MAJOR THEATRE COMPANIES ANNOUNCE THEIR 2025 SEASONS

It is the time of year when mainstream theatre companies announce their 2025 seasons. Below are the announcements made so far. Where will you put your subscription dollars?!

SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY

Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Kim Williams said, “It is with immense pride that I share this final season of theatre with you. Australian stories have always been at the centre of my programming at STC, and I’m thrilled that of the twelve shows in the 2025 Season, eight of them are by Australian writers.

“Of these, two new STC commissions that I’m particularly proud to be announcing are STC Patrick White Fellow Joanna Murray-Smith’s return to the engrossing world of Patricia Highsmith with a brand-new adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley and, following her sublime adaptations of Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South and Playing Beatie Bow, Kate Mulvany will bring to life another beloved Australian classic, The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland.

“From brand new Australian writing and the best contemporary international plays, to thrilling reinterpretations of classics and the return of some of our most-loved productions of recent years, this is a season for lovers of theatre.

“I am so thankful for the opportunity to program and present eight seasons of theatre in my time as Artistic Director. This is by no means the end of my connection with this Company that I love so much, but for now, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for this special time we have shared in the theatre together.” 

STC 2025 Season highlights:

• Following the triumphs of Julia and Switzerland, STC Patrick White Fellow Joanna Murray-Smith reunites with former STC Resident Director Sarah Goodes to return to the engrossing world of Patricia Highsmith with an insightful adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Will McDonald (Heartbreak High)

• After her sublime adaptations of Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South and Playing Beatie Bow, Kate Mulvany will bring to life another beloved Australian classic, The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland

• STC Resident Director Ian Michael will delve into the mystery and majesty of Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock starring Olivia De Jonge and Kirsty Marillier

• For the first time in twenty years, the Australian stage’s national treasure Nancye Hayes will return to STC in Amy Herzog’s heartwarming and poignant, 4000 Miles directed by STC Resident Director Kenneth Moraleda

• Dean Bryant will direct Australia’s beloved star of the screen, Rebecca Gibney, making her STC debut in Circle Mirror Transformation by Pulitzer Prize-winner, Annie Baker

• After a sold-out premiere season, Melbourne Theatre Company’s captivating musical Bloom comes to Sydney, with book and lyrics by Working Dog’s Tom Gleisner, music by Katie Weston and direction from STC favourite Dean Bryant

• Congratulations, Get Rich! by Merlynn Tong, a three-way co-production with Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre and Singapore Repertory Theatre, directed by former STC Resident Artist Courtney Stewart, is an absorbing story about mothers and daughters set in a karaoke bar

• The great Kat Stewart makes her STC debut alongside her husband David Whiteley in the hugely acclaimed Red Stitch production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Sarah Goodes

• A groundbreaking collaboration between sublime lighting designer Nick Schlieper (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula) and legendary director and actor Pamela Rabe will see Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days receive a uniquely creative reinvigoration

• Continuing the much-valued relationship with Griffin Theatre Company, STC will present the exquisite and profound Whitefella Yella Tree by Palawa writer Dylan Van Den Berg, co-directed by Griffin’s Artistic Director Declan Greene and Wiradjuri and Worimi theatremaker, Amy Sole

• Two of STC’s most successful productions in recent years return for encore seasons: Verity Laughton’s adaptation of Pip Williams’ best-selling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words; and the one and only Heather Mitchell is back again due to popular demand in her now legendary performance in Suzie Miller’s RBG: Of Many, One, directed by Priscilla Jackman

For bookings –      www.sydneytheatre.com.au

BELVOIR STREET THEATRE

Belvoir is thrilled to announce its 2025 Season, presenting nine plays with somethingfor everyone including new Australian work, multi-layered and joyful Indigenous stories, some incredible adaptations, a Shakespeare and some classics done the Belvoir way.

“Belvoir is a great big ongoing unfinished story made up of all the stories we tell, have ever told, and are yet to tell. Every new show adds to this gargantuan decades-long group-improvisation. It is a tale told by thousands. An epic hundreds of episodes long. Full of heroism and feats of daring. Ever-changing. Full of unexpectedness and happy accident. Belonging to everyone and no one. Turning good capitalist dollars into vanishing acts of theatricality. A river of life. A celebration. We’d love you to join us – again or for the first time
– for another year of keeping the whole shebang going,” said Eamon Flack, Artistic Director.

