Belvoir has announced the productions that will make up its next season. 2024 at Belvoir will see ten plays with something for everyone – from best-selling book adaptations, returns of incredible work, a 25A show being brought to the mainstage for the first time, a remount of Counting and Cracking, and so much more.
“Our season this year is about honing in on what’s best about theatre – feats of artistic brilliance, a widening view of the world, the play of seriousness and joyful discovery, its unique ability to connect people… The shows take us all over the world – ten plays with stories from 18 different countries.” said Belvoir Artistic Director, Eamon Flack.
BELVOIR’S 2024 SEASON:
TIDDAS
12 – 28 January
A La Boite Theatre Company, Queensland Performing Arts Centre & Brisbane Festival production co-presented with Sydney Festival Five women, best friends for decades, meet once a month to talk about books, lovers, and the jagged bits of life in between.
Dissecting each other’s lives seems the most natural thing in the world and honesty, no matter how brutal, is something they treasure. Best friends tell each other everything, don’t they? But each woman carries a complex secret and one weekend, without warning, everything comes unstuck.
Anita Heiss’s own adaptation of her much-loved novel is part of Sydney Festival’s Blak Out. Based on the book and developed for stage by Anita Heiss. Directed by Nadine McDonald-Dowd.
TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
1 February – 3 March
A Queensland Theatre production Presented in association with Trish Wadley Productions Cheryl Strayed is many things; mother, daughter, writer, ex-heroin user and, to make ends meet, an online advice columnist called Sugar. In the chaos of home, she receives emails from strangers needing help navigating the contradictions of life.
Sugar replies with candour, offering her own tough, sweet brand of unadulterated advice which offers healing – and maybe even a few little revolutions. What would you tell someone who is unsure about role-playing as a sexy Santa? Or wants their parents to stop putting each other down? Or the father who feels as dead as his lost son?
Academy Award-nominee Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) adapted Strayed’s bestseller into a play for New York’s great Public Theatre – the result is as revealing and life-affirming as the real stories it tells. Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed. Co-Conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos. Adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos. Directed by Lee Lewis with Stephen Geronimos, Mandy McElhinney and Nic Prior.
HOLDING THE MAN
9 March – 14 April
At a Jesuit boys’ school, in 1970s Australia, Tim’s eye falls on the footy captain, John. To their mutual incredulity, they fall in love. A love that lasts as they – and the society around them – change, mature. When they both test positive to something called HIV, dreams, liberations, boundless possibilities, vanish into the ether. But Tim and John have each other, and they’ll need to hold on tight for what’s to come.
Deeply felt, frank and moving Tim Conigrave’s memoir of living and dying changed Australia. Tommy Murphy’s 2006 adaptation became an instant hit, and brought a new audience to this heartfelt and laugh-out-loud-in-the-sadness story of queer identity and the quirks of love.
Based on the book by Timothy Conigrave. Adapted for the stage by Tommy Murphy. Directed by Eamon Flack and featuring a cast of 6 including Danny Ball, Tom Conroy and Guy Simon.
LOSE TO WIN
25 April – 19 May
“In this country, you think it’s your right to have three meals a day. Me, where I came from? I think it’s a miracle.” From South Sudan to Egypt to Belvoir St, this is the extraordinary journey of Mandela Mathia.
Fleeing his war-torn home as a child, Mandela spent many years journeying, searching, and eventually finding his way to our stage. This is a joyful, poignant solo show, straight from the man who lived it.
A celebration of the South Sudanese community, of resilience, and the power of imagination, Mandela Mathia’s Lose to Win is an astonishing modern Australian story. Directed by Jess Arthur with Mandela Mathia.
NAYIKA (A DANCING GIRL)
30 April – 19 May
Here and now, in the space between cultures. A chance remark takes a woman back to her teenage years, living by the ocean in Chennai, perfecting her movements for her debut performance, the Arangetram. She met a young man, and the universe of gods, dance and love takes an unexpected turn…
A solo performance combining storytelling, live music, and Bharathnatyam dance, made for the unique talents of Helpmann Award-winning Vaishnavi Suryaprakash (Counting and Cracking, Galileo, Sami in Paradise), Nayika is a story of survival. It is dance as resistance. It is a new type of heroine: One we have yet to imagine. Co-created and co-directed by Nithya Nagarajan and Liv Satchell with Vaishnavi Suryaprakash.
