Seymour Centre Announces Part One Of 2021 Season

Seymour Centre has announced the first three shows of its 2021 season, playing from February to June, plus an exciting new play in development presented as part of Sydney Festival.

Featuring an Australian premiere, an explosive satire and a returning favourite, the 2021 Seymour Season: Part One is the perfect way to celebrate the return of live performance and herald in the new year.

The Seymour's Artistic Director, Timothy Jones, said, "After a devastating year for the arts, I'm so glad the Seymour can continue our commitment to supporting outstanding independent theatre companies through our curated season program. The productions in Part One of our season are of the highest quality, exploring big, bold ideas from major local and international playwrights."

The season begins in February with the Australian premiere of John Donnelly's The Pass, presented by Fixed Foot Productions and playing as part of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. A hit at The Royal Court Theatre in London, this powerful, timely drama opens on two young soccer players on the verge of making it big, horsing around in a hotel room until something passes between them. This one moment reverberates through the next ten years of their lives-a decade of fame and failure, of secrets and lies-in the high-stakes world of professional sport where image is everything.

In May, Outhouse Theatre Co (winner of Best Independent Production at the 2019 Sydney Theatre Awards) will present the Sydney premiere of Ulster American, David Ireland's brilliantly brutal satire set in the jungle of post-#MeToo show business. When an Oscar-winning actor, an up-and-coming director and a talented female playwright meet to discuss a new West End play, the stage looks set for success-but clashing opinions and ambitions meet and a line is crossed, causing their discussion to escalate into violence. Winner of the top prize at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe and exploring abuse of power and the silencing of the female voice, Ulster American is not for the faint of heart-and not to be missed.

Then, in June, Griffin Theatre Company's award-winning tour de force, Prima Facie, returns for a limited three-week run after a sold-out, critically acclaimed 2019 season. Sheridan Harbridge is back as Tessa-a criminal lawyer at the top of her game whose steadfast faith in the law comes tumbling down when she finds herself on the other side of the bar as a victim of sexual assault. Taut and gripping, Suzie Miller's one-woman show exposes the shortcomings of a patriarchal justice system where it's her word against his.

In addition to its season program, the Seymour is also developing a stage adaptation of Heather Rose's Stella Prize-winning novel, The Museum of Modern Love, set against the backdrop of Marina Abramović's legendary performance art piece, The Artist is Present. Showing as part of the 2021 Sydney Festival, the developing work will be presented as rehearsals and moved readings, providing audiences with the unique experience of being in the room while the play is created and blurring the lines between spectator and artist just as Abramović does in her own work.

Tickets for The Pass, Ulster American, Prima Facie and The Museum of Modern Love: Open Rehearsal and Reading are available now via the Seymour Centre website.

The 2021 Seymour Season: Part Two will be announced in the new year.

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