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Best Independent Production
Subcategory of Sydney Theatre Awards
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Symphonie Fantastique 2021 23686458 2021 drama

'Symphonie Fantastique is a romantic epic, a monolithic work, a dark and perfumed symphony that revels in fascination, obsession, the dizzying highs and self-destructive lows of a pained artist and their drug induced hallucinations. Contemporised into a fifty-minute live work for the stage, Little Eggs will take this French Symphony from the 1800s and – through live music and movement – present a queer theatre work exploring party-culture, psychedelia, and violence. Composed and devised by the company.'

Source: Little Eggs Collective.

Year: 2016

winner Antigone Damien Ryan , 2017 single work drama
— Appears in: Antigone & Cyrano de Bergerac : Two Adaptions for Sport for Jove 2017;

'HOW DO THE UNWRITTEN LAWS OF PERSONAL CONSCIENCE SURVIVE WHEN SET AGAINST THE LAWS OF A SOCIETY AND A NATION?

'Antigone is a child of war, like too many in our world. She asked a simple question thousands of years ago that remains too difficult for us to answer even to this day, as so many recent events have demonstrated. What do we do with the body of a terrorist, a murderer, who has brought destruction, death and horror to our community when that terrorist is our brother. Our own flesh and blood?

'Like Hamlet, Joan of Arc, Galileo and Sir Thomas More, Antigone inspires us with her courage, fortitude and impenetrable strength of conscience. But her excess of feeling and fundamentalist zeal are hard to reconcile in a world crying out for unity, order and the rule of law in a time of chaos. Her uncle, Creon, selflessly places his state above the welfare of his family, pursuing a principle with the sort of consistency of will that we cry out for in politicians who so often stand for nothing. Where is justice between these extremes? Antigone stands against the monolith and brings her society to a reckoning it sorely needs.' (Production summary)

Damien Ryan and Terry Karabelas

Year: 2013

winner Cyrano de Bergerac Damien Ryan , 2017 single work drama
— Appears in: Antigone & Cyrano de Bergerac : Two Adaptions for Sport for Jove 2017;

'SFJ’s winter season brings an exciting venture for the many thousands who heard or read about, but haven’t yet seen our acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac, winner of the 2013 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. One of the world’s most original and finely crafted romantic comedies; the tale of the beautiful Roxane and the man who would love her, but for his outrageous nose – the play that brought the word ‘panache’ into the English language! Cyrano is a complete theatrical masterpiece.
 

'We are thrilled to announce that off the back of the huge success of Antigone and Of Mice of Men, Canberra Theatre Centre and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre have bought Cyrano for their 2017 seasons and we will bring this exceptional show back for a 2 week run on the big York Theatre stage at the Seymour Centre in June before going on the road. Damien Ryan’s new adaptation of the play won enormous acclaim in 2013 and we are thrilled to bring it to new Australian audiences.
 

CYRANO:
You see it, but you’ll never have this plume,
It soars above the battle’s mud and ash,
It stays with me, one thing…
ROXANE: (kissing him)
            …this!
CYRANO:
                MY PANACHE!

'Cyrano’s ideas and concerns are simply and profoundly human – what does individualism mean and how do we remain faithful to what we believe in? What is love and how do we get past its clichés and false ideals? How does self-esteem define us all our lives? What is beauty? What drives male aggression? What is courage? And for Rostand, it was a passionate condemnation and plea for a France that he felt was losing its soul, its romance and its creativity to return to a more enlightened, brave and individual sense of its identity – its panache.' (Production summary)

Year: 2010

winner The Fence Alicia Talbot , 2010 single work drama '"The Fence" is an explosive story of love, belonging and dispossession. The performance takes place in a purpose-built family home in western Sydney. The story is of the resilience and wisdom of five middle-aged Australians, four of whom grew up in care as part of the Stolen Generations and Forgotten Australians.' Source: www.sydneyfestival.org.au (Sighted 08/01/2010). For the 2010 Urban Theatre Projects production.

Year: 2009

winner The Only Child Simon Stone , Thomas Henning , 2009 single work drama

'Since the accident that injured their child, Alfred and Rita's marriage has degenerated into a mess of recriminations, sexual frustration and misdirected fury. Then one day their son goes missing. What follows is this young couple's sometimes shocking, sometimes hilarious struggle to stay together despite the odds.'

Source: The Hayloft Project website, http://www.hayloftproject.com/
Sighted: 04/01/2010

Nominated for the 2009 Hayloft Project in association with B Sharp production.
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