BELVOIR’S 2025 SEASON

JACKY
16th January to 2nd February

A Melbourne Theatre Company production, Co-presented with Sydney Festival
Jacky’s a smart, enterprising young blackfella who has made a life for himself in Melbourne. He’s got the hang of the 21st century. Negotiating the gig economy? Slipping from office internships to cultural performances?
No probs. Sex work? Pays the bills. But when Jacky’s unemployable little brother Keith rolls into town, Jacky’s various lives in the white world threaten to come undone.

Wink-of-the-eye smart and utterly of the here-and-now, this award-winning play of private life, work life, and that thing called ‘culture’ comes to Belvoir after an acclaimed premiere season in Melbourne.
By Declan Furber Gillick
Directed by Mark Wilson
With Guy Simon, Greg Stone

SONG OF FIRST DESIRE
13th February to 23rd March

Camelia is losing her grip, lost between the past and the present as she passes her days in the garden of herMadrid home. Her children employ Alejandro, a Colombian migrant, to look after her. But this house isn’t what it seems, keeping the terrible secrets of history in its stones.

From the inimitable Andrew Bovell (When the Rain Stops Falling, Things I Know to Be True) comes a superb new play of passion, history and politics, intimate in its detail and epic in its storytelling. Written for an acclaimed theatre collective in Madrid, where it premiered, in 2023, we’ve invited Jorge Muriel and Borja
Maestre from that original cast to join the great Kerry Fox and Sarah Pierse for the English premiere.

By Andrew Bovell
Directed by Eamon Flack
With Kerry Fox, Borja Maestre, Jorge Muriel, Sarah Peirse

BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY
5th to 27th April

Redfern 1966.

Cheryl, Lulu and Queenie are young and life is glorious, full of hilarity and joy, even if jobs are precarious, the police harass them, and racism seeps into everything. But as they prepare for the biggest glam event of the year, the Deb Ball, their lives, Redfern, the country are all about to change.

A sharp and celebratory new play from Gumbaynggirr/Wiradjuri woman Dalara Williams, that pays respect to a generation that led the way, and to black women who won’t take a backward step.

By Dalara Williams
Directed by Ian Michael
With Bryn Chapman-Parish, Nic English, Stephanie Somerville, Megan Wilding, Dalara Williams

THE WRONG GODS
3rd May to 1st June
Co-produced with Melbourne Theatre Company

In a valley in India, paintings on a cave wall bear testimony to the presence of people – and their gods – for fifty thousand years. Close by, Nirmala farms the soil as her ancestors did, but her daughter Isha wants something
more – an education, opportunity.

A gripping new play from S. Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking, The Jungle and the Sea) co-directed by Hannah Goodwin (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Never Closer),

The Wrong Gods melds mother-and-daughter struggle with the economics of progress, asking, what are we worshipping? And what price will we pay?

By S. Shakthidharan
Directed by Hannah Goodwin & S. Shakthidharan
With Nadie Kammallaweera, Radhika Mudaliyar, Vaishnavi Suryaprakash

THE SPARE ROOM
7th June to 13th July
In association with Byzant

When Helen’s old friend, Nicola, comes to town for treatment, it only makes sense she should stay in the spare room. Nicola has put her faith in a shady alternative cancer clinic, and Helen is determined to be her brilliant friend and carer no matter what. But as the sleepless nights rack up, a short stay in the spare room becomes a loving, maddening battle for life.

Based on the Novel by Helen Garner
Directed by Eamon Flack
With Judy Davis, Elizabeth Alexander

GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS
26th July to 24th August
Co-produced with Andrew Henry Presents

Two young boys fall back on their imaginations as they grapple with their mother’s sudden death. In the sadness, like a gothic Mary Poppins, comes ‘Crow’– trickster, babysitter, provocateur and healer. Did this odd bird come to a grieving family because they needed him? Or is he something they made?

Max Porter’s exquisite verse novel has been a literary sensation, garnering an ardent tribe of devotees. Now, in the expert hands of Simon Phillips – at Belvoir for the first time in 25 years – comes a fresh stage version full of theatricality and insight.

Based on the Novel by Max Porter
Adapted by Simon Phillips, Nick Schlieper & Toby Schmitz
Directed by Simon Phillips
With Toby Schmitz

ORLANDO
30th August – 21st September

Virginia Woolf’s most beloved and brilliant novel takes to the stage in a joyous new adaptation. A bold new version of Woolf’s cheekiest, most brilliant creation from creators Elsie Yager and Carissa Licciardello (A Room of One’s Own, Scenes from the Climate Era).

