ALBION Makes Premiere at the Seymour Centre Next Month

Mike Bartlett's hit UK drama, Albion, will receive its Australian premiere at Seymour Centre from 27th July to 13th August, presented by Secret House, New Ghosts Theatre Company and Seymour Centre.

Against advice from family and friends, businesswoman Audrey buys an old house in ruins and dreams of restoring the house's once magnificent garden to its former glory, as a tribute to the son she recently lost to war. As she clings to the significance of the past, she searches for seeds of hope in the future.

Praised by The New York Times for its richly imagined drama and characters, Albion is at once a sweeping family saga and a powerful parable about patriotism, nostalgia and national identity in Brexit-era Britain. Deliberately drawing parallels with Chekhov's masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard, Bartlett paints a poignant, shrewdly funny portrait of a nation torn between preserving the past and radically reforming the present, and Albion played to packed houses and critical acclaim upon its debut in 2017, later returning to London's famed Almeida Theatre for a special encore run in early 2020.

A three-time Olivier Award winner, playwright Mike Bartlett is one of the UK's most exciting dramatists. His 2009 comedy, Cock, was recently revived on the West End with Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey leading a sell-out season, and his Chariots of Fire adaptation premiered at London's Hampstead Theatre in 2012 before transferring to the West End. His 2014 drama, King Charles III, played on the West End and Broadway before transferring to STC, and was later adapted for television by the BBC.

Director Lucy Clements said, "It has been such a joy to pull apart the layers of cleverly woven commentary on culture, class and social divides that are so present and relevant, not just in Britain, but equally so in post-colonial Australia. Our whole team feels so lucky to bring this modern-day epic to an Australian audience for the first time."

ALBION

DATES: Wednesday 27th July - Saturday 13th August

TIMES: Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 1:30pm; Thursday 28 July at 1:30pm

LOCATION: Seymour Centre, Corner City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale

BOOKINGS: https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/albion/ or (02) 9061 5344

TICKETS: Preview $33 / Full $49 / Concession $39 / Under 35, Group 8+ $35

WRITER Mike Bartlett DIRECTOR Lucy Clements PRODUCERS Jane Angharad & James Smithers PRODUCTION DESIGNER Monique Langford SOUND DESIGNER Samantha Cheng STAGE MANAGER Milly Grindrod PRODUCTION MANAGER Farlie Goodwin CAST Jane Angharad, Joanna Briant, Claudette Clarke, Alec Ebert, Noel Hodda, Deborah Jones, Charles Mayer, Rhiaan Marquez, James Smithers & Emma Wright UNDERSTUDIES Kevin Batliwala, John Grinston & Lynda Leavers.

Albion is one of three productions in Seymour Centre's newly launched 2022: Part Two season. It joins Alice Birch's dazzling, devastating Anatomy of a Suicide, back on stage in Sydney after a sensational run at The Old Fitz in 2019, and an exciting new University of Sydney collaboration, Art + Information, a series of performance lectures where drama and art bring big ideas to life.

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