Sydney Theatre Company Says AI Can’t Replace Live Theatre Amid 2027 Season Reveal
Image: Mitchell Butel, Supplied
Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Mitchell Butel has said that AI will never match the experience of seeing performers live on stage. It comes as the company announced its 2027 season to a packed Roslyn Packer Theatre on Monday night, marking Butel’s second season since taking on the role of Artistic Director.
“AI cannot do what these artists can do live on stage, and it will never be able to match the brilliance, complexity and immediacy that is created in a theatre,” Butel said.
The Co-CEO’s comments were made as the theatre industry, like any other creative field, faces challenges with the rise of artificial intelligence. He emphasised the connection between performers and their audiences as one of the things that makes theatre unique.
The program will feature 13 productions across Sydney Theatre Company’s three venues including four World Premieres of new Australian writing and six Australian premieres.
An expected common thread across many of the stories, which explore how families shape us, how they are chosen and how they can both hurt and heal us, is family and community.
“Families are also made when we create theatre,” Butel said, describing the community of staff and creators behind Sydney Theatre Company as another family working together to create theatre for its audience.
Among the biggest names in the season’s lineup are Richard Roxburgh and Heather Mitchell who will reunite on stage for the first time in 30 years in the Australian premiere of Robert Icke’s Oedipus.
What else is coming to the Sydney Theatre Company Stage in 2027?
The Palace Letters is one of the season’s four world premieres, with Melanie Tait adapting Jenny Hocking’s book and Georgie Parker starring as Hocking alongside Jonathan Biggins as Gough Whitlam.
A new Miss Fisher story will also hit the stage with Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Death by Deckchair. Written by Deb Cox, co-creator of the original series with Fiona Eagger, the production follows the iconic detective aboard a 1929 cruise ship where a murder, jewel robbery and mysterious curse throw the passengers into chaos.
In her Sydney Theatre Company debut, Celeste Barber stars in the Australian Premiere of The Book of Liz, a comedy by Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris where Sister Elizabeth Donderstock leaves her Amish-like religious community and encounters a series of eccentric characters.
The season will also see the return of Kip Williams’ Olivier and Tony Award-winning The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Nikki Shiels, while Eryn Jean Norvill returns to Sydney Theatre Company in the Australian Premiere of Vanya, a one-person adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.
Other productions in the lineup include Becky Shaw, Amah and Nanna, The Fifth Step, John Proctor is the Villain, The Bookbinder of Jericho and Logan St.
The season will close with the Sydney premiere of the Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol starring Tim Minchin.
Tickets for the 2027 season are on sale to renewing subscribers from September 15 with new subscribers able to purchase tickets from September 29.
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