AustLit

'Northern Ireland, 1987. Deirdre is stuck – between arguments, nations, and the lives she almost lived. But when her old schoolfriends gather in her kitchen yet again for Christmas Eve, their growing differences push to the surface a powder-keg, waiting the tiniest spark. And then one of them turns up with her surprise fiancé.

'He’s English.

'Set against the backdrop of The Troubles, this brilliant debut play is an unforgettable drama of home, friends, the decision to leave or stay, and the possibility of forgiveness.' (Production summary [2024 Belvoir Street production])

'A chance remark by an old friend in Sydney takes a woman back to her teenage years: living alone, by the sea in Chennai. She’s preparing for her debut dance recital, her Arangetram. She’s falling in love too! But when young love begins to unravel, the memories flooding back take on a power of their own…

'A breathtaking solo performance melding storytelling, live music and Bharatanatyam dance, made for the unique talents of Helpmann Award-winning Vaishnavi Suryaprakash (Counting and Cracking, Galileo, Sami in Paradise), Nayika is story as survival. It is dance as resistance. It is a new type of heroine: one we have yet to imagine.' (Production summary)

'From South Sudan to Egypt to Belvoir St, this is the extraordinary journey of Mandela Mathia. Fleeing his war-torn home as a child, Mandela spent many years journeying, searching, and eventually finding his way to our stage. This is a joyful, poignant solo show, straight from the man who lived it.

'A celebration of the South Sudanese community, of resilience, and the power of imagination, Lose To Win is an astonishing modern Australian story.' (Production summary)

'The lesbian divorce comedy you didn’t know you needed.

'Ruth and Judith have been together for a long time. Long enough to have seen Australia change, for better and for worse. They have two bright and inquiring kids and a manageable mortgage in the Inner West. With love and hard work, they made the political personal and built a family of which they’re fiercely proud. They re-wrote the rules, and their life together is a progressive success story. Why should breaking up be any different?

'But even the loftiest ideals can come undone when pesky human emotion gets involved.'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre.

'“People went on about death bringing friends together, but it wasn’t true…”

'Four women have known each other for decades, and have a friendship that goes with it – good-humoured, caring, and forthright when required. But Sylvie has died, and when the remaining three come together to pack up her beach house, they find maybe they haven’t been as honest – or as good friends – as they thought.

'Adele, a once-well-known actress, Wendy, a high-profile academic, and Jude, who ran one of the city’s most celebrated restaurants, learn things they should have learned years ago. There’s a difference between growing old, and growing wise.

'And at the heart of it all, an old dog keeps them company, silently bearing witness to the folly of age, and the warmth of true friendship.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Magic, mayhem, and a book that can’t be burnt – a classic of literature lets fly at Belvoir.

'An actor enters with a battered copy of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, and begins to read aloud from the opening chapter…

'We’re in a city run by fools and mediocrities. Elites protect their power, thinkers squabble over trivia, everyone is consumed by greed and materialism. And sitting on a park bench in this city is the Devil himself. Why is he here?

'The story that follows is wild, joyful and magnificent. The tale unfurls from ancient Galilee to Stalin’s Moscow, via a giant talking cat, a mad novelist, a ruthless officer of the secret police… At its centre is Margarita, who has to become a witch in order to save a lost manuscript – and us all.

'Written in secret in the gloom of repression, passed around under the nose of the state police, The Master and Margarita became a legend long before it was published. Now it is a phenomenon of world literature, celebrated for its insistence that love and imagination* will always triumph over those who want to shut us down.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Getting older is inevitable, but growing up takes courage.

'When Mark moved out of home for the first time his mum started writing him letters – just checking in, staying in touch, keeping a gentle hold on her son. Until one letter brings news no-one wants to hear.

'Today, alone in his apartment, on a quiet ordinary morning, Mark needs to try to make some sense of the path of his young life. He needs to work out how to go on with the day, his studies, the fragility of living. He needs us to hear his story, and the story of his family.

'A tender, exquisite monologue written and performed by a rising star, Thomas Weatherall, Blue takes us deep into the beauty, and sadness, of a young life at its new beginning.'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre.

'Life, love, and making money, as things heat up.

'“We knew there was a mass extinction happening, we all felt bad about it. But you couldn’t think about it every second of every day. I had a bad breakup that year, I was trying to pay rent. We were just living our lives.”

'A frog, the last of its species, starts calling for a mate, but there’s no-one to hear.

'A group of friends reminisce about the last time they took a flight, before all that came to an end.

'Landholders in Borneo confront western environmentalists over who owns the forest.

'A scientist is coached on how to speak to the media in digestible soundbites.

'A family takes to the water, needing a new home, new hope…

'A remarkable, illuminating, shocking, wry, and sometimes inspiring piece of theatre, Scenes from the Climate Era is exactly what it says – over fifty small plays that catch the exhilaration, frustration and fascination of living in interesting times.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'"Your family have a really woggy vibe – you know, your dad working in the repair shop, your mum at the cafe… which I totally love… and mine are more… Italian."

'It’s la dolce vita for Joe right now. He’s got a successful business, handsome boyfriend and wealthy AF future in-laws. He’s clawed his way out of the working class and he’s got freshly steamed linen trousers to prove it.

'But his plans for full-blown assimilation take a nasty turn when Joe’s estranged cousin drops by and exposes an enormous family secret. Suddenly, Joe’s on a mission out to South-Western Sydney, to the Italian-Australian heartland and the place where his family’s story began.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The beloved novel of migration, growing up, and Sydney – now a play!

