Griffin Theatre Company Season 2026

Griffin Theatre Company is has unveiled its 2026 Season, featuring five plays, fourteen actors and some of the best new works in Australia today.

In their final season outside of the SBW Stables Theatre, Griffin presents a line-up of intimate stories, including the revival of Steve J. Spears’ The Elocution of Benjamin

Franklin starring Simon Burke, the mainstage debut of Iolanthe’s SISTREN, Happy Feraren’s genre-melding debut play SAVIOR, Declan Greene & Zahra Newman’s reimagining of iconic Australian Gothic horror Wake in Fright, and a brand-new comedy Mum Club by Budawang/Yuin woman Jorjia Gillis.

Alongside the main season is Griffin’s artist development program Griffin Lookout. Griffin Lookout provides Sydney’s independent theatre makers with a season at Griffin as well as producing and artistic support from the Griffin team.

The 2026 Griffin Lookout season continues with two groundbreaking new works: Afterglow by Sheanna Parker Russon and Lillian M. Hearne, and Iacuna by emerging Chinese Australian playwright Eric Jiang.

Past Griffin Lookout shows include notable works such as SISTREN by Iolanthe, Birdsong of Tomorrow by Nathan Harrison, UFO by re:group, A is for Apple by Jessica Bellamy, Mother May We by Mel Ree and Jali by Oliver Twist.

“In our final season before we return to the Stables we’re returning to what makes Griffin...well, Griffin. Compelling new plays, Incredible actors, all so close you can feel the heat of the stage lights. This year we are zooming in on moments of heartbreak, catastrophe, joy. In 2026 that means Zahra Newman, Simon Burke, Miranda Tapsell alongside blazing next generation talent in plays that swing from the global scale of international aid to the intimate crisis of new motherhood.

“This is Griffin, up close and personal. Come squeeze in for our final year before we return home,“ said Griffin’s Artistic Director, Declan Greene.

The SBW Stables Theatre is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar redevelopment supported by the NSW Government, Commonwealth Government, City of Sydney and Private donors and foundations after closing its doors to the public in April 2024.

Griffin’s 2026 season will be presented out of their new temporary home at Belvoir St Theatre in Surry Hills.

 

GRIFFIN’S 2026 SEASON

 

Photographer: Daniel Boud

 

The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin: 21 February – 29 March

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

By: steve j. spears

Director: Declan Greene

With Simon Burke

Robert O’Brien is an elocution teacher whose career is going nowhere fast. Stuck in a dreary cycle of diaphragm exercises and She-Sells-Seashells, every evening he escapes into extravagant fantasies of seducing Mick Jagger.

Then, a new student arrives. Benjamin Franklin. A 12-year-old acting prodigy with a stutter, a pack-a-day smoking habit and some unsettling curiosities about his middle-aged voice teacher. With half of Toorak already suspicious of their flamboyant neighbour, a ticking time bomb is lit.

Directed by Artistic Director Declan Greene (Naturism, The Lewis Trilogy) and starring Simon Burke, this riotous, razor-edged tragicomedy is a harrowing portrait of persecution.

 

Image: Brett Boardman and Boris Rozboj

 

SISTREN: 9 April – 3 May

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

A Green Door Theatre Company production

By: Iolanthe

Director: Ian Michael

With Iolanthe and Janet Anderson

Isla and Violet are a ‘lethal combination’. Their self-righteous headmaster thinks that’s an insult.

They think it’s a cute name for a girl group.

Too-smart, too precocious and way too outspoken, it’s no surprise when these self-proclaimed soulmates are S E P A R A T E D until the end of the year. But the world outside their South London school is a divisive one for a cisgender Caribbean diva and her ‘Ethel Cain adjacent’ transgender bestie. As their cosmic connection is tested, one key question arises—will Isla and Violet be pulled apart, or will they reign supreme?

Iolanthe (seven methods of killing Kylie Jenner) shares the stage with her IRL bestie Janet Anderson (Orlando, Overflow) under the direction of Ian Michael (Stolen, Picnic at Hanging Rock)

 

Photographer: Brett Boardman

 

SAVIOR: 16 May – 14 June

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

By: Happy Feraren

Director: Kenneth Moraleda

With Mark Paguio, Chrissy Mae Valentine, Bernie Van Tiel

Saving lives. Sending aid. Swiping right. Just another day at SAVIOR International.

A typhoon hits the Philippines and local project officer Michelle lands her dream assignment. It’s her first time coordinating a global relief effort for a sleek American NGO. A chance to change lives, to be the changemaker she always dreamed of! All she has to do is smash her KPI’s and avoid her chaotic bestie Janna—who’s just set Michelle up with her first ever Tinder profile: “nerd girl seeks fact boi for hot data sesh”.

