Images provided by Black Swan State Theatre
By Emma Forsyth
As 2022 draws to a close, incomes the 2023 theatrical season! Read below to find out more about what you can expect to see next year!
As Black Swan welcomes new Artistic Director Kate Champion, 2023 will focus on storytelling and meaning. New and contemporary works will be showcased that seek to question our society, the contemporary issues we face, and who we are now and show who we want to become. An abundance of local WA talent will be on display, with all production written and created by local Australian artists.
Cyrano
In collaboration with Perth Festival comes the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Cyrano by Virginia Gay. Directed by Sarah Goodes, Edmond Rostand’s classic play has been readapted and reimagined for a more contemporary audience with a gender-flipped retelling. Virginia Gray’s fresh take has been described as “daring, clever and funny.”
Cyrano will be showing from the 17th of February to the 5th of March in the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre. Get your tickets here.
The Bleeding Tree
In collaboration with The Blue Room Theatre comes Angus Cerini’s gripping murder ballad, The Bleeding Tree. Directed and performed by First Nations artists, get ready for a gripping revenge thriller in the climate of the Australian outback. Directed by Ian Michael, this tale will be taken to new poetic, intense and gothic heights. Winner of four Performing Arts WA Awards (2022) and six Blue Room Theatre Awards (2021).
The Bleeding Tree will be shown in the Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre from the 29th of April to the 14th of May. Get your tickets here.
Things I know to be true
Things I Know To Be True by acclaimed writer Andrew Bovell (When the Rain Stops Falling, Lantana) exposes a chaotic year for the Price family. Directed by Kate Champion, this play delves deeply into the heart of household dynamics and our instinctive reactions to invasive change creating a relatable production that is funny yet touching for the audience.
Things I Know To Be True will be shown from the 27th of May to the 18th of June in the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre. Get your tickets here.
Jurrungu Ngan-ga
In collaboration with Broome’s resident theatre company Marrugeku comes Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Yawuru: Straight Talk), a multi-artform dance piece of theatre. With art shown as activism comes this immersive experience that interrogates our capacity to look away and isolate what we fear. This piece will explore Indigenous and refugee stories of humiliation and torture in prisons and detention centres and simultaneously considers the power of their joy and ‘hope’.
There will only be eight performances in the Heath Ledger Theatre at State Theatre Centre from the 15th to the 23rd of September. Get your tickets here.
Dirty birds
Dirty Birds is a new Australian work from the creative minds of the multi-award-winning McElhinney sisters, Mandy (The Glass Menagerie, Wakefield) and Hayley (Mystery Road: Origins, Oil), filled to the brim with humour, beauty, and sadness. Inspired by the sister Irish heritage, this work has been twenty years in the making! Directed by Kate Champion, this delves into the characters’ darkest secrets that blur the borders between the truth and fiction, the past and present, and the real and absurd.
Dirty Birds will be shown from the 18th of November to the 10th of December in the Heath Ledger Theatre at State Theatre Centre. Get your tickets here.