Melbourne Theatre Company Artistic Director & CEO Anne-Louise Sarks has revealed the Company’s ambitious 2027 season – eleven productions spanning bold new Australian work, sharp provocations on classics, compelling dramas and international hits.
“Season 2027 invites audiences to join us at the theatre for thrilling, moving and surprising storytelling. There’s a lot of fun in this season. It’s playful, it’s edgy and importantly, it asks us to look again at some of the stories we thought we knew,” says Anne-Louise Sarks, Artistic Director & CEO of Melbourne Theatre Company.
“Our new season highlights who we are: a company that backs Australian artists, commissions new Australian work and gives artists the support to continue making ambitious theatre from the ground up.”
“Six of our eleven productions have been supported through our NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program and five are Melbourne Theatre Company commissions. That investment in new work and artists is at the heart of everything we do.”
“And alongside that, we’re bringing major international works to Melbourne – giving audiences the chance to experience some of the most exciting theatre on the global stage,” said Sarks.
Melbourne Theatre Company’s Season 2027
Stereophonic
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 25 January – 13 March
Opening the year is Stereophonic, the most Tony Award-nominated play in Broadway history. Written by David Adjmi with an original score by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, this play-with-music follows a band on the verge of a breakthrough, chasing the perfect take across a decade-defining album. Directed by Daniel Evans (National Theatre Live: Our Generation), this co-production with Queensland Theatre Company and Belvoir St. Theatre features Geraldine Hakewill (Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries) and Alex Malone (The Royal Hotel, The Killings at Parish Station).
Richard III
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne: 13 February – 20 March
One of Australia’s leading actors, Kate Mulvany (Hunters, The Twelve), adapts and delivers a landmark solo performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III – playing every character herself. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is the youngest brother of King Edward. Cunningly charismatic, Richard is envious of his brother’s reign and resentful of the people’s enmity towards his own “crookback” condition. Following a series of murderous schemes, Richard manages to claim the throne – but, as he soon learns, heavy is the crown acquired through envy, slaughter and seduction. Directed by Ian Michael (Troy), this reimagining promises to be a theatrical feast – human, darkly funny and heartbreaking. What if history’s greatest monster got to tell his own story, alone?
A Delicate Balance
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 3 April – 15 May
Acclaimed actors of the stage and screen, Sigrid Thornton (Mother Play), Nadine Garner (The Doctor Blake Mysteries) and Erik Thomson (Packed to the Rafters), unite to star in Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy, A Delicate Balance. Inspired by real individuals from the playwright’s family, the play is animated by the idiosyncrasies and imperfections of its characters. This pitch-black tale of interpersonal fragility holds a mirror to the unspoken resentments and emotional evasiveness of today’s relationships. Award-winning director Iain Sinclair (West Gate) returns to direct the story of a household that unravels when friends arrive fleeing an unnamed terror, bringing with him the same design team as A View from the Bridge.
The War of the Worlds
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler: 1 – 22 May
Award-winning Wirlomin Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman (Terra Nullius) turns H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds inside out. In a bold new adaptation for the Company’s Education & Families program, co-created with and directed by Joe Paradise Lui (LEGENDS: of the Golden Arches) this production hands the history back to the people that lived it. Few know that Wells drew inspiration from The Black War, the catastrophic colonisation of the Palawa people of Lutruwita, when writing the original 1898 novel. This new telling brings warmth, humour and theatricality to the stage, while inviting audiences to see a familiar story from a new perspective. Following its premiere in the Lawler Theatre, The War of the Worlds will embark on a regional schools’ tour across Victoria.
Dirty Diamonds
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne: 22 May – 26 June
A co-production with Belvoir, in association with Yirra Yaakin and RISING, Dirty Diamonds is a Blak, badass crime caper with shades of Thelma & Louise – with a better ending. Written and directed by Abbie-lee Lewis and inspired by the real Argyle diamond mine heist of the 1980s, it follows two First Nations women on a wild road trip from Perth to the Kimberley in search of answers, starring Lila McGuire (Goolagong) and Ruby Henaway (The Sapphires).
