Griffin Theatre Company Announces Season 2012
Griffin Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Sam Strong today (September 5) announced the Company’s 2012 Season with a line-up of plays bigger and better than ever before, including a partnership with the Sydney Festival and the presentation of Griffin work in cities around Australia. In 2012 Griffin will be the place to come for up close and personal encounters with the hottest acting talent in the country.
In keeping with the season's trailer, Sam Strong limited himself to one minute to introduce each production in what must be one of Sydney's snappiest season launches ever.
Griffin’s Main Season increases to five shows in 2012, telling the finest Australian stories and offering five very different nights in the theatre. Gordon Graham’s classic The Boys is a confronting, edge-of-your-seat experience, propelled by the captivatingly violent Brett Sprague.Bojana Novakovic’s The Story of Mary Maclane by Herself is a playful, bluesy, and seductive exploration of the life of ‘the greatest genius you’ve never heard of’, complete with live songs performed by Tim Rogers. Paul Capsis’ Angela’s Kitchen returns to Griffin before departing on a national tour with its affecting account of post-war migration via one very special grandmother. Rick Viede’s provocative and hilariousA Hoax offers a charming posse of outsiders desperate to be on the inside. Finally, Ian Meadows’ Between Two Waves sweeps us inexorably into the challenge of a warming world through Daniel and Fiona, a couple simultaneously confronting their own and the planet’s future.
In addition to the Main Season, Griffin will co-present four works with independent artists and companies. These works are characterised by their freshness, uniqueness of voice, and commitment to pushing boundaries. Enda Walsh’s New Electric Ballroom conjures its own imaginative universe out of West Coast Irish rock and rollers. Vanessa Bates’ Porn.Cake channels Gen X dissatisfaction into an orgy of sponge. Elise Hearst’s The Sea Project weaves a delicate mystery on a poetic sea shore and Rapid Response brings you theatre that is as immediate as you can get, making its way from page to stage in just 8 weeks!
Artistic Director Sam Strong said, “All the works in 2012 do what great new writing should do – pose big questions about identity, about who we are today and how we should be living. What unites it all is a commitment to making urgent and contemporary theatre with the highest levels of craft and imagination. And of course there is Griffin’s trademark energy and its passion to tell great stories”.
To celebrate the launch of its 2012 season Griffin has released a limited Earlybird ticket offer at heavily discounted prices. Subscribers can purchase the five Main Season shows for $140, or all nine Main and Independent shows for $220. Flexible subscription packages will be released at the end of September.
In 2012 Griffin welcomes four new resident artists to its Studio – Tahli Corin, Tanya Goldberg, Duncan Graham and Suzie Miller – as well as four more Playwriting Australia residents – Vanessa Bates mentoring Jessica Bellamy, Victoria Haralabidou and Jessica Redenbach.
Griffin’s successful Between the Lines program will continue to enrich audience’s experiences online and in different art forms, and the Festival of New Writing will once again provide surprising and diverse treats.
Following on from 2011’s Heartbreak Hotel, in 2012 Griffin will present another site-specific extravaganza. Stories from the Cross will take the Griffin Studio and audience out of the theatre and into its most eccentric and wonderful of home suburbs.
Finally, 2012 also sees the final stage of Griffin’s capital works program opening the theatre and a brand new cafe to the street, and the introduction of a sustainability program How Green Are We.
GRIFFIN 2012 MAIN SEASON
THE BOYS
by Gordon Graham
Directed by Sam Strong With Josh McConville
Previews: 6- 10 Jan Season: 13 Jan – 3 March
Presented in association with Sydney Festival
A powerful, dangerous, visceral descent into the darker parts of our city and our selves. Twenty-one years ago, they were lining the streets to see the original Griffin production of The Boys. Since then, it’s become a classic of the Australian stage and screen (winning along its way an AWGIE and four AFI Awards). Following the success of his sold out production of Speaking in Tongues, Artistic Director Sam Strong re-imagines another Griffin classic for a new generation and the Sydney Festival.
