Overview
Belvoir has taken up its mantle as Sydney's 'other' major theatre company with gusto, announcing a 2015 season featuring elderly luminaries playing 17-year-olds, a clickbaity double bill of rom-coms themed around The Dog / The Cat and more cheeky, bold theatrical adventures. In particular, there's plenty of the collaboratively developed adaptations and exciting new Indigenous works the company has become known for. It's artistic director Ralph Myers' fifth and final season with the company, and one that shows Belvoir has really come into its own.
"I have been enormously proud of the burst of creative energy that has accompanied my time here as artistic director," says Myers. "I feel a new generation of artists has really blossomed and that we’ll be seeing the fruits of that labour for many years to come on stages here and around the world."
Here are 12 reasons to get into Belvoir in 2015 (i.e. it's the 12 shows they've programmed for us.)
There's a mini Sapphires reunion in Radiance (3 January – 8 February, Upstairs Theatre) This classic of Australian cinema actually had its premiere at Belvoir in 1993. Now its kickstarting 2015, with Leah Purcell directing and starring and The Sapphires' Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell joining her on stage as three sisters reuniting for their mother's funeral in the heat of far north Queensland.
Inimitable playwright Nakkiah Lui will play herself in Kill the Messenger (14 February – 8 March, Upstairs Theatre) Director Anthea Williams just couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. We loved Lui's debut full-length play and are waiting for the sharp stab of heartache and anger sure to come with this one, a very personal story of institutionalised racism.
Nick Coyle's gay alien Blue Wizard goes (nearly) main-stage (19 February – 15 March, Downstairs Theatre) Everyone who saw Blue Wizard at last year's Tiny Stadiums festival has this sweet, lonely, earth-visiting, jizz-and-diamonds-eating character burned into their brains. Perfectly, the show is on at Mardi Gras time.
Elektra / Orestes could be Belvoir's ultimate epic adaptation (14 March – 26 April, Upstairs Theatre) Mundane life becomes Greek tragedy in the hands of Anne-Louise Sarks, who did child-murder tale Medea from the point of view of the kids in 2013. In 2015 she teams up with Jada Alberts (Brothers Wreck) to take on the whole House of Atreus schemozzle.
Not the wonderful Wizard of Oz (2 May – 31 May, Upstairs Theatre) When you think about it, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz is the story of a young girl dealing with having just killed a person. Director Adena Jacobs (Hedda Gabler) explores this darker, visual-driven version of the familiar tale with a dream team including THE RABBLE's Kate Davis and Emma Valente on costume and lights.
Puberty Blues' Ashleigh Cummings in coming-of-age story Samson (7 – 31 May, Downstairs Theatre) To be honest, Samson and its writer, first-timer Julia-Rose Lewis, are something of an unknown quantity. But the Belvoir team love it, so we're all ears.
Robyn Nevin is Mother Courage (6 June – 26 July, Upstairs Theatre) Holy moly. It's like the Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir are having a competition over who can most spectacularly cast Robyn Nevin. Here she's got a notoriously difficult role as a wily woman surviving and profiting from war. Angels in America's Eamon Flack directs and Michael Gow translates this new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece.
There's a play about a dog and a play about a cat, what else do you need? (18 June – 12 July, Downstairs Theatre) Animals are better than people, so this double header is as good as sold out. Brendan Cowell has written The Dog, about the love triangle created when two men share a dog, and Lally Katz has created The Cat, about sharing a talking, smart-arse cat with your ex. Two plays, one night, funny, furry. Book it.
Five Australian leading lights are 17 again in Seventeen (1 August – 13 September, Upstairs Theatre) Writer Matthew Whittet has drawn on the memories of actors Barry Otto, John Gaden, Peter Carroll, Maggie Dence and Judi Farr to capture all the joys and pains of coming of age as a group of friends prepares to move on from high school. The bit where they fumble through their 'first kiss' will be something to see.
The trash-tastic Sisters Grimm celebrate and skewer La Traviata (27 August – 20 September, Downstairs Theatre) Yes, you can do both at once, as Sisters Grimm's Ash Flanders and Declan Greene have shown in so-wrong-it's-right Summertime in the Garden of Eden. Who knows if there'll be singing here, but so far this is described as "part opera, part protest, part drag show — a freewheeling satire that shadows Verdi's plot via the sweatshops of Mumbai".
Another possible best adaptation in the form of Chekhov's Ivanov (19 September – 1 November, Upstairs Theatre) Ewen Leslie will play Nikolai Ivanov, a man stranded moneyless but rich in distractions on his old family farm. Eamon Flack directs (and will hopefully take great liberties with) this classic, as they aim "to put Australia on stage".
Angela Betzien and Leticia Cáceres reunite for Mortido and we're scared already (7 November – 23 December, Upstairs Theatre) The last time this writer and director worked together at Belvoir, it was enough to make us quietly cry in fear and anxiety. This time they're presenting a world-travelling thriller connected by cocaine, with Colin Friels in the grizzled detective role.
To explore the program and book subscription packages, visit the Belvoir website.