World premieres, Australian firsts, and theatre classics make up UNSPOKEN, the 2017 season for Woolloomooloo’s Red Line Productions. Expect no consistent answers, just 60 seats and no chicken shits.
UNSPOKEN marks the company’s third year at the Old Fitz Theatre, with the intimate 63 seat theatre celebrating its own milestone this year, turning twenty.
Speaking about the new program, Artistic Director Andrew Henry said: “What is it that is too hard to say? What is it that we can’t say? What are the consequences? What are the pains and joys unleashed by our decision to speak truthfully or cautiously? Being honest, with yourself or others, is something often very hard to do when dealing with difficult situations, themes or questions but in next year’s season, honesty is the only real answer.”
Season highlights include the world premiere of Jeanette Cronin’s I Hate You My Mother, which will see two actors portray ten characters spanning four centuries while grappling with revenge and retribution, Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tragi-comedy Crimes of the Heart, tenderly examining the effects that an untimely death has on a trio of sisters, the Sydney premiere of Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike, a darkly comic upending of presumptions about sexuality and pornography, Sarah Kane’s final play before losing her battle with mental illness, the harrowing 4:48 Psychosis, and Arthur Miller’s classic A View From the Bridge,directed by Iain Sinclair.
In celebration of the Old Fitz’s 20th birthday and as part of an ongoing commitment to creating new Australian work, Red Line will also present The New Fitz. The program will bring together ten Australian writers and five directors, tasking them to create ten new short plays to be performed alongside the mainstage productions.
The New Fitz writers are Virginia Gay, Benedict Hardie, Clare Hennessy, Samantha Hill, Michael McStay, Charles O’Grady, Sam O’Sullivan, Katie Pollock, Brooke Robinson and Katy Warner. The new resident directors who will helm two productions each are Michael Abercrombie, Lucy Clements, Sean Hawkins, Madeline Humphries and Carissa Licciardello.
“I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come in such a short time and I’m glad that audiences and our peers have been running alongside us the whole way,” said Henry. “We’re constantly aiming to challenge ourselves and our audiences, and the support we’ve received has been the driving force. The Old Fitz has meant so much to many generations of theatre makers and we’re proud to be continuing the legacy, and to be celebrating its 20th anniversary. It is a privilege to stand on the shoulders of the giants who found, built and created ‘the Fitz’.”
For full season details, please see the Red Line Productions website.
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