Sydney Theatre Company Announces 2015 Season

Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh will reunite on stage next year in a very Sydney Theatre Company production, The Present, a Chekhov work as adapted by artistic director Andrew Upton. Echoing back to the trio's last outing together, 2010's acclaimed Uncle Vanya, this project draws on Anton Chekhov's first drama — a five-hour, unwieldy and untitled beast discovered after his death. Whipped into shape by Upton and directed by Irishman John Crowley, it's a centrepiece of the company's newly announced 2015 season, which is packed with big plays, big ideas and big names.

Among the season's other highlights is the Irish import Riverrun (particularly for everyone still in the thrall of performer Olwen Fouéré since Terminus), Geoffrey Rush as King Lear directed by Neil Armfield (there's 30+ years of collaboration there that never gets old), and Susie Porter in the lead for Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, where she plays a woman confronting the man who tortured her under a despotic regime 20 years prior (it's directed by Leticia Cáceres, Melburnian master of creepiness).

"Some of our greatest theatre artists are returning to the wonderful, fertile, creative ground to be found inside the canon for reinterpretation and reinvention," said Upton. At the same time, the artistic director saw "an opportunity to set up a great juxtaposition between works of the canon that comprise half the program (nearly) and newer works with a particular emphasis on female voices that constitute the other half (almost)."

On the canon side, you'll also find delightfully '80s Australian comedy After Dinner by Andrew Bovell, Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer with Robyn Nevin in the intense lead role, Hugo Weaving picking up more Beckett for Endgame, a new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's iconic novel Orlando by The Vibrator Play writer Sarah Ruhl and period rom-com Arms and the Man.

Repping the new Australian writing talent is razor-sharp Melissa Bubnic, whose last play was a satire about our obsession with reality TV and whose new play, Boys Will Be Boys, homes in on a particularly intriguing woman working in the very male-dominated world of currency trading. Directed by Paige Rattray of eccentric indie theatre company Arthur, this should be a fun one. There's also Kylie Coolwell's Battle of Waterloo, set in the local suburb and developed from its early stages by the STC and director Sarah Goodes.

Of the new international writing, there's the very exciting Australian premiere of the latest work from Caryl Churchill ("arguably the world's foremost living playwright," the program fairly says). Called Love and Information, it's a more experimental but attention-demanding work that gives the audience a glimpse into the lives of more than 100 different characters through a series of "tantalising" vignettes. Starring Kath & Kim's Jane Turner, Jumpy by April de Angelis is another new international work, exploring mother-daughter tensions.

While the 2015 season seems to lack some of the experimental impulse of this year's, it certainly has the gravitas and impressiveness befitting a state theatre company. This season trailer has all the goodies in it, including one of our favourite parts of any STC eve: drinks on that wharf.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cJZerIhEUXo

2015 season tickets go on sale on Tuesday, September 9, at 9am. For more information and to book, head to the STC website.

Images by James Green.