overjoyed to be presenting Barking Gecko Theatre’s beautiful and insightful puppet-show Cicada, an adaptation of Shaun Tan’s classic picture book.
In 2024 you can also look forward to an extraordinary offering of the very best of contemporary international playwriting, including two Pulitzer Prize-winners in Sweat by Lynn Nottage, directed by our Resident Director Shari Sebbens, and Cost of Living by Martyna Majok, co-directed by Dan Daw and Priscilla Jackman.
"In 2024 you can also look forward to an extraordinary offering of the very best of contemporary international playwriting"
To complete this thrilling collection of plays, I am extremely excited to announce two major first time co-productions taking place during our 2024 Season. With the Gate Theatre in Dublin, we will mount a cross-continental season of Thomas Bernhard’s The President, directed by Tom Creed and starring icons Hugo Weaving and Olwen Fouéré. And, with renowned musical theatre producers Michael Cassel Group, the multi award-winning sensation Dear Evan Hansen will have its Australian premiere in a brand-new production directed by Dean Bryant.
Our 2024 Season is a glittering array of stories, experiences and perspectives that we’ve gathered into an explosive showcase of theatre-making talent. I, for one, cannot wait to jump into the mix and I do hope you’ll join us.
Kip Williams
Artistic Director
