A Note from Declan, 14 January

14.01.21

Dear Grif-fans,

I hope you’re reading this with eyes that are a little less bleary from screen fatigue—and that you managed to get some excellent rest and recoup time after that hectic year.

That said, if you’re reading this poolside as part of your still-continuing vacation… I wish you and your stunning life nothing but weird sunburn lines, swimmer’s ear and other forms of mild misfortune. ‘Cos things here at the Griff are already hectic.

Next week, we open our first show of 2021—Xanthe Dobbie & Harriet GilliesPleasuredome, as part of Sydney Festival. If you’re feeling a little hesitant to come back to the theatre, this online-only show is for you. You don’t have to wear a face mask. You don’t even have to wear pants (in fact, it’s probably better if you don’t. The show’s interactive element is very, um, intimate…).

In a more IRL space, I’m currently in Week 2 of rehearsals for Elias Jamieson Brown’s Green Park. It’s a joyously tricky one to find our way through. Due to the fact that it’s performed in the real Green Park, and is essentially a conversation overheard by the audience, Elias’s play asks for absolute realism in its script and performance. This means our exceptional cast—Joseph Althouse and Steve Le Marquand—are discovering myriad little ways to make their performance seem genuinely real, as opposed to ‘theatre-real’ or ‘film-real’…. Little coughs, a planned drop of a phone, uncomfortable pauses or lapses in conversation. It’s beautiful, detailed work, which will be admired by those who snapped up our tiny pool of tickets… Did I mention it’s already very, very much sold out?

Luckily, if you missed out on Green Park tickets—single tickets have just gone on sale for Oliver Twist’s Jali and Debra Oswald’s Is There Something Wrong With That Lady?. Thanks to COVID, both these works have waited an extra year to reach our stage, and like Green Park they both have short and strictly limited seasons—so don’t miss out!

That’s it from me… For a few weeks, actually. As of this year, we’ve decided to start sharing the enews love around the Griffin office, so you, dear reader, can get to know the inner workings of our little Grif-family a little better! So, in the next fortnight’s enews, you’ll be hearing from our Marketing Coordinator Ang Collins, and after that, who knows? It might be someone from Box Office, one of our Producers, or even a Studio Artist… See you in a few weeks!

Much love,
Dx