Sydney Theatre Company Lifts the Curtain on Act Two, the Second Portion of Its 2021 Program – Broadsheet

It was just over a year ago that the world as we knew it including our theatres, live-music venues and art galleries shut down. But now theatre, at least, is back in full swing. Sydney Theatre Company (STC) artistic director Kip Williams shakes his head in astonishment at the near miracle that has not only seen the STC return to 100 per cent capacity audiences but the public enthusiastically embracing his 2021 program of 16 productions.

Its far beyond my wildest dreams for what Id hoped for 2021, and its the eagerness with which everybody is returning. I hope that gives everyone else in the world some encouragement and the strength to keep going, he tells Broadsheet.

Williams has been closely observing audience reactions and feedback. He saw an initial desire for works that explore community and connection, such as the sold-out adaptation of novelist Ruth Parks Playing Beatie Bow, and a craving for something uplifting.

They want to laugh they probably want to have a bit of a cry as well but its not just escapism, they want to process the ideas that have transpired in the past 12 months, he says. Theatre enables you to do that collectively, in the way Appropriate [STCs current production by Pulitzer Prize-nominated American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins] allows you to explore the Black Lives Matter movement, or a show like [the upcoming] Julius Caesar looks at democracy and leadership in the wake of everything thats happened.

Williams has just launched Act Two of the theatres 2021 program, with some shows reinstated after the 2020 hiatus, some brand new. (Act One was announced in November last year.) One of the breakout hits will surely be the new Australian work Triple X, written by and starring the award-winning Glace Chase, about a successful Wall Street banker preparing to marry his beautiful fiance, but secretly enjoying an affair with charismatic trans drag performer Dexie (Chase). The Queensland Theatre co-production opened last week in Brisbane to five-star reviews and standing ovations.

Its the first trans love story on the Australian mainstage, which is something were very proud of, and a piece of writing thats one of the best-crafted new plays thats come across my desk, says Williams.

Another hilarious new work is The Dismissal: An Extremely Serious Musical Comedy about that moment in Australian politics in 1975, which continues to have ramifications today. Williams says The Dismissal is some of the best musical theatre composition Ive heard.

At the other end of the scale is Arthur Millers influential work Death of a Salesman, starring the extraordinary Wayne Blair and directed by Paige Rattray. This work is an elegy to those let down by the world around them, and after the past 12 months it will be the hymn to the times in which were living, says Williams.

Act Two also sees the return of Williams astonishing multimedia adaptation of Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray, with Eryn Jean Norvill performing the parts of all 26 characters. When the work premiered in 2020, audiences knew they were witnessing something very, very special. It sold out both season extensions and Williams is now fielding invitations to tour New York, London and Asia.

Other welcome returns include beloved Australian play The 7 Stages of Grieving, written by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman. Starring Elaine Crombie, its also the STC directorial debut of resident director Shari Sebbens. A contemporary account of what it means to be an Aboriginal woman in Australia, new material has been added to bring the work sharply into focus for 2021.

One of the hottest names in Australian theatre, Anchuli Felicia King, is reprising her production White Pearl, following its sell-out 2019 premier. Starring five Asian-Australian actors, the play is a searing satire of corporate culture, pan-Asian relations and racism.

A Raisin in the Sun, the seminal American play by the late Lorraine Hansberry, is described by the STC as a testament to the power of family and a hymn to the Black experience. It stars sought-after actors Bert LaBont and Zahra Newman in its first Australian mainstage production, directed by Sebbens.

Grand Horizons, starring theatre icon John Bell, is direct from (pre-lockdown) Broadway and follows a couple in their 80s who amicably end their 50-year marriage to further explore their sexuality. Williams describes it as a very funny piece but quite radical in the way it looks at romance and sexuality in people who we dont typically consider to be romantic.

Rounding out the season are Williams production of Julius Caesar, performed in the round and accompanied by the cheekily teasing question ancient history?; The Lifespan of a Fact, the Broadway comedy that speaks directly to the zeitgeist and our obsession with truth; and Roald Dahls Fantastic Mr Fox, a family show adapted by Shake & Stir theatre company that Williams describes as a really smart, visually exciting production.

Tickets to STC: Act Two are open from March 26 to season 2020 ticketholders or 2021 Act One package holders; general release opens April 21.

sydneytheatre.com.au/season-2021

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Sydney Theatre Company Lifts the Curtain on Act Two, the Second Portion of Its 2021 Program - Broadsheet