22.11.21
And… we’re off! By now, Griffin’s 2022 Season should have plastered your socials with a bunch of very colourful, clashing patterns. We hope you had your morning coffee first. And we also hope you’re as excited by it as we are!
Though it looks different, in many ways 2022 is a season that harks back to Griffin’s founding values. Our longest-serving Artistic Director Ros Horin described Griffin as the ‘theatre of first chances’. It’s the place that first catapulted the careers of writers like Tommy Murphy, Suzie Miller, and Angus Cerini. And here in our 2022 Season we have three astonishing, award-winning young playwrights making their professional Sydney debuts: Kirsty Marillier, Merlynn Tong, and Dylan Van Den Berg. Not to mention two legends-in-the-making—Jess Bellamy and Mel Ree—spearheading our second year of Griffin Lookout.
Yet—in addition to early career writers, Griffin has always celebrated the accomplishments of Australian playwrights working at the height of their powers, and their feats of invention, wit, and wisdom. In this spirit we welcome back Nakkiah Lui, Melissa Bubnic, and Ash Flanders to the SBW Stables Theatre—as well as some of our Grif-favourite performers like Belinda Giblin (Family Values) and Guy Simon (First Love is the Revolution).
In putting this season together, we wanted to offer you something that felt like it grew from the best bits of 2021. This wasn’t the easiest thing, given a good chunk of this year was not especially fun. But… even in lockdown, didn’t we all have moments of unexpected, hysterical brilliance? Teaching your nan how to use Zoom. Cutting your bangs and ending up with a radical asymmetrical haircut. Realising that you don’t need to see your friends or family because you have a cat! (to be fair that could be just be my brain parasites talking).
This is what our 2022 Season is all about—a spirit of invention. Creating something exceptional from disparate, clashing pieces. A queer love story set against the backdrop of first contact. A black comedy about assisted dying. An incisive critique of cultural appropriation that also happens to be a piss-take of one of the worst films ever made.
It’s the year of ‘this really shouldn’t work, but actually, it’s brilliant.’
To hear more about these plays, check out our launch video here—or dive right into our website to read more about them. As always, the cheapest and most convenient way to check out these shows is to subscribe! Don’t forget, also, that any credits you have from 2021 can be put towards the price of a subscription.
But! 2022 is not here yet—and we’re not even nearly done for the year! Wherever She Wanders by Kendall Feaver is now midway through its season—buoyed by a slate of incredible reviews and rapturous responses from audiences. Performances are deservedly selling out, so get in quick—it absolutely has to close on 11 December.
Speaking of which—tickets are also becoming scarce for our return season of Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie at Seymour Centre. This will be your last foreseeable chance to see this electric fusion of Suzie Miller’s words and Sheridan Harbridge’s revelatory performance—please, for the love of god, don’t miss it!
Have an excellent week, Grif-friends—and see you back at the SBW Stables Theatre soon.
Much love,
Declan Greene
Artistic Director