As the lines between charity and self-interest blur, Michelle is forced to choose between her ambition, her conscience and her country.

Inspired by her own time working for NGOs in the Philippines, playwright/comic Happy Feraren brings first-hand insight and fearless wit to this Utopia meets The White Lotus satire.

 

Photographer: Brett Boardman

 

Wake in Fright: 17 June – 5 July

Presented at Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

A Malthouse Theatre production

Adapted from the novel by Kenneth Cook

By: Declan Greene and Zahra Newman

Director: Declan Greene

With: Zahra Newman

Welcome to Bundanyabba—the best little town in the world!

You'll never want to leave. And even if you did... You can’t.

Well-heeled schoolteacher John Grant is en route to Sydney, when a layover in the mining town of

Bundanyabba turns into a three-week freefall. Stranded and starving, Grant is forced to rely on the locals for survival. But as the beer flows and the nights wear on, he finds himself stripped of money, identity and sanity.

In a solo performance, Zahra Newman delves into the twisted heart of Wake in Fright—Kenneth Cook’s cult Australian novel and, later, an iconic horror film. Directed by Declan Greene (Naturism, The Lewis Trilogy) with thrilling, bone-rattling score from friendships, this bold adaptation is a descent into a uniquely Australian kind of hell: full of booze, bravado and buried violence.

 

Photographer: Brett Boardman

 

Mum Club: 22 August – 20 September

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

By Jorjia Gillis

Director: Shari Sebbens

With Elaine Crombie, Miranda Tapsell

Welcome to Mum Club.

Rule One: Every mum is held with love and kindness, no matter who they are.

Rule Two: Drink cow’s milk and you’re OUT.

Sadie’s just moved to Sydney. She’s a young Yuin mum, completely fried from trying to settle a screaming baby in a rental the size of a change table.

What she needs is a support network. Instead, she stumbles into the Inner West Mum Club. There’s

Corporate Mum (took a Zoom call an hour after crowning), Antivax Mum (burns sage at sleepovers) and Well-Meaning Mum (acknowledges Country every time she enters a new postcode).They’re all Sadie’s got by way of friends. But as the pressure to “do motherhood right” cranks up to eleven,

Sadie starts to question what she’s willing to compromise in order to find community.

From the mind of Jorjia Gillis and director Shari Sebbens (Blaque Showgirls, Superheroes), Mum Club is a sharp takedown of modern parenting culture—and a love letter to the resilience of Blak motherhood.

 

GRIFFIN LOOKOUT

 

Photographer: Brett Boardman

 

Afterglow: 9 – 25 July

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

By Sheanna Parker Russon and Lillian M. Hearne

Director: Cassie Hamilton

Every year after the Barbershop Singing National Championships, the men gather for the traditional

“afterglow”. Whisky flows, dickie-bows are loosened and quartets sing booze-soaked harmonies into the small hours.

At the 2012 afterglow, Michael meets Tom. One is a barbershop purist with something to prove. The other is a first-timer with a messy suit, a bass voice and a quietly radical outlook: Why aren’t women allowed to sing at barbershop competitions too? Over six years, their heated debate turns tender, sweet and as complex as a chromatic four-part harmony.

Together, the two singers journey through their twenties and encounter some major awakenings. But barbershop has rules, both musical and social. And as Michael and Tom change, so might their place in the chorus.

From the minds of Sheanna Parker Russon (No Love Songs for Lady Basses) and Lillian M. Hearne

(Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), this musical rom-com will have you humming long after the lights go down.

 

Photographer: Brett Boardman

 

Iacuna: 30 July – 15 August

Presented at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre

By Eric Jiang

Director: Nicole Pingon

With Rachel Seeto

Claudia is jobless, cashless, and flailing—everything a good Chinese daughter shouldn’t be. Glued to her phone, scrolling and ignoring Centrelink notification emails, her mother’s frustration grows day by day and soon the two of them can barely be in the same room.

So, Claudia is delighted when a plum job opportunity falls right into her lap.

Location: The underworld. Employer: Meng Po, the Goddess of Oblivion. Job Description: Erasing memories from the living. Salary: $200 per gig (plus tips).

The hours are long and there’s no superannuation, but Claudia soon discovers an unexpected side-perk: secretly tampering with her mother’s memory. Just small edits, at first. A softened word here. A forgotten fight there. But the Goddess of Oblivion isn’t one for nuance—and when a mortal meddles with the sacred, the punishment can be severe.

Playwright Eric Jiang (Rhomboid, ORIGIN STORY) and director Nicole Pingon (Moon Rabbit Rising, werkaholics) join forces for an epic underworld dive into family, forgetting and the dire consequences of commodifying the divine.

Subscriptions for Griffin’s 2026 Season are available from griffintheatre.com.au.