Merrigong Season 2012
| Theatre Season | Buy Season Tickets | ||||
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Griffin Theatre Company's Direct from its Sydney Festival season - a powerful and dangerous descent into the darker parts of our culture. |
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07 Mar 12 - 10 Mar 12 | ||
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A Belvoir production Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Master theatre-maker Neil Armfield's stunning revival of Australia's first great classic for the theatre. |
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21 Mar 12 - 24 Mar 12 | ||
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The Traverse Theatre Company production of Scotland's smash-hit musical rom-com. |
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03 Apr 12 - 07 Apr 12 | ||
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Ride On Theatre’s The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself Promiscuous prophet or philandering fool? Mary MacLane is a woman you'd be mad not to meet. |
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15 May 12 - 19 May 12 | ||
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A Merrigong Theatre Company production A powerful and emotional new play set in the Illawarra of the 1870s. |
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05 Jun 12 - 16 Jun 12 | ||
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A Critical Stages and The Follies Company production A magical fusion of drama, romance and ballroom dancing. |
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17 Jul 12 - 21 Jul 12 | ||
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Griffin Theatre Company’s An astonishing, evocative piece of autobiographical theatre from one of Australia's finest performers. |
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28 Aug 12 - 01 Sep 12 | ||
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A La Mama Theatre / fortyfivedownstairs production Behind each image there's a story. But is it the truth we want, or just the next front page? |
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02 Oct 12 - 06 Oct 12 | ||
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Bell Shakespeare’s A fresh take on Moliere's classic comedy. |
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16 Oct 12 - 20 Oct 12 | ||
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A Regan de Wynter production Direct from London, Sasha Regan's award-winning production is a very new take on a much-loved classic. |
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31 Oct 12 - 04 Nov 12 | ||
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A Belvoir production Toby Schmitz stars in Noel Coward's fizzingly witty comedy of manners. |
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14 Nov 12 - 17 Nov 12 | ||
| Other Events | Buy Season Tickets | ||||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's The Vault Cabaret - March 2012 The very best local performers and new talent strut their stuff at this vibrant, bi-monthly event. |
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17 Mar 12 - 17 Mar 12 | ||
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Merrigong Talking Point: Cora Bissett 'Theatre as a Form of Activism and Social Protest'. An opportunity to learn more about theatre, the arts and the world around us. |
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02 Apr 12 - 02 Apr 12 | ||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's Showcasing new work in development with Merrigong Theatre Company. |
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28 Apr 12 - 08 Sep 12 | ||
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Merrigong Talking Point: Tim Rogers 'From Rock Stadium to Intimate Theatre'. An opportunity to learn more about theatre, the arts and the world around us. |
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14 May 12 - 14 May 12 | ||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's The very best local performers and new talent strut their stuff at this vibrant, bi-monthly event. |
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19 May 12 - 19 May 12 | ||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's The very best local performers and new talent strut their stuff at this vibrant, bi-monthly event. |
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21 Jul 12 - 21 Jul 12 | ||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's The Vault Cabaret - September 2012 The very best local performers and new talent strut their stuff at this vibrant, bi-monthly event. |
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15 Sep 12 - 15 Sep 12 | ||
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Merrigong Theatre Company's An annual celebration of Vault Cabaret performances at IPAC. |
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10 Nov 12 - 10 Nov 12 | ||
| Kids & Families | Buy Season Tickets | ||||
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Melbourne International Comedy Festival's A one-of-a-kind national comedy competition and workshop program for students in Years 9 -12. |
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10 Mar 12 - 10 Mar 12 | ||
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CDP presents Tall Stories’ magical musical adaptation of Based on the award-winning picture book, this charming sequel to The Gruffalo is filled with music, laughs and scary fun for children... and their adults. |
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13 Apr 12 - 14 Apr 12 | ||
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Monkey Baa’s A fast-paced musical comedy based on the book by Tim Winton that will make you laugh your bum off! |
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09 Jul 12 - 11 Jul 12 | ||
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Illawarra Children’s Services and Merrigong Theatre Company present South Coast Children's Festival 2012 Three awesome days of amazing creative experiences for children. |
