Darlinghurst Theatre Company has revealed its 2017 season at the Eternity Playhouse, featuring 6 plays that are rich in vision and broad in appeal.
Featuring the world premieres of three new Australian plays including Jeanette Cronin’s comedy and puzzle play I Love You Now, Julian Larnach’s prophetic psychological thriller In Real Life and Mary Rachel Brown’s outrageous comedy and Christmas blues antidote Silent Night. The season also includes the Australian premiere of the Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex, the Sydney premiere of Terry Johnson’s modern classic Hysteria and Diane Samuel’s powerful generational drama Kindertransport.
“2017 will be an incredible year at the Eternity Playhouse and I am so looking forward to presenting our season,” says Executive Producer, Glenn Terry. “We have taken a new approach for our 2017 show imagery and used illustration inspired by street art, which reflects our inner city neighbourhood, the passion of our productions and the work of our artists.”
2017 will be Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s fourth year at the Eternity Playhouse, a state of the art theatre that the company fitted out and developed with the City of Sydney. In 2016, the company implemented a gender parity policy and is proud to announce that its 2017 season achieves gender parity in the employment of all artists including directors, writers, designers and performers. It proudly pays its artists award wages, and presents over 200 professional theatre performances a year.
The Mystery of Love & Sex
10 February – 12 March 2017
From the writer of HBO‘s Boardwalk Empire and Showtime‘s Masters of Sex comes a tender and funny story about love in all its forms, and that blurry space between friendship, romance and erotic desire. Charlotte loves Jonny, but lately she is loving Claire. Jonny loves Charlotte, but lately he’s been having casual sex with men. Charlotte’s parents Lucinda and Howard try not to judge, but they just can’t help themselves.
Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex is also about families – the family we are born into and the family we create. It’s about our ability to keep secrets from family and even ourselves, and the challenges and rewards of finding your own path. Directed Anthony Skuse, performers include Deborah Galanos, Nicholas Papademetriou and Thuso Lekwape.
Hysteria
4 – 30 April 2017
Terry Johnson’s brilliant comedy and farce takes its inspiration from history, when in 1938 the surrealist painter Salvador Dali paid a visit to the Sigmund Freud. Freud had recently escaped Nazi Europe and settled in London. Hysteria imagines the fall-out when two of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and original minds collide.
Hysteria also imagines that Freud received another guest who rattles and disturbs the founder of psychoanalysis and holds him accountable to a terrible truth. Directed by Susanna Dowling, Hysteria includes performer Wendy Strehlow.
I Love You Now
9 June – 9 July 2017
Jeanette Cronin’s wonderful comedy and love puzzle takes a long hard look at intimacy. From when lovers first fall in love and tell each other everything to when they fall out of love and don’t say anything. Leo loved June, but now he loves Michelle. June is having an affair with Rob, Leo’s brother. On the side, Leo is also having an affair with Melissa, the nanny. Meanwhile, June is also seeing Helmut, her personal trainer.
I Love you Now asks the big ‘love’ questions. Does love run out? Or is love is only limited by our imaginations? A sexy romantic tragi-comedy about love, desire… plus tango! Directed by Kim Hardwick, performers include Jeanette Cronin and Huw Higginson.
Kindertransport
28 July – 27 August 2017
Just prior to the Second World War Britain took in over 10,000 Jewish refugee children from Europe. The rescue effort was known as Kindertransport. Separated from their families and fostered out to British homes, most of the children never saw their parents again.
Diane Samuel’s extraordinary play is about this forced immigration and its effect on generations. Based on real accounts and told from the female perspective, Kindertransport tells a powerful story of survival centred on Eva and told across time. From when Eva was child in Hamburg in 1938 to 40 years on, when she has a daughter of her own who wants to know the truth about Eva’s past. Directed by Sandra Eldridge, Kindertransport includes performer Annie Byron.
In Real Life
15 September – 15 October 2017
Julian Larnach’s In Real Life offers a psychological thriller and cautionary tale about our rapidly changing world where everything is a just a device click away. In the not too distant future, Theresa is the CEO of a global digital company and inventor of the Drum, the world’s most popular personal device.
One evening she argues with her daughter who walks out of their secluded holiday retreat and vanishes without a trace. Theresa seeks answers to her daughter’s disappearance, and seeks solace for her grief via social media and online. Desperate to reconnect, she attempts to use technology to bridge the gap between the digital world and real life. Directed by Luke Rogers.
Silent Night
10 November – 10 December 2017
Mary Rachel Brown’s hilarious take-no-prisoners comedy for anyone who feels a mix of terror and affection about spending Christmas with family. Normally Christmas is a time for giving, but for the Lickfold family it’s a time for winning! Every year for the past 12 years the Lickfolds have entered the ARCE Awards for the best Christmas decoration display in Australia.
The Lickfolds are over participators determined to win at any cost but their path to electric glory is thwarted when someone unexpected comes down the chimney. This unwanted Christmas guest wastes no time in exposing the darker secrets behind a winning display and the true reason for his coming. Directed by Glynn Nicholas, and featuring Richard Sydenham.
Subscriptions and single tickets for 2017 shows are now on sale. For more information, visit: www.darlinghursttheatre.com for details.
Image: Kindertransport, Silent Night and Hysteria – courtesy of Darlinghurst Theatre Company