05.10.23
Dear Grif-friend,
It’s been a whirlwind week for Griffin. In case you missed it, we launched our 2024 Season!
Last Tuesday evening, the staff, board and (some of the) extended family of Griffin gathered in the Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School to reveal and celebrate our season for next year—and it was a heck of a party. We had bougie booze courtesy of Four Pillars Gin, a tasty spread thanks to Bourke Street Bakery and a stunning and moving Welcome to Country by Aunty Norma Ingram before the season was announced.
I’m incredibly proud of this one. It probably looks a little different to Griffin seasons past because we’re on the cusp of something very exciting… mid-next year, the SBW Stables Theatre as we know it will undergo its biggest renovation EVER! You can read all about the upcoming renovations, which have been designed with love by Tim Greer of TZG Architects, and which wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of the NSW Government or the Neilson Foundation, over on our website.
While we’re still producing a whole season full of exciting new Australian work next year, we’re saying a temporary goodbye to our beautifully un-future-proofed ex-horse-stables theatre with possibly the biggest, most ambitious production (or three) in Griffin’s more-than-forty-year history. I’m so thrilled to be directing the Australian equivalent of War of the Roses, one of the most quietly epic explorations of community and belonging… The Lewis Trilogy by the godfather of Kings Cross, Louis Nowra.
It feels apt to farewell the SBW Stables Theatre with a trilogy that paints Australian life with such a deft, humorous, vivid brush, and I can’t wait to work with an ensemble of eight actors who will bring these three plays to life in early 2024. As an audience member, you can choose to return to the SBW Stables Theatre over multiple days to witness one play per night, OR you can pull out all the stops and experience the full seven hours on one. single. day!!! (With ample breaks for drinks, nibbles and dinner of course 🍽️).
You can purchase your tickets to The Lewis Trilogy right now when you subscribe to a 3 Play (not to mention a 4 or 5 Play!) package over on the Griffin website… and while you’re at it, you can check out the whole season, which includes lauded Munanjali poet Ellen Van Neerven’s shimmering debut play, swim, which will be presented over at Carriageworks before travelling to Yugambeh Country at BLEACH* Festival on the Gold Coast, and a bloody exciting first-time partnership between Griffin and Hayes Theatre Co., the beautifully bizarro MUSICAL Flat Earthers: The Musical, by Jean Tong, Lou Wall & James Gales.
That’s not to mention that Merlynn Tong’s Golden Blood 黄金血液 will make a neon-bright return to Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company next year, and the one, the only Suzie Miller will be first playwright off the rank for 2024 with a Special Return Season of Jailbaby. It’s going to be GREAT—you should join us, and save when you subscribe to the year ahead.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. There is still so much excitement to be had in 2023, with our stunning smash-hit season of Blaque Showgirls by Nakkiah Lui officially extending its season for one week! The play will now finish on Saturday 21 October, giving you, the audience, seven more chances to get in on the silliness, the sexiness, the sequinned satirical showstopper that co-directors Shari Sebbens & Ursula Yovich have cooked up with the cast. Most performances have completely sold out, so word to the wise—book your tickets for the final weeks now.
Finally, I’ve got some less-good news—due to illness, the wonderful Uncle Graham Simms is unable to perform his debut solo show Gadigal Gal this year at Griffin. While we’re sad we can’t bring you this poignant and fabulous musing on the life of an Aussie drag icon Nana Miss Koori, the health and wellbeing of our artists is of utmost importance here at Griffin, so we know it’s the right call. We’ll be in touch with news about Gadigal Gal as soon as we know it. In the meantime all ticket holders have been contacted by the Griffin Box Office, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
I hope you’ll join Griffin on our adventures in 2024 and beyond by subscribing, and I’ll see you around the SBW Stables Theatre before we give it the makeover of a lifetime!
Much love,
Declan x
