A time of change
The
coming 2008 season sees a changing of the guard at the Sydney
Theatre Company. It’s an odd season in a way, one programmed
by outgoing artistic director Robin Nevin but to be overseen by
incoming joint-artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton.
As Blanchett points out, it’s a season she and Upton will
be “caretaking” before they embark fully on their
own plans for the company.
The season opens with The Vertical Hour,
the latest play from one of the big names in English theatre,
David Hare. The play uses the age-old premise of the son returning
home to introduce his new fiancée to his father. Naturally,
father and potential daughter-in-law have issues; but there is
also estrangement between father and son. Using counterpoints
of ideology and sexual tension, The Vertical Hour promises
to be an explosive opening to 2008.
Next up, Blanchett will direct Nevin in The
Year of Magical Thinking by renowned American writer Joan
Didion. The one-hander charts a momentous year in Didion’s
life, as she faces the loss of two loved ones. Didion adapted
her own non-fiction book for the play, and it was first performed
by Vanessa Redgrave. If the synopsis is anything to go by, this
is set to be an emotionally wrenching evening at the theatre.
Another giant of the British stage, Tom Stoppard,
provides the material for the next production, Rock n Roll.
This is in fact a buy-in production from the Melbourne Theatre
Company. It charts the relationship between a Marxist teacher
and one of his students over the years 1969 to 1989. The student,
a Czech, returns home to find that the then-Communist government
isn’t all that happy with his liking for his favourite rock
band.
Daniel Keene is an STC favourite, and he again features
in the mainstage program with The Serpent’s Teeth.
This is actually a compilation of two of Keene’s shorter
works, 'Citizens' and 'Soldiers'; the latter being a special commission
for the STC Actors’ Company. Well-known actor Pamela Rabe
takes the directing reins for 'Citizens'; while Tim Maddock takes
on 'Soldiers'.
Tony
McNamara is another familiar name around the halls of the STC,
and his play The Great, features his own distinctive
take on Russian history. The Great is a comic look at
Catherine the Great, the Russian tsarina whose name became a byword
for autocratic rule. This definitely won’t be a history
lesson – McNamara freely admits that the play’s grasp
on facts is a bit thin – but it promises to be one of the
most inventive productions of the year.
The STC’s next production however is much
closer to a history lesson, as playwright Nigel Jamieson takes
us to Gallipoli. Jamieson however doesn’t take
on the historical narrative of the events at Anzac Cove so much
as the mythology that has developed out of them. Using meticulous
research of source materials, Jamieson has constructed a play
that’s sure to spark plenty of interest. The playwright
will direct his own production, with a cast of no less than 40
actors.
Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre Company bring
their highly successful production of The Narcissist
to the big smoke for the STC from 28 August to 4 October. This
modern take on the bedroom farce offers the kind of biting social
satire that would have made Noel Coward proud. In quite a coup
for La Boite, the production will be staged in the rather roomier
confines of the Sydney Opera House.
From the entirely modern to the decidedly ancient,
the STC then brings audiences a new production of Euripides’
The Women of Troy. This version is adapted by Barrie
Kosky and Tom Wright; while Kosky will also direct. The play,
widely acknowledged as an early anti-war statement, features Robin
Nevin as Queen Hecuba, with Melita Jurisic playing all three of
the women of the title – Cassandra, Andromache and Helen.
There’s another blast from the past as the
STC next mounts The Convict’s Opera. This is a
‘re-imagining’ (a term I personally detest, but there
you go) of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera,
written by Stephen Jeffreys. The production takes Gay’s
1728 play and sets it as if it’s being staged in the bowels
of a convict ship en route to Australia in the late 18th Century.
In a nice piece of post-colonial assertiveness (or perhaps a case
of carrying coals to Newcastle?), the production will later tour
to the UK.
More recent times are evoked in John Doyle’s
Pig Iron People. Doyle, the well-known comedian and stirrer
takes a leaf out of David Williamson’s book – his
play opens on the day of the Federal election in 1996, the day
that John Howard was swept to power. The play compares a young
couple with the ‘Pig Iron people’ – those who
grew up under the Menzies government of the 1950s and ‘60s
– in their street. Knowing Doyle, you can expect plenty
of sharp political digs.
The
mainstage season closes with Rabbit. No, it has nothing
to do with John Updike – Rabbit was one of the
sensations of last year’s London theatre season. The first
play from bright young thing Nina Raine, Rabbit features characters
trying to navigate the slippery slopes of adulthood as seen through
the prism of one alcohol-fuelled evening. Brendan Cowell directs,
so expect a larrakin edge to proceedings.
While that rounds out the main STC season, the company
offers plenty of extras for audiences. These include the popular
WHARF2LOUD series, the irreverent Wharf Revue and for 2008, a
series of ‘add-ons’. The core of the ‘add-ons’
is a highly ambitious production of The War of the Roses.
This is an adaptation – or perhaps distillation is a better
word – of Shakespeare’s plays set during the Wars
of the Roses. They include Richard II; Richard III;
Henry VI and Henry V. Tom Wright and Benedict
Andrews boil the plays down to their essence to present a still-challenging
8 hours of theatre. It’s presented in two parts, running
in tandem during early 2009 (from January 5 to February 14). The
idea is to experience the two parts together if you possibly can.
Season 2008 marks a watershed year for the STC.
This transitional phase represents a shift in the company’s
theatrical landscape. Outgoing artistic director Robin Nevin was
sometimes accused of programming overly safe productions. If her
successors plan to break from that mould, for this year at least,
they’ll have to mark time somewhat. Still, the season should
offer enough variety and potentially great theatre to entice Sydneysiders
down to Walsh Bay.
David Edwards