THE STORY OF MARY MACLANE BY HERSELF
by Bojana Novakovic after the writings of Mary MacLane
Directed by Tanya Goldberg With Andrew Baylor, Bojana Novakovic, Tim Rogers, Dan Witton
Preview: 4-10 April Season: 13 April – 12 May
Presented in association with Malthouse Theatre, Merrigong Theatre Company and Performing Lines
Promiscuous prophet or philandering fool? Mary MacLane is a woman you’d be mad not to meet.
More than one hundred years ago, The Story of Mary MacLane set America aflame. A shocking confessional from a 19-year old girl who refused to succumb to the corset-bound prudery of her age,
Bojana Novakovic brings Mary’s writings to the stage in a bold and magical 'monologue for two' with original music composed and performed by Tim Rogers of You Am I fame.
ANGELA’S KITCHEN
by Paul Capsis and Julian Meyrick (with associate writer Hilary Bell)
Directed by Julian Meyrick With Paul Capsis
Previews: 15-16 May Season: 18 May - 9 June
Paul Capsis’ evocative and beautifully staged piece of autobiographical theatre was the sell-out smash hit of 2010. Now, Griffin welcome Paul and Angela’s Kitchen back to the Stables before heading off on a national tour. If you missed it the first time or simply want to see it all again, this is your chance to join the hordes of people who fell in love with Angela and her family in 2010.
A HOAX
by Rick Viede
Directed by Lee Lewis With Shari Sebbens
Previews: 20-24 July Season: 27 July – 1 September
A Griffin Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company co-production
Inspired by the recent spate of fabricated “misery memoirs”, the 2011 Griffin Award Winning play A Hoax is a vicious satire on the politics of identity, modern celebrity and the peddling of abuse culture. With its wickedly irreverent humour, A Hoax will make you gasp with delight and despair in the same breath.
BETWEEN TWO WAVES
by Ian Meadows
Directed by Sam Strong With Maeve Dermody and Ian Meadows
Previews: 5- 9 October Season: 12 October – 17 November
An urgent and searching new play about the most pressing issue of our times, Between Two Waves asks an anxious, warming world: how do we find happiness in the face of an uncertain future? A politically charged relationship drama set against a climate change backdrop, Between Two Waves is the first play to be produced out of the Griffin Studio, by one of the most exciting new voices in the country.
GRIFFIN 2012 INDEPENDENT SEASON
THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM
by Enda Walsh
Directed by Kate Gaul
Previews: 7- 8 March
Season: 10 March – 31 March
A beautifully lyrical story about longing, broken hearts and the power of storytelling, The New Electric Ballroom won the Fringe First Award and Herald Angels Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
One of the most electric and imaginative voices of contemporary theatre, Enda Walsh creates a universe as vivid and crazy as it is moving and beautiful.
PORN.CAKE
by Vanessa Bates
Directed by Shannon Murphy
Previews: 20- 21 June
Season: 23 June - 14 July
This is the story of love done the contemporary way: conversations punctuated with text messaging, pleasures punctuated by food intolerances and happiness punctuated with rage. A deliciously funny exploration of love and sex in the modern world by one of the country’s most daring and witty playwrights.
THE SEA PROJECT
by Elise Hearst
Directed by Paige Rattray
Previews: 5-6 September
Season: 8 September – 29 September
An evocative, unique story of migration, memory and desire. When Bob finds Eva on the beach it's not long before she is in his kitchen and they are falling in love. They build a life together, but Eva is haunted by a past she can’t remember. Who is she and why does she scream in the night? The Sea Project reunites two of Australia’s hottest new theatre talents, writer Elise Hearst and director Paige Rattray, who first teamed up for 2011’s explosive Dirtyland.
RAPID WRITE
Directed by Tim Roseman
Previews: 21-22 November
Season: 24 November – 15 December
Rapid Writebrings a unique international scheme to Australia. A mere 8 weeks from rehearsal, Australian writers pitch ideas in response to prevailing issues and events. One idea is chosen and it’s all systems go from there until opening. This is edge of your seat drama created at light speed by an exchange between the finest local and international indie artists. We don’t know what it’s going to be yet; but we know it’ll be as relevant, topical and surprising as theatre is capable of being.
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Other 2012 Seasons
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