'Three generations of women. The Italian-Australian experience. A tale of Sydney. A much-loved modern classic novel, a ground-breaking film, and now at Belvoir, a simply great night out.

'It’s the last year of school, and 17-year- old Josephine Alibrandi can’t wait for her future to begin. If only she can get past the world of her Nonna, holding on to the values of the old country; and the world of her Mum, full of care and secrets. It’s time to take her place in the real world, beyond her family, beyond being an Alibrandi.

'But this is the year Josie gets to know her father. This is the year she falls in love. And this is the year she uncovers the truth – and finds the Alibrandi she has been searching for.'

Source: Belvoir St Theatre.

'The life-changing memoir, now a breathtaking Belvoir play.

'Since its publication thirty years ago, Anne Deveson’s family memoir Tell Me I’m Here has become a classic. And now, in a superb adaptation, it comes to the Belvoir stage.

'Anne’s life – the familiar juggle of marriage, career, emotions, chaos – is thrown off-balance when her son Jonathan begins speaking oddly, standing strangely, flashing into irrationality and rage. Is it just a phase, part of growing up? The years pass, and it’s clear, Anne’s son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. But putting a name to it is one thing – getting attention, getting help is another. Even the strongest families, the most steadfast parents, buckle under such stress.

'Heart-rending, exquisitely touching, a play which speaks things which normally aren’t spoken. A play about getting on with life, before it’s too late.'

Source: Belvoir St Theatre.

'A sharp, visually-arresting theatrical experience, based on the sleeper-hit 70s film.

'Myrtle Gordon’s been a star of the stage for years. She’s loved by audiences, acclaimed by critics. Now she’s been cast in the role of a lifetime, and opening night is rapidly approaching – but something’s not quite right.

'The lines won’t stick, she can’t stay in character, reality and make-believe are starting to blur – and there’s a strange woman in her dressing room.

'Is she a ghost? A hallucination? Another Myrtle, who’s climbed out from the mirror?

'The cult classic 1977 film of what happens when a woman can’t play her role anymore, in a startling theatrical reimagining by Carissa Licciardello.'

Source: Belvoir St Theatre.

'Girl meets boy.
'Girl Hates boy.
'Girl f***s boy 44 times.
'The world collapses.

'Watch 5 of your favourite Belvoir clowns go down on their microphones and some random fruit in a theatrically dextrous response to humanity’s decision to hit the accelerator, turn off the headlights and surge into the dark wilds of the 21^st century.'

Source: Belvoir Theatre.

'A dry, dusty little Aussie town, somewhere in the back of beyond, with all the decency, diversity – and division – that you’d expect in a rural microcosm. But Boomkak is confronting some massive challenges now that the Big Developer has set his sights on the town, and this little community finds itself in a fight for survival. How can they possibly fight back?

'By putting on a panto, of course.

'From the creative minds behind Calamity Jane (a smash hit at Belvoir in 2018) comes a piece of utter joy – a love letter to theatre, to community, to the resilience of our Little Aussie Towns™ – lo-fi, big-hearted, and Belvoir to the back teeth. With new songs from Tony Award nominee Eddie Perfect, and a couple of Aussie rock classics, dance, and old-fashioned silliness, The Boomkak Panto promises to be a mad, sparkling jewel, a reward for getting through these dark and strange times.' (Production summary)

'After years of research, and a lot of help from the community, Alana Valentine’s much-anticipated story of a little chapel in a back street of the Cross premieres at Belvoir. The Wayside Chapel under the Reverend Ted Noffs set itself up for those who might not find a place elsewhere to welcome them, and over the years has become a home and haven in a sometimes brutal town.

'This play is about the quietly revolutionary act of marriage – sometimes in the face of fierce resistance from family, from society, from the church hierarchy. It’s the story of a space where those who didn’t quite fit in to the mainstream could have their walk down the aisle.

'Moving, inspiring, Valentine’s play is about all of us – and a portrait of this city at its raffish, recalcitrant best.' (Production summary)

'A new play about the front lines of normal life.

'Susie’s at the top of her game. She’s devoted the best years of her life to reporting from the dangerous frontlines all over the world.

'But even the most resilient foreign correspondents need to come home one day. What happened to Australia while she was away? And what happened to her?'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre.

'A coastal town, somewhere in Australia. Skeleton population in winter, swollen with the holiday crowd in summer. This particular bunch have been coming to their beach houses for years. They’ve got the money to enjoy themselves, they always have. Why should it be any different this year? Why should it ever change?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Bernadette hasn’t been home to Geraldton for a while. Her siblings are mad as cut snakes, the oldies are worse – even a simple conversation ends up a cyclone of screaming. But Nan’s leaving the world, and this mixed-up family returns to the roost; a brother living a big lie, a daughter swimming in little lies, and a mum who can’t tell the truth to save herself. Are they cursed? Or can they change the way they see themselves, and how the world sees them?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Australia, on the cusp of a new century. Sybylla Melvyn has grown up beyond the black stump, but she is determined to get away and make her own spectacular mark on the world. But if that’s to happen, she must first surmount collapsing family fortunes, a world hardwired against headstrong women, and the insistent nagging of love.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lily’s grandmother was a beauty queen back in Hong Kong. She doesn’t care that times have changed and that Lily lives in a new country and a new century. She sees that Lily’s caught between worlds, and wants her to enter the Chinese community beauty pageant, the highly competitive Miss Peony. She won’t take no for an answer.

'And to makes matters worse, she’s a ghost.'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre.