Rehearsals for MTC's RUPERT Begin Today

The Washington DC-bound cast of Melbourne Theatre Company's 2013 hit, David Williamson's Rupert, began rehearsals today ahead of performing at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts World Stages: International Theater Festival next month. Rupert will be on stage at the Kennedy Center in the Eisenhower Theater from Wednesday 12 - Saturday 15 March.

This is MTC's first international tour in thirty years and it will be the only Australian theatre company in the Festival. Rupert's world premiere season last August was a sell-out success, seen by over 30,000 people.

"Staging a show about Australia's most famous American citizen, with a roll-call of some of the world's most powerful characters, is not for the faint-hearted," said MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy. "I am proud that Washington joins Melbourne as the only cities so far to tell the stage story of Melbourne's most famous son, and I'm proud too that the subject of the play was tackled by another of Melbourne's famous sons, David Williamson.

"I still don't know how to describe the mix of cabaret, drama, vaudeville and comedy that Rupert is, but I do know that its form and its characters will give American theatregoers an evening of theatre quite unlike any they've seen before," said Mr Sheehy.

MTC Executive Director Virginia Lovett said, "Being asked to present a show like Rupert in America's political heartland is a high altitude occasion in anyone's language and we are grateful to tour sponsors NewSat, the Australian Government through the Australia Council, and the University of Melbourne for helping launch this tour. Although MTC has toured internationally just three times in its 60-year history, we are proud that on each occasion the company has taken the work of Australian playwrights. We hope to share Australian stories with international theatregoers more often," Ms Lovett said.

Lee Lewis directs Rupert, with Guy Edmonds and Sean O'Shea playing the younger and older versions of Rupert Murdoch. Marg Downey, Daniela Farinacci, Simon Gleeson, Bert LaBonté, HaiHa Le and Scott Sheridan play the host of powerful characters, including Margaret Thatcher, David Frost, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Tony Blair, Wendi Deng, Rebecca Brookes, Barry Diller and Roger Ailes.

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