GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY 2015 SEASON

Artistic Director Lee Lewis today (September 1, 2014) announced her second season for Griffin Theatre Company, reflecting her passion for the diversity of voices writing for the Australian stage. In its Main and Independent seasons, comprised entirely of Australian work, Griffin will present or co-present six world premieres of new Australian plays.

“The stories in 2015 will take you to magical lands, journey into suburbs, pull apart minds, give in to revenge and travel around the world to find answers to questions we wrestle with today: How do you tell someone you love them? How do we connect to each other in an increasingly disconnected world? How do you know if someone is lying? What happens after you fire the gun? Is it possible to forgive the crimes of the 20th century?” Lewis said.

The year begins with Masquerade, based on the iconic children’s book by Kit Williams. Written by award-winning playwright and actor Kate Mulvany, it will have its world premiere as part of Sydney Festival at the Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House. Directed by Sam Strong and Lee Lewis, and co-produced by Griffin Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia, Masquerade interweaves the magical world of the children’s tale with a contemporary Australian story. The musical world of the play will be composed and performed by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen.

Next year the SBW Stables will see the world premiere of Caress/Acheby Suzie Miller. Miller will attack the complex issue of human frailty and need on a global scale, and Anthony Skuse will direct. Up next is a psychological thriller The House on the Lake, a twisting labyrinth of playwright Aidan Fennessy’s devising, directed by Sarah Giles. It will be followed by the world premiere of Angus Cerini’s 2014 Griffin Award winning play The Bleeding Tree, a darkly macabre comedy about revenge and violence. The final work of the year will be Kit Brookman’s new work A Rabbit For Kim Jong-iI, a comic espionage about betrayal, forgiveness and regret that is unbelievably based on a true story.

In 2015 Griffin will partner on its second co-presentation with Asian-Australian performance company Performance 4a, Yasukichi Murakami: Through a Distant Lens. Using photographic projections, video, original music and soundscape, Japanese-Australian photographer and writer Mayu Kanamori goes in search of Yasukichi Murakami’s lost photographs of early 20th Century northern Australia. Following the extraordinary success of Griffin and Performance 4a’s collaboration on The Serpent’s Table in 2014, this production signals Griffin’s ongoing commitment to presenting the diversity of Australian stories on the main stage.

In addition to its Main Stage Season, Griffin supports the work of Australian independent theatre makers. The 2015 season includes: The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’written by Zoey Dawson and directed by Declan Greene; Nicholas Hope’s Five Properties of Chainmale, which Hope will also direct; Mary Rachel Brown’s The Dapto Chaser, directed by Glynn Nicholas; Anna Barnes’s MinusOneSister, directed by Luke Rogers; and Benito di Fonzo’s A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth, directed by Lucinda Gleeson.

To celebrate the launch of the 2015 season, Griffin has released a limited Earlybird offer, for subscribers to purchase the four Main Season shows for only $136, and additional Independent Season shows at the heavily discounted price of $28 each. This offer is available only until Monday 22 September 2014. Griffin subscribers also have access to an exclusive allocation of discounted tickets for Masquerade until 8 December, presented as part of Sydney Festival 2015 at Sydney Opera House.

GRIFFIN 2015 MAIN SEASON

Presented by Sydney Festival & Sydney Opera House and co-produced by Griffin Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia

MASQUERADE BY KATE MULVANEY

“Fifty is my first,


Nothing is my second,


Five just makes my third,


My fourth a vowel is reckoned."

The iconic children’s book Masquerade, written and illustrated by UK artist Kit Williams, has been crafted into a play by playwright and actor, Kate Mulvany.

In a wondrous world of riddles and hidden treasure, bumbling Jack Hare is on a race against time to deliver a message of love from the Moon to the Sun. Far, far away in a world just like ours, a mother cheers her ill son Joe with the tale of Jack Hare’s adventure. But when Jack’s mission goes topsy- turvy, Joe and his mum must come to the rescue, and the line between the two worlds becomes blurred forever.

Masquerade stars a talking fish, a tone-deaf barbershop quartet, a gassy pig, a precious jewel and a few mere mortals. It’s a magical adventure that is, at its heart, about the love between a parent and a child.

Directors Sam Strong & Lee Lewis
Designer Anna Cordingley
Lighting Designer Geoff Cobham
Composition & Musical Direction Pip Branson & Mikelangelo
With Kate Cheel, Helen Dallimore, Nathan O’Keefe, Zindzi Okenyo & live music by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen

Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre

Previews: 7-8 January. Season: 9-17 January

Griffin Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of

CARESS/ACHE BY SUZIE MILLER

“Touch my skin, go on, feel it, feel the heat of me. Hit me, scratch me, feel the pulse of me.”

