Belvoir announces 2012 season.

At a special launch party last Friday, 9 September, Belvoir announced it’s exciting 2012 season. Known for making unpredictable choices in programming, the company have raised some eyebrows over the last few years under the artistic directorship of Ralph Myers.

Colin FrielsAt a special launch party last Friday, 9 September, Belvoir announced it’s exciting 2012 season. Known for making unpredictable choices in programming, the company have raised some eyebrows over the last few years under the artistic directorship of Ralph Myers.
Five sold out shows and a string of Helpmann Awards later including The Wild Duck and The Diary of a Madman, it is safe to say that Myers has been embraced as a much needed change in the company. 
“I’m enormously pleased that audiences have responded to enthusiastically to the 2011 season”, said Myers. “So in 2012 we have kept the recipe intact: a mis of exciting plays by local playwrights and classic plays re-imagined by the best and most original directors we could find”. 
Belvoir’s 2012 Season features 10 new Australian works, and Ralph Myers will direct his first play since his appointment as Artistic Director of the company in 2011. The season kicks off in January with three shows presented in association with Sydney Festival: Buried City, co-produced with Urban Theatre Projects, in the Upstairs Theatre, I’m Your Man, an inventive production from Roslyn Oades in the Downstairs Theatre, and Simon Stone’s ground-breaking production for The Hayloft Project, Thyestes, at CarriageWorks, which thrilled and shocked audiences in its sold-out season at Malthouse Melbourne in 2010. Following the great success of The Wild Duck and Neighbourhood Watch, this year,  Simon Stone will also adapt and direct Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude with Emily Barclay and Mitchell Butel. He will then direct Arthur Miller’s masterpiece Death of a Salesman with Colin Friels (pictured) and Genevive Lemon as the Lowmans. Benedict Andrews (The Seagull, Measure for Measure, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) returns to Belvoir direct his own play Every Breath starring Eloise Mignon and Dylan Young. Every Breath is just one of 10 new Australian plays in the 2012 Season, including Rita Kalnejais’ devastatingly dark comedy Babyteeth, directed by Eamon Flack (The End) and Beautiful One Day, an investigative piece about Palm Island devised by Belvoir, Ilbijerri Theatre Company and version 1.0. After the sell-out success of Human Interest Story, Lucy Guerin returns with Conversation Piece the culmination of a unique collaboration between Lucy Guerin Inc and Belvoir. Joining I’m Your Man in our Downstairs Theatre are four more new Australian plays. Old Man by Matthew Whittet, directed by Anthea Williams, Food by Steve Rogers, who will co-direct with Kate Champion from Force Majeure, a new version of Medea adapted by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks, and Eamon Flack and Leah Purcell will adapt Ruby Langford Ginibi’s iconic Don’t Take Your Love to Town for the stage. This is a season of new adventures, classics rediscovered and reinvented, and a few unexpected surprises along the way. So bring on 2012, and let’s let Belvoir tell us a story…  

Upstairs:

 BURIED CITY6 January – 5 February BABYTEETH11 February – 18 March
EVERY BREATH24 March – 29 April
STRANGE INTERLUDE5 May – 17 June

DEATH OF A SALESMAN23 June – 12 August

CONVERSATION PIECE25 August – 23 Septemnber
PRIVATE LIVES29 September – 11 November
BEAUTIFUL ONE DAY17 November – 23 December

Downstairs:

I’M YOUR MAN12 January – 5 February

FOOD26 April – 20 May

OLD MAN7 June – 1 July

MEDEA11 October – 25 November

DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN29 November – 23 December 

CarriageWorks

THYESTES15 January – 19 February

For more information visit:www.belvoir.com.au  Photo of Colin Friels by: Michael Corridore. 

Erin James

Erin James is AussieTheatre.com's former Editor in Chief and a performer on both stage and screen. Credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The King and I (Opera Australia), Love Never Dies and Cats (Really Useful Group), Blood Brothers (Enda Markey Presents), A Place To Call Home (Foxtel/Channel 7) and the feature film The Little Death (written and directed by Josh Lawson).

Erin James

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