Belvoir is thrilled to announce its 2025 Season, presenting nine plays with something for 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.
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 her Madrid 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
www.belvoir.com.au.
