Sydney’s New Theatre has revealed the eight plays that make up its 2025 Season.
“We’re announcing our season a little later than usual, but I think you’ll agree it’s worth the wait, with a full compliment of eight shows, including two world premieres and two Australian premieres!” says Artistic Director, Louise Fischer.
“I’m excited to be joined be a group of dynamic and imaginative directors. Returning to lead shows are Patrick Howard (Once in Royal David’s City, Control), Emma Whitehead (The Chocolate Roster), Alex Kendall Robson (Homos, or Everyone in America) and Mark G Nagle (Fucking Men, Beautiful Thing) and we welcome Patrick Kennedy, Xavier Coy and Tasha O’Brien, who are all making their New Theatre directorial debuts.”
The plays in New Theatre’s 2025 Season include:
The Flea
4 February – 8 March
London, 1889. Charlie Swinscow, a young post office worker, gets busted with 14 shillings in his pocket. But the twist? He didn’t steal it. That cash was payment for his body. Sold to a wealthy aristocrat at a secret gay brothel with ties to the Royal Family. What starts as a petty arrest spirals into something much bigger. Charlie and his mother get caught in the middle of a national scandal that shakes the very foundations of the British Empire. This is a wild, unfiltered, unpredictable trip through power, deception and disgrace. Raw, funny and sexy, in this true story about the notorious Cleveland Street Scandal, nothing is what it seems and everything feels like a fever dream. This isn’t history; it’s a whole vibe. Get ready for the ride. Australian premiere | Playwright: James Fritz | Director: Patrick Kennedy
Fighting
18 March – 12 April
Winner of the 2022 Silver Gull Play Award, Fighting is an exploration into the mind of one man as he traverses the highs and lows of Bipolar over the course of a day, battling with both the people in his life and the voices in his head. He works in a shop run by an elderly couple. They enjoy a virile sex life, while he is desperately lonely. He is confronted by his ex-girlfriend who is now engaged. A panic attack ensues. He has a date that night with a woman he quite fancies. The evening is a disaster. Feelings of worthlessness and despair whirl around his head, triggering a depressive episode. Then the phone rings. He lives to fight another day. World premiere | Playwright & Director: Xavier Coy
In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
22 April – 17 May
In the spa town of Saratoga Springs, shortly after the end of the American Civil War and the dawn of electricity, Dr Givings specialises in gynecological disorders. His treatment of women suffering from ‘hysteria’ involves a revolutionary new ‘massage device’ that produces a ‘paroxysm’. Lonely and sexually frustrated, his young wife Catherine befriends one of her husband’s patients, becoming increasingly fascinated by the electrical-powered instruments and strange sounds emanating from ‘the next room’. This clever, funny, profoundly thoughtful play throws a feminist light on the emotional and physical neglect endured by women in a male-dominated society. Playwright: Sarah Ruhl | Director: Emma Whitehead
Dangerous Liaisons
27 May – 28 June
For decades, the sharp-tongued Marquess de Merteuil and rakish Viscount de Valmont have delighted in emotional manipulation and psychological warfare, with seemingly no regard for those who get swept up in their games. However, their recent simple wager that the Viscount can seduce an innocent young woman goes tragically wrong when he breaks the rules and the Marquess changes the game entirely. With real feelings emerging out of their struggle for power, who shall have the final victory? Love and Revenge. Our favourites. Sydney premiere | Playwright: Deborah Mulhall | Director: Tasha O’Brien
Hir
8 July – 2 August
Dishonourably discharged from the army, Afghanistan vet Isaac has returned to find his family and Californian childhood home in disarray. His abusive and controlling father, Arnold, has suffered a stroke and is now helplessly dependent on his wife, Paige, who is finally getting her revenge after a lifetime of oppression, waging war on the patriarchy by refusing to clean. Meanwhile, his younger sibling Max is exploring ‘hir’ identity, desperately searching for a way to fit in and buoyed by an almost-too-supportive mother. When PTSD and waning male privilege collide with clown makeup and plans for radical communes, ‘home’ explodes. Taylor Mac’s satirical take-down of the USA, war, money, family and gender, asks compelling questions about identity, belonging, trauma and redemption. Playwright: Taylor Mac | Director: Patrick Howard
The Frogs: in Hell They Sing Show-Tunes
12 August – 13 September
The world is on fire, people are dying. There’s war and plague. And cuts to arts funding. It’ll take a miracle to save humanity. Dionysus, the god of theatre, teams up with his trusty sidekick Xanthias on an odyssey to the Underworld, hoping to resurrect a dead playwright to save the world of the living. On the road to hell, however, they meet a colony of frogs, not only seemingly happy about the chaos above, but singing show tunes to celebrate. It would be funny if it wasn’t so damn sad. This classic of Ancient Greek comedy is given a bold new interpretation in a uniquely Australian voice. World premiere | Director & Playwright: Alex Kendall Robson (after Aristophanes)
The Laramie Project
7 October – 1 November
In 1998, in the tight-knit town of Laramie, Wyoming, a young gay man named Matthew Shepard was the victim of a homophobic hate crime. In the wake of the national media frenzy that followed, ten members of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project visited Laramie on six separate occasions over two years, in an attempt to find out what happened and why. They conducted more than 200 interviews with members of the community, creating a chronicle of a town’s trauma. The play that Kaufman crafted from those transcripts has been hailed as one of the most impactful works of verbatim theatre in the 21st century. A ensemble cast portray more than 60 characters in this shattering depiction of a profoundly moving modern tragedy. Playwright: Moisés Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theater Project | Director: Mark G Nagle
Present Laughter
11 November – 13 December
Actor Garry Essendine is possibly the most desired man in the world. He is handsome, charming, self-deprecating, self-obsessed, and in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Over the course of a few days, on the eve of an overseas tour, he finds his life bombarded by the conflicting desires of others. As an obsessed fan, a starlet, an aspiring playwright and a stage mother cause chaos, it is the efforts of his wife, his manager and his long-suffering secretary that may finally save the day. A fast and furious farce, complete with misunderstandings, narrow escapes and double-entendres, this is Noël Coward at his absolute best. Playwright: Noël Coward | Director: Louise Fischer
For more information about New Theatre’s 2025 season, visit: www.newtheatre.org.au for details.
Image: New Theatre’s 2025 Season (supplied)