Griffin 09 Season

With a 30th anniversary around the corner and buoyed by a major increase in federal funding, Griffin Theatre Company is looking to celebrate both the past and the present in 2009.

One of Australia’s leading new-writing theatres has announced a season of five full productions from Patricia Cornelius, Ross Mueller, Steve Rodgers, Sue Smith and Melbourne’s Ranters Theatre, with five further transfers and a short-play cycle from its newest resident playwrights Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Jonathan Ari Lander and Catherine Ryan.

At the launch of his third season at the SBW Stables Theatre on 12 November, Artistic Director Nick Marchand also announced, for the first time, coproductions with three different state theatre companies – the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Tasmanian Theatre Company.

Marchand said: “I had two major ambitions when I joined Griffin. The first was to draw on the most exciting creative talents from around Australia for our productions. The second was to ensure that our work was seen nationally as well. These coproductions are a wonderful step to fulfilling these ambitions.”

2009 will also see a pioneering move by the company, with a 7pm start time for all evening performances at the SBW Stables Theatre – designed to alleviate the pressure of late nights in a working week. It is a move that Marchand expects Sydneysiders to welcome.

Embracing summer, the year begins with Holiday, by Ranters Theatre – a poolside sojourn with performers Paul Lum and Patrick Moffatt. The winner of five Green Room Awards for theatre when first presented in Melbourne, this production from Adriano and Raimondo Cortese is an extraordinary blend of performance, video installation, humour and baroque song.

Next, recognising Ross Mueller’s fast-paced and ingeniously constructed comedy Concussion was best suited to the cinemascopic width of the Wharf 2 Theatre, Griffin and Sydney Theatre Company have teamed up to present director Brett Adam’s production about a man who cannot remember what part he plays in the world around him.

The Call, by Patricia Cornelius, is the third production in Griffin’s season and an insightful, engaging and penetrating drama about a young man looking to escape his suburban surrounds and find meaning in his life. It will be directed by Lee Lewis, in her new role as Griffin’s Associate Director.

An isolated shack in Tasmania is the setting for Steve Rodgers’ Savage River – where a father and son’s relationship is put to the test by the arrival of a mysterious female looking for comfort and companionship. A warm and appealing story from the playwright behind Ray’s Tempest, it is directed by Peter Evans (The Great) in a co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company and Tasmanian Theatre Company.

In 2007, Griffin sent Sue Smith (the acclaimed writer behind Bastard Boys) to take a first-hand look at Western Australia’s mining boom. This trip was the beginning of Strange Attractor, a gripping, character-driven drama set against the red, hostile landscape of the Pilbara. It will be directed by Nick Marchand.

Finally, Griffin’s recent tradition of introducing its resident playwrights with a series of short plays continues in 2009, as Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Jonathan Ari Lander and Catherine Ryan make a date (or three) with destiny, through The Fates, each presented for one night only.

“Marking Griffin’s 30th anniversary was never going to be easy,” Marchand said. “Wrestling with the notion of this incredible milestone, we kept coming back to the same question – how exactly do you pay tribute to the many extraordinary playwrights, theatre artists and founding members who have contributed so much to make Griffin what it is today? In the end, the answer was simple. You pay tribute by doing what Griffin has always done best – let simple acts of passion, talent and opportunity speak for themselves.”

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