Orlando is young, rich and handsome. A courtier in the time of Elizabeth, he sets out in search of love, life, and a fabulous destiny – but he has to travel through 400 years to find it. He dashes through time, from wars and revolutions to modernity – and as the world changes, so does Orlando. Who are they – woman? man? or something which defies all the old orders?

Based on the Novel by Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Carissa Licciardello & Elsie Yager
Directed by Carissa Licciardello
With Janet Anderson, Nyx Calder, Shannen Alyce Quan

MEOW MEOW’S THE RED SHOES
4th October to 9th November
Co-produced with Black Swan State Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre

From a chorus of hairy fawns to singing swans and showgirl stars, experience an unforgettable, frenetic song- and-dance into meaning. A musical celebration that will shock you out of stagnancy and into ecstatic oblivion.

The world-renowned creator behind Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl and Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid now urgently remedies The Red Shoes. Meow Meow hits Belvoir’s stage for the first time.

By Meow Meow
In collaboration with Director Kate Champion
With Kimball Wong

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING LEAR AND HIS THREE DAUGHTERS
15th November to 4th January

Shakespeare’s greatest play, in an energised, classic Belvoir production, featuring the grit and power of Colin Friels.

It’s time to retire. Lear has a plan – he’ll divide the kingdom between his three daughters, they’ll work in harmony with each other, he’ll live with them, there will be a seamless transition of power, and all will be well.

The universe doesn’t work that way.

A play of what happens when the trappings of privilege, education, and civilisation are stripped away, and we have to look the human specimen square in the mirror.

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Eamon Flack
With Charlotte Friels, Colin Friels, Raj Labade, Charles Wu

Subscriptions for Belvoir’s 2025 season are on sale now via www.belvoir.com.au.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE

 

Ensemble Theatre is thrilled to present another outstanding season in 2025, featuring stellar cast names, brilliant playwrights and some returning Ensemble favourites.

Ensemble Artistic Director, Mark Kilmurry said, “In 2025, we’re thrilled to present ten exceptional plays. We have three world premieres from Ensemble heavyweights: David Williamson couldn’t resist picking up his pen once again to give us Aria, Melanie Tait brings us How to Plot a Hit in Two Days, and comedy duo Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore return again with the true story of the world’s oldest commercial female pilot Deborah Lawrie in Fly Girl. I hope you’ll join us for an unforgettable season of theatre in 2025.”

ENSEMBLE THEATRE 2025 SEASON

ARIA: 24 JANUARY – 15 MARCH

A world premiere of David Williamson’s newest work, Aria takes places at Monique’s annual family gathering, celebrating her three beloved sons’ birthdays. While Monique’s adoration for her boys knows no bounds, disdain for their wives is palpable. Festivities crescendo and Monique takes the spotlight with a performance of a renowned opera aria, a poignant reminder of the dreams she sacrificed to raise her brood. This play is a darkly comedic exploration of the intricate dynamics and rivalry inherent within every family.

By David Williamson
Directed by Janine Watson
Cast of seven includes Tamara Lee Bailey, Rowan Davie, Danielle King, Tracy Mann, Sam O’Sullivan and Jack Starkey-Gill

THE GLASS MENAGERIE: 21 MARCH – 26 APRIL

Inspired by Tennessee Williams’ life, this timeless portrait of a shattered family is one of the most iconic dramas of the 20th century. Amanda Wingfield can’t help but dream of the past, but her present is anything but dazzling. Living in squalor with her two adult children, the bills are piling up and pressure to secure the Wingfield family’s future is swelling. Shaun Rennie returns to direct his second Tennessee Williams show after the success of Suddenly Last Summer.

By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Shaun Rennie
Cast of four includes Blazey Best and Laurence Boxhall

THE LOVER & THE DUMB WAITER: 2 MAY – 7 JUNE

Experience twice the comedy, twice the menace in two darkly funny one-act plays by Harold Pinter. The Lover is a psychological drama which tells the story of Richard and Sarah, whose marriage is on its last legs. Perhaps a lover could reignite their corroding relationship… or is escape from their stifling existence just a fantasy? In The Dumb Waiter, Ben and Gus have a job to do. As they await instructions, their silence is disturbed by the rattle of a dumb waiter delivering peculiar food orders.