A brilliant surgeon can no longer bear to touch the living. Two voices connect fleetingly over the phone. A desperate mother begs to embrace her son one last time. A young woman seeks atonement.

Disparate lives interweave, intersect, collide and connect in the most unexpected of ways. This is our world – where some long for the electrical charge of human contact, others flee it, and lives turn on the smallest moments of random intimacy.

Fearless playwright Suzie Miller reveals humanity in all its messy complexity and is perfectly matched by director Anthony Skuse.

By Suzie Miller

Director Anthony Skuse

With Ian Stenlake

Previews 27 - 28 February. Season 6 March – 11 April

Griffin Theatre Company presents

THE HOUSE ON THE LAKE BY AIDAN FENNESSY

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

A criminal lawyer with a cool head and a passion for logic, David wakes up to find himself confined to a small, sparsely furnished room, unable to remember what happened the day before. With the help of his doctor, David begins to coax memories out of the darkness, before the details of a terrible secret emerge.

The House on the Lakeis a psychological thriller. Mired deep in layers of deception, it’s a puzzle of a play certain to engage the intellect and assault the nervous system.

The House on the Lakeis a twisting labyrinth of playwright Aidan Fennessy’s devising. Director Sarah Giles leads the way through.

Director Sarah Giles

Previews 15, 16, 18, 19 May. Season 22 May – 20 June

Griffin Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of

THE BLEEDING TREE BY ANGUS CERINI

“Girls, I think your father’s dead.

I knocked his knees out.


I conked his head.


I shot that house-clown in the neck.”

In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house - with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body.

Triggered into motion by an act of revenge, The Bleeding Treeis rude, rhythmical and irreverently funny. Imagine a murder ballad blown up for the stage, set against a deceptively deadly Aussie backdrop, with three fierce females fighting back.

Angus Cerini won the 2014 Griffin Award for The Bleeding Tree.

Director Lee Lewis

With Paula Arundell and Shari Sebbens

Previews 31 July, 1, 3, 4 August. Season 7 August – 5 September

Griffin Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of

A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL BY KIT BROOKMAN

“Rabbits don’t talk Mr Wertheim. They keep their stupid mouths shut or they get whacked on the head with a shovel... Learn to be a rabbit.”

Johann’s super-sized rabbits are his pride and joy. Much to his surprise, the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has taken a special interest, and will stop at nothing to get his hands on them. When a bungled undercover rescue mission transports Johann to North Korea, he finds himself, and the bunnies he betrayed, in a bit of a stew.

Based on a true story, A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il is a cunning comic thriller spanning two continents. Crammed with secret agents, espionage, double-crossings and a giant rabbit named Felix, the play is also a pointed parable about betrayal and forgiveness, greed and regret.

Director Lee Lewis

With Kate Box, Luke Mullins

Previews 10, 12, 13, 14 October. Season 17 October – 21 November

SPECIAL EVENT

Performance 4a and Griffin Theatre Company present

YASUKICHI MURAKAMI: THROUGH A DISTANT LENSBY MAYU KANAMORI

‘We take so many photographs. How do we know which ones are important, which ones matter?’

Japanese photographer, entrepreneur and inventor Yasukichi Murakami was the talk of the town in Broome and Darwin in the early 1900s, until the outbreak of the Second World War saw him and his family, like all Japanese in Australia, interned as enemy aliens. Murakami's photographs were impounded and subsequently lost.

Using photographic projections, video, original music and soundscape, Japanese-Australian photographer and writer Mayu Kanamori goes in search of Murakami's lost photographs. Uncovering a story of unlikely friendships, thwarted ambition and unrequited love, Yasukichi Murakami stirs our collective amnesia about the history of the Japanese in Australia.

Yasukichi Murakami is a meditation on love, truth and, in a digital age where cameras proliferate, the nature of photography.

Director Malcolm Blaylock

Dramaturg Jane Bodie

Producer Annette Shun Wah

With Kuni Hashimoto, Yumi Umiumare, Arisa Yura

Previews 10 – 11 February. Season 13 – 21 February.

GRIFFIN 2015 INDEPENDENT SEASON

MKA: Theatre of New Writing and Griffin Independent present

THE UNSPOKEN WORD IS ‘JOE’ BY ZOEY DAWSON

"It really is an honour to be here tonight to see what - not one of our greatest writers, just yet - but certainly one of our most emerging writers, has in store for us."

