Belvoir Lifts the Lid on 2013 Season

Blam-blam-blam! That's the sound of Belvoir, Sydney's 'other' major theatre company, lining them up and knocking them down. They've announced a 2013 season that's filled end to end with heart-starting productions, each one either a loved text, starring theatre's leading lights, directed by powerhouse Simon Stone, or some combination of the three.

Perhaps the centrepiece of the season is Angels in America, Tony Kushner's seven-hour, two-part play that's an icon of the queer canon but also became the most watched TV cable movie in the US in 2003. Directed by Eamon Flack and starring, among others, Robyn Nevin, Paula Arundell, and Mitchell Butel, it will play in repertory as two separate, full-length shows, which you'll have the option to see back-to-back on Saturdays and Sundays. For durational performance fans, it's a theatre marathon to relish.

Meanwhile, Simon Stone, the company's resident director (who's created The Wild Duck and Strange Interlude there already) will direct Jacqueline McKenzie and Ewen Leslie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Toby Schmitz, Emily Barclay, and Robyn Nevin in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He'll also be adapting August Strindberg's Miss Julie for Leticia Cáceras to direct and Brendan Cowell to star in (both of 2011's unforgettable The Dark Room), a compelling release of control after his string of successes directing his own dramatic rewrites of classics.

On the funnest note, the season kicks off in the early days of January with Peter Pan, a perfect fit for this festive time of year. Under the eye of artistic director Ralph Myers, the ensemble cast will rescue the original JM Barrie text from the saccharine clutches of Disney.

Also in the Upstairs Theatre will be two Australian-history-inspired new works: from Love Me Tender writer Tom Holloway, Forget Me Not (directed by Anthea Williams), a fictionalised take on the very real tragedy that befell some 7000 Forgotten Australians who endured forced child migration that separated them from their families, and a co-production with Ilbijerri, Coranderrk that pays tribute to an 1881 inquiry in which the people of Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve campaigned for their self-determination.

Downstairs, much-performed playwright Lally Katz (Neighbourhood Watch, Smashed) has written a thing she's actually not keen to hand over to actors for interpretation and will step onto the stage to deliver herself. Zaniness is guaranteed, touching humanity expected. Other new works featuring Downstairs are The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe, documentary theatre that communicates hardship, survival, and celebration, and Kit Brookman's Small and Tired, a story ripped from Greek mythology, now sitting in a bar.

Belvoir again and again works with Australia's favourite theatre-makers in an environment where collaboration and conversation flow freely. The fruits of this approach can be seen in their solid plans for season 2013, which we'll be savouring piece by piece.

Full information and subscription packages are available from the Belvoir website.