Overview
The Griffin Theatre Company is stepping out from its beloved SBW Stables Theatre to kickstart its 2014 season. The Serpent's Table is a feast of food and storytelling that will take place within an installation at Carriageworks and involve the talents of popular chefs Adam Liaw and Pauline Nguyen. On in January as part of the Sydney Festival for intimate audiences of 30, the event will be a step in a more experimental, multidisciplinary direction for Griffin — here working together with Performance 4a — and knowing Sydney's colossal appetite for foodie culture, it won't fail to find an audience.
The rest of season 2014 sees Griffin pursuing its established strengths in new Australian playwriting, with just one classic and one recent international work sneaking in. "Our 2014 season is a shameless celebration of the depth and breadth of Australian playwriting culture," says artistic director Lee Lewis. "Breadth in terms of the diversity of voices and stories, combined with remarkable depth of quality."
The Main season starts with the winner of this year's Griffin Award for an outstanding new script, Jump for Jordan by Donna Abela, a culture-clash dramedy that speaks in particular to the experience of second-generation Australians. Next is Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography (wahey!), eye-catching for both its name and the talent involved (Declan Greene of the fantastic Sisters Grimm writing, Lewis herself directing and the loveable Steve Rodgers performing). Lewis will also direct David Williamson's hit '80s play Emerald City, while Malthouse Theatre's artistic director Marion Potts will take the reins of Ugly Mugs, a compelling look at the culture of abuse we don't usually acknowledge. Writer Peta Brady was inspired by the stories of violence against women that took hold of Melbourne last year.
The parallel Independent season, meanwhile, features work from pantsguys, Stories Like These, Siren Theatre Co and White Box Theatre. Director Anthony Skuse reunites with the team from Punk Rock (winner of the Best Independent Production 2012 at the Sydney Theatre Awards) for what's sure to be another shattering Simon Stephens play, On the Shore of the Wide World. Kate Gaul (The New Electric Ballroom) will tackle Tasmanian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer's The Violent Outburst That Drew Me To You, about a rage-prone teenager left alone in the forest, while Jane Bodie's Music brings a light touch to the subject of mental illness and Campion Decent's Unholy Ghosts goes for laughter at a funeral.
Finally, there's the school holiday event The Witches, a one-man telling of the Roald Dahl classic. If what we've heard of its transfixing first run at NIDA is anything to go by, there'd better be plenty of adult-friendly show times, too.
Griffin Theatre 2014 subscriptions go on sale on 3 September. There's a limited Earlybird offer, whereby subscribers can purchase the four Main Season shows for $120, or all eight Main and Independent shows for $220 until 23 September. Griffin subscribers also have exclusive access to an allocation of tickets to The Serpent’s Table before they go on sale to the public through Sydney Festival.