Seymour Centre Program 2017

The Seymour Centre has unveiled the line up of productions making up the Reginald Season and the Great Ideas Performance Series at the venue in 2017.

Launching the seasons Artistic Director Tim Jones said “As a University Arts Centre, I am particularly proud of the high quality, ideas-driven work within our 2017 programs. The year has a big focus on ‘visions of the future’ as expressed by a wide range of artists exploring how our personal and public futures might be shaped by our current political and environmental circumstances

Kicking off the Great Ideas Performance Series is the Australian premiere of 2071 by Duncan Macmillan (1984) and Professor Chris Rapley, a work that deals with  climate change. The original production of 2071 premiered at the Royal Court and was named by Guardian critic Michael Billington as one of the best plays of 2014. 2071 will be directed by Seymour’s Artistic Director Tim Jones, and features digital projections designed by Media Artist Joe Crossley and an original score from Andree Greenwell. 26 May – 10 June.

Also at the Seymour Centre in 2017 will be Best Festival Ever: How to Manage a Disaster, the interactive table-top production that is part theatre, part performance lecture and part board game from Australian science-theatre ensemble, Boho Interactive. Limited to 32 audience members per performance. 31 May – 3 June.

Seymour’s 2017 Great Ideas Performance Series will then conclude with two presented in association with The Big Anxiety Festival of Interactive Arts. First is Grace Under Pressure,  a new verbatim play about protecting the mental health of young doctors. Co-commissioned by Seymour Centre and The Big Anxiety Festival of Interactive Arts, this world premiere production is created by David Williams and Paul Dwyer in association with the Sydney Arts and Health Collective. 15 – 28 October.

Following Grace Under Pressure, Give Me Your Love by UK theatre artists Ridiculusmus explores the potential use of MDMA (Ecstasy) as a legitimate way to treat PTSD in returned soldiers. 31 Oct – 4 Nov.

A special “add-on” film event begins Seymour’s Great Ideas season with a Sydney premiere screening of Julie’ Taymor’s recent Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1 April.

The 2017 Reginald Season will feature a diverse range of new works from small and independent companies including director Kate Gaul’s Sydney premiere of The Trouble with Harry by Lachlan Philpott; the Sydney story of the true case of Eugenia Falleni that scandalised 1920s Sydney, exploring ideas of gender, perversion and complicity. 16 Feb – 3 Mar.

This will be followed by Kim Hardwick’s new production of Nick Enright’s classic Australian play Blackrock for White Box Theatre. 9– 25 Mar.

Seymour Centre resident theatre company, Sport For Jove, in association with She Said Theatre, will then present the world premiere production of Fallen by Seanna van Helten, featuring a stellar all-female cast and directed by Penny Harpham.  5 – 22 Apr.

Sport for Jove will then present a new adaptation of They Shoot Horses Don’t They? based on the 1935 novel by by Horace McCoy, directed by Kim Hardwick.3 – 19 Aug.

Next up will be Catnip Productions’ Australian premiere of The Nether by Jennifer Haley, one of the most disturbing plays to emerge in recent years, which asks - are crimes committed on-line actually real crimes? 13 Sep – 7 Oct.

The 2017 Reginald season will conclude with Damien Ryan’s new production of Howard Barker’s neglected twentieth century masterpiece No End of Blame starring Yalin Ozucelik. 11 – 28 Oct.

Tickets for productions in The Seymour Centre 2017 program are on sale now via http://www.seymourcentre.com/  

Images (from top) 2071, Fallen and They Shoot Horses Don't They?