Belvoir Reveals 2014 Season, with Two Oedipuses

Belvoir has brushed off everyone caught up in the bog of the adaptations versus original writing in theatre debate, putting on not one but two versions of Greek tragedy Oedipus in their freshly announced 2014 season. Seeing as the shows resemble each other about as much as a Friesian cow resembles the internet, we are forced to conclude that they are, in fact, originals.

First up is Oedipus Schmoedipus, a comedy epic from local legends post that will play as part of the Sydney Festival and is billed as "by post after aeschylus, anon, artaud, behn, brecht, büchner, Chekhov, Coward, Fo, Genet, Havel, Ibsen, Marlowe, Molière, O’neill, Plautus, Racine, Seneca, Shakespeare, Shaw, Sophocles, Strindberg, Wedekind, Wilde et al". The other Oedipus, Oedipus Rex, by Belvoir resident director Adena Jacobs (Persona), will be a rather more intense affair in the Downstairs Theatre.

Of course, there are another eleven shows that each have something special going on. "This year we introduce two new resident directors, Adena Jacobs and Anne-Louise Sarks," says artistic director Ralph Myers. "They join associate director Eamon Flack and literary manager and all-rounder Anthea Williams to round out what has to be the hottest team of theatre-makers this side of The Globe. Plus, we’ve invited a swag of freelance artists into the tent to weave their magic."

In the Upstairs Theatre, Jacobs is also directing a must-see Hedda Gabler with Ash Flanders in the title role. The actor's capacity for subtleness has always shone through in the high-camp melodrama we're used to seeing him in, and he'll no doubt bring a new dimension to Hedda. Ibsen is also looked to in resident director Anne-Louise Sarks' Nora, which she is developing with Kit Brookman. It's partly adaptation, partly spin-off of A Doll's House, in that it follows the character Nora after she's walked out on her family and off the page of the original.

Also featuring upstairs is Once in Royal David's City, a new work by Australian playwright Michael Gow, starring Brendan Cowell and directed by Eamon Flack (Angels in America). Belvoir is calling it an "astonishing act of theatrical invention". Winner of the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award Jada Alberts has her Brothers Wreck, directed by Leah Purcell, on Upstairs, while Indigenous performers also lead the truly vibrant experiment that is Twenty Questions, a cabaret/talkshow hosted by Wesley Enoch and playing on Monday nights from April through to August. Rounding out the Upstairs shows is a Simon Stone-led Philadelphia Story (that's the 1940 screwball/romantic comedy, yes, but apparently he's got something radical planned), an Eamon Flack-helmed Glass Menagerie featuring Luke Mullins and Pamela Rabe, and a version of A Christmas Carol you can see on Christmas Eve.

Downstairs, we're poaching Melbourne's much-loved THE RABBLE, who'll present Cain and Abel and take their powerful, gender-aware to the stories of the Bible. Post's Zoe Coombs Marr (winner of FBi SMAC for Best on Stage) explores the life of a stand-up comedian (in non-one-man-show form) with Is This Thing On?, while Matthew Whittet and Belvoir literary manager Anthea Williams do Cinderella in an adults-only kind of way. It appears that apart from the four shows, the Downstairs Theatre will be going dark for the rest of the year.

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