Griffin to spread its wings in 2024
Image: LEWIS TRILOGY. Image: hero
The Griffin Theatre’s 2024 season contains multitudes as it traverses a reprise of the best from ’23, a schedule of new productions and most of all, the biggest challenges of its lifetime as they close the theatre.
After a limited return season of Susie Miller’s acclaimed Jailbaby, and Louis Nowra’s audacious Lewis trilogy, the Griffin will be closing its Darlinghurst home in Nimrod Street as the premises undergoes its most extensive renovations ever.
“All of the theatre is going to be renovated significantly,” Declan Greene, artistic director and CEO, Griffin Theatre said.
“It’s been a fun and joyful process so far, but it is also fun to find out what we can do when we are in other spaces and how we can take advantage of that in terms of what plays we can do.”
Louis Nowra’s Lewis Trilogy will be Griffin’s second main feature for ’24, opening on February 9 and closing the theatre on April 21.
With that, the Griffin will undergo a makeover that will see it gutted, rewired and reimagined, though Greene is under pains to stress that there will be little change to the stage area.
“The theatre itself will not get much bigger, the stage will be virtually the same size, the same layout but we will have an elevator shaft which means we are now wheelchair accessible,” Greene said.
“We will also be putting in a basement with a light well, which means that we will actually have a rehearsal room, which we have never had, we have always rehearsed were someone could give us a space for free.
“It also means that we will be able to turn the foyer into a space suitable for play readings, talks and forums, as well as a space where we can preview work.”
Anyone who has ever worked at the Griffin will know that the premises was held together with putty and cakes of makeup, as it was adapted piecemeal from the original Nimrod premises of the seventies.
Greene stressed that the renovations had been made possible by the Neilson Foundation’s $5 million gift in 2022, allowing them to purchase the space from the SBW Foundation.
Playwright Suzie Miller’s Jailbaby was one of Griffin’s big successes for ’23 and will be restaged at Griffin from January 4 — 21.
“She is a playwright of global stature at this point and the fact that she wanted to stay true to her roots and work again with us, we were really honoured and felt special about that,” Greene said.
Next up for ’24 will be Louis Nowra’s Lewis Trilogy, comprising of Summer of the Aliens, Cosi, and This Much Is True running from February 9 to April 21.
“I’ve never worked with Louis before, but at this point he is the grandfather of weirdo playwrights in Australia, and as a self confessed weirdo playwright I have looked up to him for much of my career,”Greene said.
“In the act of preparing the production for the three plays, what was revealing was all these wonderfull through lines and images that we and Louis are discovering from working on these together.”
After bumping out at the end of the Lewis Trilogy’s run, the Griffin will go feral, relocating to various spaces across the city for the rest of the season.
At Carriagework’s Track 8 theatre, Ellen van Neerven’s Swim will open July 10 and run until July 27.
“Swim is a gorgeous play going into a great space at Carriageworks,” Greene said.
Flat Earthers, the musical by Jean Tong, Lou Wall and James Gale, will land at the Hayes Theatre from October 11 until November 9.
“Relocating to the Hayes is fantastic because you can’t do a full scale musical at the Stables,” Greene said.
A 2022 favourite, Golden Blood, will herald the close of the ’23 season from October 13 to November 30 at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf One.
“It did so well here and Merlynn Tong is a phenomenal writer and her performance was so special as well,” Greene said.
“It is always something that we love at the Stables and that is that our plays try out here and then they get to go to other places.”
2023 will be a year like no other for the Griffin company as they explore new spaces; but there is an end in sight and one that they are looking forward to also.
“We are looking to reopening the Stables in 2026, after around 18 months of renovations — but in the meantime it is excellent for playwrights to share a larger audience than what we can accommodate, and I think that this is a good trajectory for a play at the Griffin,” Greene said.