By Harold Pinter
Directed by Mark Kilmurry
Cast of three includes Nicole da Silva and Gareth Davies

THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE: 13 JUNE – 12 JULY

An Australian premiere, where Marie Curie turns to fellow scientist and trusted confidant Hertha Ayrton for literal and emotional sanctuary. Together they weather the storm of heartbreak, public scrutiny, and self-doubt. Written with heart and humour, Lauren Gunderson — America’s most-produced living playwright — perfectly captures the resilience and determination that define true pioneers and the enduring power of female friendship.
By Lauren Gunderson

Directed by Anthea Williams
Cast of two includes Rebecca Massey

PRIMARY TRUST: 19 JUNE – 12 JULY

Pulitzer Prize-winning play Primary Trust, an uplifting offbeat comedy about finding the courage to change. Kenneth is a 38-year-old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping a mai tai (or two) with his best friend Bert. When a sudden layoff shatters his routine, Kenneth is forced to turn the page and embark on a new chapter of self-discovery. Will Bert stick around for the journey?

By Eboni Booth
Directed by Darren Yap
Cast of four includes Albert Mwangi

EMERALD CITY: 18 JULY – 23 AUGUST

In the second David Williamson of the season, Ensemble will reprise Williamson’s iconic 1980s play Emerald City. Critically acclaimed screenwriter Colin has had more box office bombs than smash-hit sensations. Swapping the streets of Melbourne for Sydney in pursuit of success, Colin discovers that the glitz and glamour of the Emerald City may be more alluring than he first thought. Directed by Mark Kilmurry, Ensemble favourites, Guy Edmonds (Crunch Time), Rachel Gordon (Mr Bailey’s Minder) and Matt Minto (Benefactors) hit the stage in this timeless satire.

By David Williamson
Directed by Mark Kilmurry
Cast of six includes Guy Edmonds, Rachel Gordon and Matt Minto

HOW TO PLOT A HIT IN TWO DAYS: 29 AUGUST – 11 OCTOBER

It’s 1985. Across Australia, millions of tear-stricken eyes are glued to their television sets in disbelief. A Country Practice’s beloved Molly Jones takes her final breath. Inside the story room, TV writers have nailed it – they’ve written the perfect death for Australia’s darling. This world premiere by Melanie Tait (The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race) starring Georgie Parker will have audiences captured, whether they’re a diehard fan of this iconic TV series or simply a lover of a cracking Australian story.

By Melanie Tait
Directed by Lee Lewis
Cast of five includes Georgie Parker

TRUE WEST: 8 SEPTEMBER – 11 OCTOBER

Set against the searing backdrop of the Californian desert, True West is a wickedly funny and scorching tale of sibling rivalry. In the peace and quiet of the desert, Austin taps away at his typewriter — until the silence is shattered by his wayward brother, Lee, stumbling unexpectedly through the door. Pulitzer Prize-winner Sam Shepard (Buried Child) pits brother against brother in this critically acclaimed and muscular exploration of masculinity in America. Directed by Iain Sinclair (The Caretaker), this is a timeless modern classic not to be missed.
By Sam Shepard

Directed by Iain Sinclair
Cast of four includes Simon Maiden

FLY GIRL: 17 OCTOBER – 22 NOVEMBER

It’s the late 70’s and the Australian Aviation Industry is a boy’s club. The only job women are allowed involves wearing heels, lighting smokes and serving nuts. Deborah Lawrie’s got the chops to fly the big jets, but Reg Ansett won’t let her. From the comedic geniuses who brought us Still Unqualified, Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore use their trademark humour to unpack the absurd obstacles faced by a trailblazing aviatrix who refused to be grounded.
By Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore

Directed by Janine Watson
Cast of five includes Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore

DIAL M FOR MURDER: 28 NOVEMBER 2025 – 11 JANUARY 2026

Ex-tennis-pro Tony Wendice has his eye on the prize. The prize in question? His wife Margot’s enormous inheritance. Fuelled by greed and revenge, he schemes to eliminate her from the equation. But Tony must spin a web of lies to outsmart the cops to avoid a jaunt behind bars. Featuring Amber McMahon (A Broadcast Coup) and Garth Holcombe (Photograph 51), the stage is set for an explosive night of theatre, leaving you guessing ‘whodunit’ until the very last moment.
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the original by Frederick Knott

Directed by Mark Kilmurry
Cast of five includes Garth Holcombe and Amber McMahon

Subscriptions for Ensemble’s 2025 season are on sale now via http://www.ensemble.com.au

Opera Australia’s program for 2025 will be announced on the 17th September.
The Griffin Company is launching its 2025 season on the 25th September. The Hayes Theatre is yet to announce the date for its  2025 launch.

Featured image : a hero shot of Sydney Theatre Company’s revival of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?