Sydney Theatre Company - 2005 season preview

Britannia rules the stage

Greats of British and Australian theatre find themselves cheek-by-jowl in the Sydney Theatre Company’s upcoming season. From that great favourite of audiences and directors everywhere, William Shakespeare, to current “it” writer Tony McNamara, the STC has gone for a heavily Anglo-Australian feel in 2005. Amidst them though, the company has accommodated plays from New Zealand, the US and Russia.

In fact, the STC’s production of the NZ play The Daylight Atheist opens the season on 8 January as part of the 2005 Sydney Festival. A hit for the MTC last year, The Daylight Atheist is a one-man show written by Kiwi Tom Scott. And who better to command the stage in a solo performance that the redoubtable Max Cullen.

That will be followed by the first of the British plays in the season, David Hare’s The Permanent Way, from February 18. Set against the backdrop of railway privatisation in Britain. Praised by The Guardian newspaper’s notoriously exacting critic Michael Billington as “an astonishing piece of theatre”, The Permanent Way has a lot to say about the state of contemporary Britain, not to mention the human condition.

And while Hare is looking back, Australia’s foremost playwright David Williamson has his sights firmly set in the present with his new effort, Influence from March 14. This play features a radio talk-back host whose influence as a social commentator contrast markedly with his rapidly crumbling private life. Directed by Bruce Myles, Influence will star John Waters and Zoe Carides.

We’re back to British writers next with Michael Frayn’s Democracy (from April 9). But like his previous runaway hit Copenhagen, the play isn’t set in Britain. It’s about Germany (or West Germany as it was) in 1969, when the country’s first post-war left wing government was elected under Willie Brandt. The play tells the story of a young adviser brought in to help the fledgling government. John Gaden, who audiences will remember from Copenhagen, stars.

Completing the triumvirate of leading modern British writers is Harold Pinter, with his now-classic Old Times (from April 23). Pinter’s dissection of a marriage over dinner remains one of the more acerbic and compelling pieces of British theatre. Angela Punch-MacGregor and William Zappa will be directed by Lindy Davies in this production.

The STC comes back home for its next production, Hannie Rayson’s Two Brothers. Opening on May 19, the play (as the title suggests) focuses on two very different brothers. One is a politician while the other works for left wing causes. They have to decide whether their familial bond can overcome very different politics. Gary Macdonald makes his return to the STC stage in this production, directed by Simon Phillips.

From 28 June, the Bard is back. The STC will be presenting Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in a production directed by Benedict Andrews. The classic tale of duplicity, politics and murder has endured for very good reason – it’s a timeless story that speaks to audiences whenever it’s performed. Seasons performer Robert Menzies will be featured.

STC artistic director Robyn Nevin takes the reins for the company’s next production (from August 5), Summer Rain by the Australian favourites, Nick Enright and Terence Clarke. Described as a “romantic musical comedy” (Enright providing the words, Clarke the music), the play centres on a travelling tent-show troupe that arrives in an outback town on Christmas Eve in 1945. By the time they leave on New Year’s Day, things have changed dramatically for everyone.

Tony McNamara takes on fragile family relationships in The Give and take, from September 3. Like his recent film, The Rage in Placid Lake, this play examines the dynamic of self-absorbed parents and flawed children. Here, the grown-up kids are rather less sympathetic than Placid, but the play looks intriguing. Rage alumnist Garry Macdonald again appears.

America gets a look in from 30 September, when the STC produces the smash hit Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman. Described by Variety as “a tale of Gotham singledom you won't be seeing any time soon on Sex and the City”, Boy Gets Girl transcends its apparent Bridget Jones connections to become something far more intense. Miranda Otto will appear with her father Barry in this production, to again be directed by Robyn Nevin.

Film and theatre collide head-on in Festen from 5 November. Adapted by hot young British writer David Eldridge from Thomas Vintergberg’s Dogma film The Celebration, Festen tells the story of a family patriarch’s 60th birthday celebration. As family members descend on his mansion for the festivities, past truths come home to roost. Directed by Gale Edwards, Festen will feature Jeremy Sims.

The year is rounded out by a production of another classic, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Based on Andrew Upton’s adaptation, The Cherry Orchard will be directed by Howard Davies, currently associate director at Britain’s National Theatre.

It seems those Anglophiles out there will be well catered for by the STC’s 2005 season. There’s also a fair dollop of Australian theatre in the mix, as well as a sprinkling from elsewhere in the world. Of course, the real proof of this particular pudding will be in the proverbial eating – when the plays actually appear on stage. The season displays a lot of promise, and based on past years’ experience, you’d expect the STC to deliver on it.

David Edwards

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