Category Archives: Australian theatre

‘A very brave thing to do’: all-nude play about boomers v gen Z to premiere at Sydney’s Griffin theatre

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An influencer on the run crashes a community of naturalists, in one of five new Australian plays premiering at the theatre in 2025

Boomer naturists will face off with a gen Z influencer in an all-nude comedy at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company next year, one of five new Australian plays premiering in its 2025 season.

Naturism, by Sydney playwright Ang Collins, is a comedy about a gen Z eco-influencer (played by Camila Ponte Alvarez) on the run who crashes a remote, off-grid bush eco-paradise created by a group of nudist baby boomers. The entire cast will perform nude for most of the play’s duration.

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Helen Garner, Virginia Woolf and Max Porter headline Belvoir St theatre’s 2025 program

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‘Electrifying’ Judy Davis will star in adaptation of The Spare Room, with Colin Friels as King Lear later in the season

An adaptation of Helen Garner’s award-winning novel The Spare Room will debut at Sydney’s Belvoir St theatre in 2025, starring Judy Davis as a fictionalised version of the author in her first on stage role in almost 15 years.

The announcement caps a banner year for Garner’s work on stage, with an operatic adaptation of The Spare Room in development with the Melbourne company Monstrous Theatre, as well as a remount of the 2008 opera The Children’s Bach.

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Rocky Horror actor Christie Whelan Browne settles sexual harassment lawsuit

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Case resolved with Oldfield Entertainment for an undisclosed amount after Craig McLachlan allegations saga

Actor Christie Whelan Browne has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company behind a production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Whelan Browne alleged she was victimised by Oldfield Entertainment, previously known as GFO Entertainment, after making complaints she was sexually harassed by fellow actor Craig McLachlan.

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Melbourne Fringe drops the Butterfly Club over allegations of verbal abuse and threatening behaviour

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Exclusive: Fringe investigation finds complaints from two performers about Simone Pulga’s behaviour to be substantiated

Melbourne Fringe will not use the Butterfly Club as a festival venue this year, after complaints alleging verbally abusive, intimidating and threatening behaviour made against its owner by two artists were found to be substantiated in an investigation conducted by the festival.

Since the club opened in 1999, it has been renowned as a home for new and alternative performers, making it a popular Fringe venue. The club, where the likes of Tim Minchin, Sammy J and Eddie Perfect started out, estimates that it hosts about 1,200 performances each year.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray’s Kip Williams steps down as Sydney Theatre Company artistic director

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Williams, who directed the play, leaving company to prepare for its potential Broadway season following acclaimed West End run starring Sarah Snook

The Sydney Theatre Company artistic director, Kip Williams, who steered the theatre to new heights with the global success of his one-woman production the Picture of Dorian Gray, has announced he is stepping down after 13 years with the company.

Williams was the youngest artistic director of the STC when he was appointed at the age of 30 in 2016. He will finish his tenure at the end of 2024 after eight years, in anticipation that The Picture of Dorian Gray will head to Broadway next year. In its recent run in London’s West End, Succession star Sarah Snook played all 26 roles to huge acclaim. The role was first performed by Eryn Jean Norvill in multiple sell-out runs across Australia.

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Second Sydney Theatre Company board member resigns in wake of actors’ pro-Palestinian protest

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Third apology issued for cancellation of Wednesday’s performance of The Seagull as foundation member Alex Schuman’s departure is confirmed

The Sydney Theatre Company has issued a third public apology after the on-stage pro-Palestinian protest by several actors during opening night of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

It comes as a second board member resigned.

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Christie Whelan Browne: theatre company will seek to have actor’s discrimination claim dismissed

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Whelan Browne alleges she faced discrimination after complaining about Rocky Horror Show castmate Craig McLachlan

A theatrical company facing allegations it discriminated against an actor who made well-publicised sexual harassment complaints about another star will try to have the case dismissed.

Christie Whelan Browne has brought a lawsuit against Oldfield Entertainment alleging victimisation after she complained of alleged harassment by Craig McLachlan, her castmate in a 2014 production of the Rocky Horror Show.

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Anthony LaPaglia ‘scared and excited’ to make Australian stage debut in Death of a Salesman

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Golden Globe and Tony-winning actor will star as Willy Loman in a Melbourne production directed by Neil Armfield

It has been more than a decade since the Golden Globe-winning Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia appeared on stage – and almost quarter of a century since he triumphed on Broadway, winning a Tony award as Eddie Carbone in A View From the Bridge.

Next month the Los Angeles-based Without a Trace actor will return to Australia to begin rehearsals on another Arthur Miller classic: the 20th-century masterpiece Death of a Salesman, directed by Neil Armfield.

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