AustLit

'In a country house beside a lake, love triangles, intrigue and thwarted egos run amok. The glamorous, ageing thespian Irina Arkadina has arrived for a romantic getaway with her much younger lover, the novelist Boris. Irina’s son Constantine, a struggling playwright, is besotted with a beautiful ingénue from the next house over, Nina. But when a flirtation blossoms between Nina and Boris, jealousy, ambition and a lack of phone signal throw the whole party into various states of crisis.

'Director Imara Savage last beguiled STC audiences with her revelatory production Saint Joan in 2018. In The Seagull, Savage and a thrilling cast featuring Arka Das, Michael Denkha, Harry Greenwood, Markus Hamilton, Mabel Li, Sean O’Shea, Toby Schmitz, Megan Wilding and Brigid Zengeni, will take Upton’s wry and offbeat sense of humour to new heights in this ambitious investigation of the power of art and the complicated personalities that make it happen.'

Source: STC.

'In a remote town, Olga, Masha and Irina dream of excitement, freedom and romance, but it seems heartbreak is all they’re going to get.

'Young and full of ambition, Irina wants to have a real purpose – to work, to give back. Masha, stuck in what has become a loveless marriage, wants to feel the electric rush of passion once more. While Olga, the eldest, gives and gives until there is almost nothing left.

'Set across a span of several years, Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece reveals the hopes, the loves and the sacrifices of its three sisters and the many people who cross their paths. In a world falling apart at the seams, people will go on living, loving and laughing. The human heart beats strong even in a vacuum.

'Andrew Upton’s compelling new adaptation preserves the essential spirit of this beloved classic, and delves into the lives of these brilliant young women with a contemporary sensibility.' (Production summary)

'A Flea in Her Ear is world-renowned as the funniest and most famous of all the funny, famous French farces. It's beautiful to look at, perfectly formed in its comic timing, and completely bonkers.

'French writer Georges Feydeau - the inspiration for modern comedies from Fawlty Towers to Noises Off - penned this masterpiece in 1907. Andrew Upton's revival wraps all the lust, unconsummated infidelities and breathless chases of the original into a fresh whirlwind of saucy hilarity.

'We're in Paris, 1908. After years of married bliss, Madame Raymonde Chandebise suspects her husband is having an affair. In an effort to catch him in the act at the notoriously seedy Snatch Time hotel, she causes a lot more trouble than she bargained for.

'Spiralling into a high-octane storm of sexual intrigue, mistaken identities and bed-revolving mayhem, a cavalcade of characters get in on the act. Some want sex and revenge, several want to preserve their honour. All want to avoid being shot. Nobody gets any sleep. And you will laugh out loud.

' Award-winning director Simon Phillips ( Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ) is in his element orchestrating the antics with elegance and precision. Reuniting with his frequent collaborator, designer Gabriela Tylesova, these two giants of Australian theatre bring a visionary spectacle to Sydney Opera House this summer. '

'Anton Chekhov’s first play was a sprawling, unstructured epic but it marked out the style and themes he would return to in his later masterworks from The Seagull to The Cherry Orchard. It remains a mysterious, unpolished gem.

'The manuscript, left unpublished until almost two decades after Chekhov’s death, lacked a title. Over the years it has inspired various adaptations – Wild Honey, Fatherlessness, The Disinherited –but it is most commonly referred to as Platonov, the name of the man at its centre. And yet, the play has always contained another extraordinarily rich and complex character – that of Anna Petrovna.

'Taking on these roles are the fearsome talents of Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh. Irish director John Crowley, renowned for his work on the West End and Broadway, brings his lean and precise theatrical vision. And, as with his 2010 adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Andrew Upton lends his distinctive voice, brimming with vitality, to this tale of yearning, vodka and shattered dreams.' (Production summary)

'Born to privilege, bound for revolution.

'Following on from his adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Andrew Upton's new adaptation of Maxim Gorky's Children of the Sun takes a fresh, colloquial look at the human condition.

'In a rambling mansion in provincial Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, a sister, a brother, their partners and admirers pursue their intimate intrigues oblivious to bigger new realities brewing at their door. A family born to privilege but bound for dysfunction.

'Protasov might be the man of the house, but, even when he lifts his eyes from his chemistry set, he is blind to his wife's infidelities, his friend's advances and his sister's quiet despair. In something of a casting coup, three of our most treasured actresses - Justine Clarke (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Jacqueline McKenzie (Sex with Strangers) and Helen Thomson (Mrs Warren's Profession) - form a formidable trio around our hero, as outside the propulsive energy of revolution reaches a crescendo.

'Both a sparkling comedy and a thoughtful exploration of the larger issues of privilege, progress and being caught at the wrong end of history, Children of the Sun captures the atmosphere of upheaval of its era - with more than a fleeting resonance to our own troubled times.' (Production summary)

'Carol Lang joins Vic and Gail for Christmas Day. They are invited to their relatives for lunch and end up at the wrong house in the wrong swimming pool. They experience brings Gail and Carol together after many years of strained relations.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/reunion/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Alex and Sophie, two British tourists backpacking through Australia, encounter an American traveller, Taylor, who seems charming, if a little intense. But as they travel from Sydney to Bryon Bay and further into the Australian outback, heading for Katherine Gorge, Taylor's motives for befriending them appear more and more sinister.

'John was once the frontman in one of the world's biggest bands, Riflemind.

Now John and his wife Lynn are safe from the world in their walled country house. Money and anonymity, however, won't protect them from themselves or their past. Fame and its attendant luxuries are addictive.

Addictions almost ruined both their lives. Well away from that life they are now safe. Unhappy, silent, fragile, but safe.

Until the pressure of a comeback tour bears down upon John. And the band simply can not work without him. Crunch time. A weekend of music-making is planned at John and Lynn's estate. As soon as the band turns up - plus their associated spouses, lovers and hangers-on - it's a rock'n'roll circus.

Riflemind captures, with delicacy, precision and a beguiling black humour, a series of relationships languishing in the backwaters of co-dependent love, greed and need. Despite, or because of, their apparent affluence, social privilege, preposterous egos, septic past and rock-god lifestyle, each of them struggles to find redemption.

Over this weekend they will open old wounds, lose their way, play great music and, perhaps, stumble into a more certain future.'

Source: STC website, http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/
Sighted: 25/01/2007

'Andrew Upton has unravelled the mystery of Ibsen's masterpiece and constructed a psychological thriller of cinematic intensity and power. His superb adaption [sic] gives Australian readers a fresh and exciting insight into one of the great dramatic works of modern literature.'

Source: Libraries Australia. (Sighted 29/01/2008).