NEVER CLOSER
25 May – 16 June
In association with Essential Workers. Northern Ireland, 1987. Deirdre is trapped – between arguments, nations, and the lives she almost lived.
But when her old schoolfriends gather in her kitchen yet again for Christmas Eve, their growing differences push to the surface a powder-keg, waiting the tiniest spark. And then one of them turns up with her surprise fiancé. He’s English.
Set against the backdrop of The Troubles, this brilliant debut play by Grace Chapple is an unforgettable drama of home, friends, youth, the decision to leave or stay, and the possibility of forgiveness. Directed by Hannah Goodwin with Emma Diaz, Raj Labade, Mabel Li, Philip Lynch, Ariadne Sgouros and Adam Sollis
COUNTING AND CRACKING
Carriageworks: 28 June – 21 July
Co-produced with Co-Curious. On the banks of a suburban Sydney river, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha’s mother – their final connection to the past, to Sri Lanka and its struggles. Now they are free to embrace their lives in Australia.
But a phone call from Colombo brings the past spinning back to life, and we’re plunged into an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children.
Featuring a cast of 19 performers from six countries, Counting and Cracking follows the journey of a Sri Lankan-Australian family over four generations, from 1956 to 2004.
Winner of 14 major awards including Helpmann Awards for Best Production and Best Direction, Counting and Cracking returns triumphant from the Commonwealth Games and Edinburgh Festivals, for a strictly limited season at Carriageworks.
Writer & Associate Director S. Shakthidharan. Director & Associate Writer Eamon Flack. With Prakash Balawadi, Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Nadie Kammallaweera, Ahi Karunaharan, Gandhi MacIntyre, Shiv Palekar, Nipuni Sharada, Vaishnavi Suryaprakash, Rajan Velu, Sukania Venugopal Musicians Kranthi Kiran Mudigonda, Janakan Raj, Venkhatesh Sritharan
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
17 August – 22 September
Christopher, fifteen years old, has an extraordinary brain. He’s exceptional at maths and observes things nobody else sees. Everyday life is a little trickier – he has never ventured alone beyond the end of the street, he detests being touched, and he’s wary of strangers.
Now he’s in the front yard, it’s seven minutes to midnight, and Mrs Shears’ dog is lying dead at his feet, a garden fork in the neck. He’s going to be the chief suspect, isn’t he? So who can solve the mystery? Nobody but Christopher and his big brain.
Based on the book by Mark Haddon. Adapted for the stage by Simon Stephens. Directed by Hannah Goodwin with Daniel R. Nixon, Brigid Zengeni, Brandon McClelland and Nick Brown
WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN
28 September – 3 November
Co-produced with Michelle Guthrie Presents, Presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. “Well-behaved women seldom make history” – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. How would Cleopatra, Mary Magdalene, Virginia Woolf, Frida Kahlo, Billie Jean King, Cathy Freeman and Malala Yousafzai sing the song of their lives?
Well-Behaved Women is a musical feast by Carmel Dean where these legends (and a few we’re keeping up our sleeves) are brought to life and reimagined through powerful and often hilarious songs, describing and celebrating their breakthrough moments in history. Well-behaved? As if. Song Cycle by Carmel Dean. Directed by Blazey Best with Stefanie Caccamo, Zahra Newman, Elenoa Rokobaro and Ursula Yovich
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
9 November – 15 December
Pawhuska, Oklahoma, 2007. Charismatic poet-patriarch Beverly Weston has gone – where, nobody knows. His wife Violet careers downhill into opiate addiction, and the three daughters dutifully return to their childhood home, spouses, children and unfinished business trailing behind.
The family’s (almost) together – for the first time in years. Of course, old wounds have to be dressed, and old scores have to be settled. But there are even deeper secrets, sitting right there at the table. And what erupts is as uproarious as it is scarifying.
This American tragicomedy by Tracy Letts explores the pain and joy passed from generation to generation, and the vicious parts of ourselves that we try to hide. Directed by Eamon Flack with Bert LaBonté, Pamela Rabe and Helen Thomson.
Subscriptions for Belvoir’s 2024 season are now on sale. For more information, visit: www.belvoir.com.au for details.
Image: Artistic Director Eamon Flack – courtesy of Belvoir