After a year without theatre, Melbourne’s stages are ready – and their audiences hungry – for new productions and Melbourne Theatre Company appears all too happy to provide them. Post 'demic, MTC recently relaunched with the Summer Series as well as the postponed Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Berlin. The MTC team has now announced the remainder of its 2021 season, with plenty to love in a program that feels contemporary, joyous, relevant and very Melbourne.
In the lead up to the program announcement, we spoke to MTC artistic director, Bretty Sheehy, who says audiences are raring to get back into the theatre. “[Ticket] sales have been terrific and that just signalled to us that audiences are incredibly keen to get back into the theatre.” For the second half of the 2021 season, Sheehy has crafted a program that’s both uplifting and highly relatable to contemporary life. “All of the work we do, I try to put it through the lens of relevance – does this story say something interesting or relevant to our society in the 21st century?”
Living as we are in “unprecedented times”, MTC has naturally considered its 2021 season in light of our global situation. “What we’ve done is we’ve enabled the risk of the shows to escalate as the year goes through,” says Sheehy. Productions from MTC’s current Summer Series onwards will be scaled to have increasingly larger casts and seasons as the year progresses and (hopefully) the risk of productions being cancelled reduces.
Here's what to look out for on stage this year.
Melbourne Theatre Company: Act Two season 2021
The Lifespan of a Fact (May 15 – Jul 3)
Australian premiere
By Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell
Director: Petra Kalive
It feels like there’s no better time to explore the concept of “truth”. MTC is leaning into that by launching the second half of its 2021 season with two Australian premieres exploring that very concept. In comedic Broadway hit, The Lifespan of a Fact, we’re introduced to literary magazine intern Jim Fingal, who’s asked to fact check the work of a venerated essayist – only to find it’s riddled with inconsistencies. “Fake news is just part of the fabric of our society now,” Sheehy says. “[In The Lifespan of a Fact] we're now looking at what happens when fake news appears in a left-leaning publication. It's a true story, which is pretty thrilling as well.” Starring Nadine Garner and Steve Mouzakis, The Lifespan of a Fact also introduces MTC audiences to Ngāti Toa actor, Karl Richmond (Punk Rock).
The Truth (Jun 5 – Jul 10)
Australian premiere
By Florian Zeller, translation by Christopher Hampton
Director: Sarah Giles
The Truth is the second show to get its Australian premiere at MTC this year, with the company bringing French playwright Florian Zeller’s (The Father) dark comedy to Melbourne. The Truth explores, well, the truth through a more intimate, less political lens than perhaps The Lifespan of a Fact, with the story revolving around two married couples in Paris and the truth and lies of their intertwined relationships. Starring Stephen Curry and Bert LaBonté, Sheehy describes The Truth as Zeller’s “world breakthrough play”. “In a lot of the commentary around it, there have been comparisons made with Oscar Wilde, with Noël Coward and with Molière, in terms of glittering comedy.”
Cyrano (Jul 31 – Sep 4)
World premiere
By Virginia Gay, after Edmond Rostand
Director: Sarah Goodes
The well-known tale of Cyrano de Bergerac finds new life in Virginia Gay’s gender-swapped adaptation. In Cyrano, the titular character is played by Gay herself, an enigmatic and enchanting wordsmith who falls for Roxanne. True love’s course is made all the bumpier by Roxanne’s attraction to Yan – who despite being less than erudite, somehow starts saying the most beautiful things to her (in reality, the words are Cyrano’s). Sheehy describes Gay’s Cyrano as “an absolutely joyous night in the theatre” with music interwoven throughout the production. “I love the idea of slipping the gender of the lead character,” he says. “The drafts I've read so far have brought tears to my eyes; it's so achingly romantic.”
Sunday (Sep 18 – Oct 23)
World premiere
By Anthony Weigh
Director: Sarah Goodes
The life of one of Melbourne’s most famous and beloved residents is realised on stage in this brand new production. Sunday: a Fantasy of Life at Heide brings the story of Sunday Reed, the wealthy, trailblazing woman who founded what eventually became Heide Museum of Modern Art. Nikki Sheils (Home, I’m Darling) leads the performance as Reed, a bohemian setting up something of an artist’s commune in what is now Bulleen and the affair she has in the process. “It really will be a kind of Melbourne wide celebration of Heide, the history of Heide the gallery, and of Sunday Reed,” says Sheehy. “We're looking at potential ancillary activities with Heide – the plan at the moment is for Heidi to have a fantastic [Sidney] Nolan exhibition on while the play is running.”
Jacky (Oct 9 – Nov 13)
World premiere
By Declan Furber Gillick
Director: Mark Wilson
One of the most exciting additions to MTC’s 2021 season is Jacky, a contemporary, comedic story of love, family, sex and culture by Green Room Award winner, Declan Furber Gillick. “Set in Melbourne, it deals with a young Aboriginal man who is navigating the gig economy pretty brilliantly,” says Sheehy. “He’s doing that by earning money as a cultural consultant, as a dancer, and also as a sex worker.” Through his various jobs, Jacky (Luke Carroll) meets couple Glenn (Greg Stone) and Linda (Alison Whyte) on whom he has an impact both separately, and as a pair. “The way it looks at identity and labelling is what I found so relevant and important. I think it's going to be a knockout main stage debut.”
As You Like It (Nov 8 – Dec 18)
By William Shakespeare
Director: Simon Phillips
More than a year after it was initially scheduled, MTC’s Simon Phillips-directed production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It will finally show. “For me, it really is up there with Shakespeare’s greatest comedies,” says Sheehy. Phillips, of course, has quite the history directing standout Shakespearean productions for MTC, from Richard III to Hamlet and Macbeth (not to mention the beautiful Shakespeare-adjacent stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love in 2019). “I love his mastery of Shakespeare, which for me is unparalleled in this country,” says Sheehy. “His grasp and understanding and drilling down to Shakespeare's humanity is sublime.” With a score of original music by none other than Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall, come expecting a production of As You Like It that “will have a very contemporary feel.”
Find out more about MTC's 2021 season on its website.