Seymour Centre Announces 2023 Season; CAMP, THE TURN OF THE SCREW, and More!

Seymour Centre has announced its 2023 season, a set of six spectacular plays brought to the stage by some of Australia's most creative and daring independent theatre companies.

Seymour Centre's Artistic Director, Tim Jones, said, "Despite the challenges of recent times, audiences have enthusiastically flocked to our 2022 Seymour Season, with shows like Albion and Heroes of the Fourth Turning enjoying sold-out seasons. Our 2023 season will, I'm sure, continue this tradition with outstanding artists creating radical takes on classic works, plus intelligent and wildly entertaining premiere productions from the best local and international playwrights".

Opening the year in February is the world premiere of CAMP, presented by Siren Theatre Co in association with Sydney WorldPride. Written by rising-star Australian playwright, Elias Jamieson Brown (Green Park), and directed by Kate Gaul (The Trouble with Harry, Hayes Theatre Company's H.M.S Pinafore), CAMP welcomes us to the punk lands of the 1970s to chart the birth of Australia's fierce gay rights movement. Ultimately spanning five decades of glorious queer history, this is a powerful tale of struggle, success, love, and liberation, inspired by true stories from those who were there.

In March, Squabbalogic (Man of La Mancha) returns to the Seymour with On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, a revamped adaptation of the '60s Broadway gem and cult Barbra Streisand film. Starring Jay James-Moody (The Book of Mormon) and Blake Bowden (The Phantom of the Opera), On A Clear Day follows the neurotic David Gamble, who enlists the services of psychiatrist and hypnotist, Dr Mark Bruckner, in an effort to quit nicotine, but soon gets caught in an otherworldly love triangle as the doctor discovers inside David the presence of a charming woman who died decades earlier. Fast-paced and joyous, On A Clear Day features all-new musical arrangements and brings a fresh queer twist to a classic tale.

Outhouse Theatre Co (Heroes of the Fourth Turning) is back at the Seymour in June with the Australian premiere of Nina Raine's UK smash, Consent, following barrister friends, Ed and Tim, who take opposing briefs in a rape case. The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs, but at home, the duo's own lives begin to unravel in a frenzy of betrayals and recrimination. Probing the murky moral terrain of the courtroom and the marriage bed, Consent is rich with ideas and theatrical ingenuity, a work of sparkling intelligence, wit, and power that compelled UK audiences and set the West End alight with chatter and conversation.

In July, Tooth and Sinew presents a perfectly scary mid-winter treat - a brand-new adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. A superbly inventive take on one of the most celebrated horror stories ever written, The Turn of the Screw is a creeping and malevolent exploration of the way the crimes of the past poison long into the future, following a young woman sent to an isolated country estate to care for two precocious children, only to discover that things are not at all as they seem. Written and directed by Tooth and Sinew's Richard Hilliar (U.B.U.: A Cautionary Tale of Catastrophe at KXT), this gripping psychological thriller will leave you questioning your senses and checking every shadow.

In September, Sport for Jove takes us inside the world of Shakespeare's epic plague-era poem, Venus and Adonis, to tell a remarkable story about the need to love, the right to speak, and the power of the printed word. It's a passionate cry from the soul on behalf of artists and their eternal value, set against the backdrop of Shakespeare's searing tale of intimacy, identity, and the erotic freedom of touch. Released as a feature film in 2020 and finally making its world premiere on stage, Venus and Adonis is written and directed by Sport for Jove's Damien Ryan (The Crucible), and represents Sport for Jove at its very best.

Rounding out the season in November, Seymour welcomes Little Eggs Collective, winner of Best Independent Production at the 2021 Sydney Theatre Awards, with The Lost Boys, a new, multidisciplinary, ensemble-based work inspired by Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie. Working across live music, movement, and spoken word to deliver collaborative, timely, and compelling performances, Little Eggs represents a unique contribution to Australian contemporary theatre, and their retelling of the Peter Pan story promises a deliciously dark, ferociously intoxicating evening of play, magic, and chaos, harnessing the power of young people forgotten by the real world.

Plus, as a very special add-on, and following an incredibly successful workshop production in 2019, Squabbalogic will return to the Seymour in August with the full, world premiere production of The Dismissal, a rollicking, razor-sharp musical account of the epic constitutional crisis that led to Gough Whitlam's 1975 prime ministerial dismissal. Tickets for this production will go on sale in early 2023, and a wait list is available.

Seymour Centre's 2023 season shows are available in a variety of multipacks, with two-, three-, four-, five- and six-show packs on offer.

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