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28 Sep 12 - 30 Sep 12 | ||
| Merrigong Moves | Buy Season Tickets | ||||
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A Critical Stages and The Follies Company production A magical fusion of drama, romance and ballroom dancing. |
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17 Jul 12 - 21 Jul 12 | ||
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Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bangarra's new work is a stunning fusion of dance and storytelling. |
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24 Aug 12 - 25 Aug 12 | ||
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Circus that's charming, cheeky, and totally over the top! |
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12 Sep 12 - 16 Sep 12 | ||
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Sydney Dance Company’s A visual feast from Sydney's iconic dance company. |
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09 Nov 12 - 10 Nov 12 | ||
| Add-on Shows | Buy Season Tickets | ||||
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version 1.0 and Merrigong Theatre Company's Sex, lies & dirty deals... The sold out hit of 2011 returns for one final season. |
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10 Apr 12 - 14 Apr 12 | ||
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Andrew McKinnon presents Miriam Margolyes in One of the world's best-loved actors takes us on a journey into the life and work of Charles Dickens. |
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20 Apr 12 - 21 Apr 12 | ||
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A new production from Opera Australia’s Oz Opera. Mozart's Love. Betrayal. Passion. Revenge. |
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02 Aug 12 - 04 Aug 12 | ||
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Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bangarra's new work is a stunning fusion of dance and storytelling. |
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24 Aug 12 - 25 Aug 12 | ||
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Circus that's charming, cheeky, and totally over the top! |
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12 Sep 12 - 16 Sep 12 | ||
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The brilliant trio return to take another swipe at politics and popular culture. |
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24 Sep 12 - 26 Sep 12 | ||
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Sydney Dance Company’s A visual feast from Sydney's iconic dance company. |
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09 Nov 12 - 10 Nov 12 | ||
The most exciting thing...
...about my job is that the world of theatre is endless - there is simply no limit to the imagination of playwrights, to the interpretive powers of actors, or the ingenuity of directors and designers. So in programming a season, where do you start?
I wish I could tell you that there is some over-arching theme behind the year of theatre we present to you in this brochure, but to tell the truth, while there are always the mundane constraints of venue availability, dates and dollars, there is really only one guiding principle to the choices wemake for our season, and it is this:
The theatre we produce and present at Merrigong should not be ordinary. It should be special. It should on some level, or in some way, lift us from our day-to-day lives - transport us, thrill us, amuse us, open our minds, strengthen us.
I think our 2012 season does this.
Every year around the world, lots of incredible new pieces of theatre are made, but audiences also delight in revisiting works that have become milestones in the development of theatre, that we refer to as ‘classics’, be they modern, ancient, or in-between.
Our 2012 Season begins with two such Australian classics - The Boys, a searing exposé of the violent heart of Australian male culture, revisited a generation after it first exploded onto the Sydney stage; and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, which is arguably our first great play, and in the 1950s began the defining of an Australian theatre.
At the other end of the year, we have three international works, all unquestionably classics, and all very different examples of that most delicious staple of the stage - comedy. Moliere’s brilliant The School for Wives reminds us of the debt we owe him for showing us just how funny theatre can be; Gilbert and Sullivan’s incomparably silly The Pirates of Penzance is the very model of a madcap, musically joyous, romp; and finally Noël Coward’s Private Lives is a testament to how witty words can be in the hands of a master of our language.
In between these classics, we’ll experience some of the most exciting new theatre work imaginable. We’ll be taken to the rain-soaked cobblestones of modern-day Edinburgh, the electric atmosphere of early twentieth-century America, the 1870s of our own Illawarra region, and experience a young woman’s journey from Malta to Surry Hills in the 1940s.
All of this will be brought to us by names we know, like Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare and Griffin Theatre Company, and some we don’t, like Ride On Theatre and Forty Five Downstairs. There’ll be our very own Merrigong production, and of course, some international gems - a smash-hit all-male Pirates of Penzance direct from London, and Scotland’s renowned Traverse Theatre Company, who we are proud to be bringing to Australia for the first time.
I hope you’ll agree that none of this is just ‘ordinary’, in fact it is all rather special. So please, come to our theatre, put your day-to-day life on pause for an hour or two, and...
be lifted.
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Download the Merrigong 2012 Season Brochure here. [PDF 4 MB]
