A Theatrical Guide to Sydney Festival 2012

Anchoring Sydney Festival 2012 are some international heavyweights from the world of theatre. A text that has survived some four hundred years of stirring outrage and distaste — John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, a tragedy of only-incest-will-do proportions — will be performed by one of the world's most well-known and sprightly theatre companies, Cheek by Jowl, and directed by one of the company's founders, Declan Donnellan. Frantic Assembly and the National Theatre of Scotland have teamed with playwright Bryony Lavery to create Beautiful Burnout, a show that promises to pull you into the intense and masculine world of boxing in much the same way their 2008 Sydney Festival hit Black Watch pulled you into the intense and masculine world of the military.

The dance front is particularly well fortified, as choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet join forces with sculptor Antony Gormley for Babel; Chunky Move and Victorian Opera present the wondrously crowded Assembly; Wesley Enoch directs the frantic fusion of new Aboriginal expression that is I Am Eora; and Kate Champion premieres her new work with the Sydney Theatre Company, Never Did Me Any Harm, a journey into parental fears and the unexamined consequences of family life.

In the Spiegeltent, they've declared Meow Meow's Little Match Girl the successor to the endlessly popular Smoke and Mirrors, while moving towards the fringes, you'll find the likes of A History of Everything from fearless Belgian explorers Ontroerend Goed (last here for Once and for All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are so Shut Up and Listen), and the sweetly whimsical journey into one man's basement that is L'Effet de Serge.

The circus, meanwhile, is pitching its tent in Parramatta: all-Aussie Briefs in the Spiegeltent offshoot and surreal Czech pub characters La Putyka at Riverside Theatres.

One of the festival's biggest drawcards is a lone man with a preternatural storytelling ability that draws in millions of worldwide listeners each week to what is often considered a tired old medium: National Public Radio's This American Lifehost Ira Glass will be mixing stories with a twist at Sydney Town Hall for one night only.

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