Stoppard's TRAVESTIES Previews At Sydney Opera House On 3/9

Tom Stoppard's classic comic masterpiece, Travesties, previewing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 9 March 2009 (opening 13 March), will reunite one of Australia's most versatile comic actors, Jonathan Biggins, with director Richard Cottrell, award-wining designer Michael Scott-Mitchell and Composer and Sound Designer, Paul Charlier: the creative team behind Sydney Theatre Company's 2007 hit, Ying Tong.

Travesties is set during the first world war when James Joyce (Peter Houghton), Lenin (William Zappa) and the Dadaist Tristan Tzara (Toby Schmitz) were all, for various reasons, resident in Zurich. Stoppard imagines them coming together to mount an amateur production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The uproarious action is presented from the indistinct memories but distinctive perspective of Biggins' minor British consulate official, Henry Carr, who places himself, to hilarious effect, at the centre of this convergence of some of the most acute minds of the twentieth century.

Dazzling wordplay, puns and exuberant wit are interspersed with literary debate, philosophy, history and politics in this rollicking farce about the relationship between art and revolution.

Jonathan Biggins is best known to Sydney Theatre Company audiences as performer, director and co-writer of the annual Wharf Revue which has played to sell out houses in Sydney and on tour for the last nine years. He is also co-creator of Three Men and a Baby Grand, which toured Australia and to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe before becoming a ten-part ABC Television series. Also in 2009, before returning to Sydney Theatre Company for The Wharf Revue, he will direct the Australian premiere of the Broadway and West End musical Avenue Q, opening at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne in June and touring to Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Wellington and Auckland.

Sydney Theatre Company has a long association with Tom Stoppard and has given the Australian premieres of a number of his plays including The Real Thing and Arcadia. Recent productions of his plays include last year's Rock ‘n' Roll and the 2003 revival of The Real Thing featuring Hugo Weaving.

Director: Richard Cottrell. Set Designer: Michael Scott-Mitchell. Costume Designer: Julie Lynch.
Lighting Designer: Bernie Tan. Composer/Sound Designer: Paul Charlier.

Cast: Robert Alexander, Blazey Best, Jonathan Biggins, Peter Houghton, Rebecca Massey, Toby Schmitz,
Wendy Strehlow, William Zappa

For further information: Tim McKeough (9250 1703 or tmckeough@sydneytheatre.com.au)

Box Office: 9250 1777 www.sydneytheatre.com.au Tickets: $30 - $85
9 March to 18 April 2009
Evenings at 8pm. Except for Mondays 16, 23 & 30 March, 6 & 13 April at 6.30pm.
Matinees: Wednesdays at 1pm from 18 March, Saturdays at 2pm from 21 March. No shows on Sundays