This meta-satire of Australian theatre is what Zoey would describe as dramatic, beautiful and tender. It’s also really clever. She wrote it as a way of dealing with a really bad break-up - but it’s not just a break-up play. It’s about love, and loss. It’s about life. It's a really, really good play. It’s a portrait of a woman desperate for the approval of her peers. You should totally see it.

Zoey Dawson has written a play and it’s her big night, however real life rivalries and resentments are sending things way, way off-script. But nothing’s going to stop her putting on one hell of a show.

Director Declan Greene

With Matt Hickey, Annie Last, Aaron Orzech, Nikki Shiels

Previews 21 – 22 January. Season 24 January – 7 February

Arts Radar and Griffin Independent present the World Premiere of

FIVE PROPERTIES OF CHAINMALE BY NICHOLAS HOPE

“They don’t want the truth. Don’t want honesty. Too confronting.”

Comic and confronting, Five Properties of Chainmaleexplodes the modern man’s unconscious quest for identity, meaning and status, in a world where narcissism is endemic and aloneness is king. It unflinchingly confronts the recesses of the human psyche we know are there but refuse to talk about.

Five men. Five worlds. In a seedy London hotel room, a trendy gallery in Oslo, the cafes of Adelaide, the streets of coastal Sydney and the waiting room of a criminal court, modern man grapples with his crumbling reflection.

Director Nicholas Hope

With Robert Alexander, Dominic McDonald, Jeremy Waters, Briony Williams

Previews 15 - 16 April. Season 18 April – 9 May.

Apocalypse Theatre Company and Griffin Independent present

THE DAPTO CHASER BY MARY RACHEL BROWN

“Call me a dish-licker and I will blood you like a baby rabbit and give you a come to Jesus moment you’ll never forget.”

The Dapto Chaser is a warts-and-all Australian comedy with all the adrenaline, sweat and guts of the dog racing subculture. The fix is in, the stakes are high and the laughs are set to spring from the box faster than a mongrel on uppers.

For the Sinclair family, dog racing is more than a sport. It’s a way of life. And their beloved dog is more than a greyhound; it’s their heart and soul on four legs. The family is riddled with a gambling addiction.

Warning: This production contains dogs, bitches, mongrels ,drugs, cheating, lying, winning, losing and masses of family dysfunction.

Director Glynn Nicholas

With Noel Hodda

Previews 1 - 2 July. Season 4 - 25 July.

Stories Like These and Griffin Independent present the World Premiere of

MINUSONESISTER BY ANNA BARNES

“Which one are you? Oh that’s right, you’re not the pretty one, the dead one. Not the smart one. You’re the crazy one.”

A father sacrifices the life of his eldest daughter for the common good – having her snatched away during a TV ad break. It’s the kind of thing that can really mess up a family. Mother turns against father. Son turns against mother. Sister turns against sister. Eternal obsessions mingle with the obsessions of our times, bloodshed goes hand in hand with Bacardi Breezers and Facebook, and a chilling portrait emerges of a family irreversibly shattered by grief and guilt.

MinusOneSister investigates how two young girls could respond so differently to the murders within their family. The play explores the competitiveness, jealousy and tensions that exist between siblings, young girls in particular, in a modern world of texting, sexting, internet trolls and cyber bulling.

Taking inspiration from Sophocles’ Electra, Anna Barnes’ new play re-imagines this classic myth, told from the point of view of the teenagers.

Director Luke Rogers. Designer Georgia Hopkins.

Previews 9 - 10 September. Season 12 September – 3 October

Ocelot Productions and Griffin Independent Theatre presents the World Premiere of

A RIFF ON KEEF: THE HUMAN MYTH BY BENITO DI FONZO

“Mick was a thick git with a minuscule prick but elephantitis of the bollocks what gave him a unique dancing style that strangely endeared me to him.”

Why not spend an evening with one of the driving forces behind the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards. This absurdist legend inspired by the story-talking blues of times past is a comic riff on a-day-in-the- life of the greatest rock guitarist of all time, using the archetypal structure of myth.

Join Keef, over the course of one day, as he rolls from the muck-covered ghettos of London, across Europe, the US, and Australia to his Jamaican mountain hideaway. This rock fable is all brought together in a blend of mythology, music and metabiography.

Director Lucinda Gleeson

With Terry Serio, Lenore Munro

Previews 25 - 26 November. Season 28 November – 12 December

Images: Brett Boardman.

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