Rebels
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 5 June – 10 July
Based on real events, Rebels imagines what was really said when Bob Hawke, Kerry Packer and Clive Lloyd met behind closed doors at Kirribilli House in 1985 – to decide the future of Australian cricket. It’s a moment that would become about more than sport; a moment where what a nation stands for is brought into question. Written by Julian Larnach and directed by Jessica Arthur, this NEXT STAGE-supported new Australian work is a fast-moving, gripping three-hander and importantly, a local Australian story. Starring Simon Gleeson as Bob Hawke (Never Have I Ever, Rupert), and Alpha Kargboas Clive Llyod (Who No Kno Go Kno).
John Proctor is the Villain
Playhouse – Arts Centre Melbourne: 5 July – 7 August
Artistic Director, Green Room Award-winning director Anne-Louise Sarks, leads the Australian premiere of John Proctor is the Villain, one of the most talked-about new plays in the world. Kimberly Belflower’s electrifying reframing of The Crucible hands the story to a group of Year 11 girls navigating schoolyard scandals and sex education are studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. But as unsettling rumours begin to ripple through their community, the hysteria of Salem witch trials starts to bleed into the hallways, the group chats and the complicated terrain of adolescence – causing their allegiances to fracture. John Proctor is the Villain is funny, fierce, and already headed for the big screen with a producing team that includes Tina Fey and Sadie Sink. Starring Masego Pitso (Is God Is).
The Authenticator
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 2 August – 4 September
Direct from its premiere at London’s National Theatre, The Authenticator by Winsome Pinnock – celebrated by The Guardian as “the godmother of Black British playwrights” – is a gripping, comedy-infused mystery-thriller about a family inheritance and the secrets buried inside it. Directed by Zindzi Okenyo (Destiny) and starring Mandy McElhinney (Paper Giants: Magazine Wars), Chika Ikogwe (Heartbreak High) and Brigid Zengeni (Sherlock, Motherland, Missing You).
Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 9 September – 16 October
Fresh from winning Best Production of a Musical at the Sydney Theatre Awards, Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical brings the story of the ‘horse that stopped a nation’ to life with a score inspired by Duke Ellington and Daft Punk. Directed by Sheridan Harbridge (co-writer, My Brilliant Career) and starring Joel Granger (Happiness), this joyous underdog tale had audiences clamouring for tickets at its sold-out Hayes Theatre premiere.
Every Second Wednesday
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne: 9 October – 13 November
Highly regarded writer Andrew Bovell (Lantana, The Secret River) returns with Every Second Wednesday, directed by Sarah Goodes (Julia). A rare and deeply human portrait of the people usually left out from stories of addiction – the parents, partners and siblings who keep showing up – starring Ian Bliss (The Black Woman of Gippsland), Diana Glenn (The Slap), Danielle Cormack (Wentworth, The Twelve) and Debra Lawrance (Home and Away, Please Like Me).
Clarice
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner: 2 November – 18 December
Closing the season, Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters, Muriel’s Wedding) returns to Melbourne Theatre Company for the first time in twenty years to star in the world premiere of Clarice. Griffiths will play one of Australia’s greatest early painters – modernist painter Clarice Beckett – all but forgotten after her death, until one woman refused to let her disappear from history. This visually rich production invites audiences to see the world – and Melbourne – through Beckett’s eyes. It’s a unique artistic collaboration between acting and producing icon Rachel Griffiths, AACTA Award-winning writer Trudy Hellier and acclaimed director Simon Phillips. Also starring Katherine Tonkin (A Streetcar Named Desire), Darcy Kent (West Gate) and Richard Piper (Twelfth Night, Savage River).
For more information about Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2027 season, visit: www.mtc.com.au for details.
Images: Geraldine Hakewill and Alex Malone star in Stereophonic – photo by Jo Duck | Kate Mulvany stars in Richard III – photo by Jo Duck | Nadine Garner, Erik Thomson and Sigrid Thornton star in A Delicate Balance – photo by Jo Duck | The War of The Worlds – image by Charlotte Allingham | Ruby Henaway and Lila McGuire star in Dirty Diamonds – photo by Jo Duck | Rebels – image by Timba Smits | Masego Pitso stars in John Proctor is the Villain – photo by Jo Duck | Brigid Zengeni, Chika Ikogwe and Mandy McElhinney star in The Authenticator – photo by Jo Duck | Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical – photo by Vien Tran (Coco Production) | Every Second Wednesday – photo By Jo Duck | Rachel Griffiths stars in Clarice – photo by Jo Duck