Year One

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The Hangover

Sydney Theatre Company in association with Ambassador Theatre Group present

Elling
Based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjørnsen
Stage adaptation by Axel Hellstenius
in collaboration with Petter Næss
Translated by Nicholas Norris
Adapted by Simon Bent

After two years of sharing a room in a mental institution Elling (Darren Gilshenan) and Kjell (Lachy Hulme) are allowed out, back into society. It’s not that they’re dangerous, they’re just a little… hopeless.

Elling is too smart. Too sensitive. Too… Elling. And Kjell? Well, Kjell has a plan, a dream, a great ambition. He wants to lose his virginity. Preferably today.

Elling charts the bumps and stumbles as this truly odd couple make their way back into the world we take for granted. Over the course of the play they will build friendships, become accustomed to all things ordinary and start to experience the pleasure of the everyday.

Based on the cult Norwegian film of the same name, Simon Bent’s adaptation of Elling was first performed at London’s Bush Theatre in 2007 and, due to its huge success, went on to transfer to Trafalgar Studios in the West End.

Even the hardest heart will struggle not to be touched by the characters’ plight and the joy with which they discover the richness of life in the ‘real’ world. Pamela Rabe directs this charming celebration of the simple things in life: freedom and fellowship.

I Love You, Man

Sydney Theatre Company and ThinIce present

The Duel
Adapted by Tom Wright
from The Brothers Karamazov by
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Duel, n: a contest with deadly weapons arranged between two people in order to settle a point of honor

Zosima is a young man who lives a life of debauchery where nothing is out of bounds. The night before a deadly duel, he wakes with an overwhelming sense of guilt and insight. This will be the event that transforms his life and leads him from the military to a monastery.

In 1880 Dostoevsky wrote his final novel - The Brothers Karamazov. The Duel forensically examines a single chapter from The Brothers Karamazov, digging deep into Zosima’s journey and the mysterious visitor who challenges him with a dark secret.

Dostoevsky’s poetic language, as adapted by Tom Wright, will be brought to life in a visual and contemporary production driven by performances of powerful simplicity.

Director Matthew Lutton is renowned for his wildly inventive explorations of theatre and The Duel marks the beginning of a dynamic partnership with his Perth-based company ThinIce as an Associate Company of STC.

Company B presents

Ruben Guthrie
by Brendan Cowell

Ruben Guthrie is on fire. He’s 29, he’s the Creative Director of a cutting-edge advertising agency, he’s engaged to a Czech supermodel and Sydney is his oyster. He pours himself a drink to celebrate, a drink to work, a drink to sleep and one spectacular night he drinks so much he thinks he can fly.

Ruben Guthrie is Brendan Cowell’s brutally honest comedy about work, family and excess. This is a special play which taps a deep vein of Australian life and asks, is it unAustralian to refuse a drink?

Company B Associate Artist Wayne Blair directed Toby Schmitz as Ruben in the Downstairs Theatre in 2008. The show sold out before it even opened. Now, Brendan, Toby and Wayne – three of Australia’s finest young theatre artists – are joining forces once again to create a shining new production for Company B.

So come take a good, hard look at Sydney in this hilarious and moving act of revelation about spiralling high, crashing hard and being taken to AA by your mum.