Production Partners

“It’s only by taking risks and embracing the idea that some new productions will fail that you can realise the ambition of a (The) Bleeding Tree or a Prima Facie. That’s the whole point of the Production Partners: to trust Griffin and to back you to keep taking risks, no questions asked.” Kate Morgan, Founding Production Partner  

As a new writing theatre, we program stories that reflect our time, place and the unique voice of contemporary Australia. It takes courage to support untried and untested work, plays that can be raw and unflinching, big and bold.   

To ensure that the most ambitious stories can be told, we need private production support for one play each year. For over a decade, we have aligned a group of generous donors, our Productions Partners, with works that are risky and challenging and therefore require more to realise their full potential – works that are ahead of their time like Suzie Miller’s Jailbaby and Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree, challenging topics like Alana Valentine’s Ladies Day and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold, or the ambitious staging of Andrea James and Catherine Ryan’s Dogged. Each of these works require more to realise their full potential, from specialised skills to join the creative team, to large casts (like Louis Nowra’s The Lewis Trilogy), additional dramaturgical support and anything the work may require to make sure it lands on stage as it was intended to.  

The Production Partner program is for people who believe in giving a platform to Australia’s bold and courageous stories, stories that articulate a new and powerful vision, that brings strength, insight and candour to the Griffin stage. As we continue to create work outside our home the SBW Stables Theatre, this support is even more crucial.  

In 2025, our Production Partner program will support Naturism by Ang Collins. Performed by an all-nude cast, this play is a ridiculous wild comedy that poses some big questions about the state of our planet and the intergenerational responsibility. Staging the unstable relationship between humans and our climate is a difficult and sometimes unpopular endeavour. It is incomprehensibly big, scary issue that we struggle to grapple with both individually and collectively.  

Griffin has a proud history of courageous, challenging works on this topic (Ian Meadows’ Between Two Waves and David Finnigan’s Kill Climate Deniers), and Naturism is no exception. The bravery of this work will be required of its actors as much as its writer. Artistic Director Declan Greene will champion this project as director and dramaturg and is building an impressive team. Nudity on stage isn’t easy and Chloë Dallimore, the project’s Intimacy Director, has already said this will be the most challenging production she’s worked on. 

With a cast of five and the drastically bigger stage, the scale of this work is huge! The costume budget hasn’t been completely stripped, as the script includes some out-of-this-world moments and psychedelic dream sequences which we can’t wait to see realised for its premiere in October.