09.01.26
Dear Grif-friends,
Happy New Year to you all!
I returned to the office this week to find a late Christmas present waiting on my desk. A package. Addressed from “A Griffin Subscriber.” Inside: a pair of shorts. …Sequinned shorts.
Reader, I screamed. It’s true that I only wear shorts. Which is not a sartorial statement; more biological. I’m Irish on both sides. My body believes it should be standing knee-deep in a freezing peat bog, not wandering around in semi-tropical Sydney.
Still, I’m not sure how to interpret receiving these anonymously in the mail. Nor to interpret how many Griffin staff members told me they ‘really suit me’.
Anyway, I’m very appreciative and if someone wants to send me a matching blazer I’ll consider an alternative career in cabaret.
Even without mystery clothing, it was still an exciting back-to-work week in the Griffin office—with Anthea Williams commencing as our new Associate Artistic Director. You’ve likely seen Anthea’s extraordinary work on our stage and across Sydney—for Griffin she’s directed Since Ali Died by Omar Musa, Pony by Eloise Snape and countless new plays for Belvoir, Ensemble, Melbourne Theatre Company, National Theatre of Parramatta and more. Anthea has spent her first days reading many plays, having many cups of tea and playing the confusing ice-breaker game ‘If you were a road trip, what kind of road trip would you be?’ (maybe you had to be there, but it’s probably better that you weren’t).
Next week, rehearsals begin for The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin by steve j. spears. The great Simon Burke and I are about to climb the summit of this remarkable play together and our research about the original production has unearthed some magical, inspiring stories from Australian theatre history, like the time Bob and Hazel Hawke saw the play one night in Melbourne and got so drunk backstage with Gordon Chater that the three of them totalled the dressing room. I don’t think Anthony Albanese would pay Simon the same courtesy, but if Barnaby Joyce ever saw the play I somehow think he’d have a decent chance.
And huge congratulations to everyone recognised in the Sydney Theatre Awards nominations. Special cheers to SISTREN by Iolanthe, which received an incredible eight nominations, and to the brilliant cast and creatives of Koreaboo by Michelle Lim Davidson, Whitefella Yella Tree by Dylan Van Den Berg and Birdsong of Tomorrow by Nathan Harrison—all of whom were deservedly recognised.
2025 was a great year at Griffin and clearly a lot of people have the same hope for 2026: we saw a beautiful spike in subscriptions bought as Christmas gifts over the break. It’s still not too late to give yourself a year of extraordinary theatre. Honestly, it’s cheaper than sequinned shorts—and arguably more practical.
Much love,
Declan
