VENUS AND ADONIS Comes to Seymour Centre in September

Following its critically acclaimed cinematic debut in 2020, Sport for Jove and Seymour Centre will present the world premiere of Damien Ryan’s new play Venus and Adonis, reframing the extraordinary vision of Shakespeare’s most important work of poetry, on at the Seymour Centre from the 29th September to 21st October. 

“And in a world fucked by plague, death, and isolation, intimacy is a rare gawd…”

It’s 1593. The plague has hit London. Theatres are closed, players out of work, houses bolted, people terrified by the touch of another’s skin, the breath of another’s air. 

Shakespeare, syphilitic and dangerously bored, publishes a scandalous response to the pestilence – an epic work about the very things lost to us, like intimacy, identity, and the erotic freedom of touch. 

The brainchild of writer and director Damien Ryan (Managing Director & Artistic Director of Sport for Jove), Venus and Adonis “bends history” (The Sydney Morning Herald) and follows the story of Shakespeare’s most significant rival and rumoured mistress, Aemilia Lanyer. Cast as a “libidinous Venus” in Ryan’s play within a play, Lanyer’s tale is a masterful work about the need to love, the right to speak, and the power of the printed word. 

Director Damien Ryan said, “We are endlessly excited to finally bring our passionate work on this story to the stage. Covid nipped it cruelly in the bud in 2020 and these wonderful artists helped us pivot to a cinematic approach, both to create work at such a debilitating time and to give a story we so deeply cared about a home. But it belongs to the stage, and we are so thrilled to finally regather the team and stage the work at our beloved home, the Seymour Centre. There is a lot of excitement about the show and we are so grateful and overwhelmed by the support we have received in getting it up. We can’t wait to get to work.” 

Sport for Jove’s (SFJ) production features an all-star cast, including Anthony Gooley (Ensemble Theatre’s The Caretaker), Adele Querol (SFJ’s Othello), Jerome Meyer (New Theatricals’ Darkness), Belinda Giblin (Belvoir’s The Weekend), Bernadette Ryan (SFJ’s Rose Riot), Christopher Tomkinson (Leg’s on the Wall’s Holding Achilles), Ava Madon (Hayes Theatres’ The Lucky Country), Kevin MacIsaac (Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet) and Dinitha Senevirathne (ABC’s The PM's Daughter).

VENUS AND ADONIS

DATES: 29th September – 21st October 2023

TIMES: Mondays and Tuesdays 6:30pm; Wednesdays to Fridays 7:30pm; Saturdays 1:30pm & 7:30pm

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

BOOKINGS: https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/venus-and-adonis/ or (02) 9061 5344

TICKETS: Full $54 / Concession $42 / Under 35, Groups 8+ $39 / Preview $45

AGE: Recommended for ages 16+; parental guidance recommended for those under 16. Contains adult themes, nudity, sex scenes, coarse language, haze smoke, and loud or sudden sounds. 

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