MTC Associate Director Aidan Fennessy has announced the 2012 Lawler Studio Season.
For the 2012 Lawler Studio Season, MTC has invited five playwrights and two directors to work with the Company for the first time. Angela Betzien, Melissa Reeves, Matthew Ryan, Lucas Stibbard and Roland Schimmelpfennig are outstanding playwrights who have received prestigious awards in recognition of their work. Susie Dee and Clare Watson have directed some of Australia's most innovative productions. Robert Reid makes his second appearance at MTC with
On the Production of Monsters, following his 2011 MTC mainstage offering
The Joy of Text.
Plays by Angela Betzien, Melissa Reeves and Robert Reid will have their world premieres at the Lawler Studio this year.
Daniel Clarke who was Assistant Director on
The Importance of Being Earnest and recently directed the hit Adelaide Fringe show
The Year of Magical Wanking, undertakes German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig's multifaceted production
The Golden Dragon.
MTC will collaborate with two of the country's most accomplished independent theatre companies, The Escapists, whose spectacular one-man show
Boy Girl Wall has enjoyed three sell-out seasons in Brisbane; and Real TV bringing
Helicopter to the stage by the dynamic team Angela Betzien and Leticia Cáceres.
Boy Girl Wall and
Helicopter are also part of the 2012 MTC Education Season.
Lawler Studio Season
• Opening the 2012 Lawler Studio Season is Brisbane's hit one-man extravaganza
Boy Girl Wall by
Matthew Ryan and
Lucas Stibbard, starring Helpmann Award nominee Lucas Stibbard.
• Robert Reid is back with a biting satire inspired by the media frenzy surrounding the Bill Henson photography scandal. Clare Watson directs
On the Production of Monsters with Virginia Gay (
Winners & Losers) and James Saunders, both playing multiple characters.
• The National Post dubbed Roland Schimmelpfennig the world's new favourite German playwright. His latest work
The Golden Dragon is a brutal and mysterious theatrical feast about the modern migratory world, directed by Daniel Clarke and starring Dana Miltins.
• Starring Daniela Farinacci, Charles E. C. Grounds and Terry Yeboah and directed by Leticia Cáceres,
Helicopter is an unnervingly familiar suburban satire by Angela Betzien whose recent Sydney Theatre Award-winning play
The Dark Room garnered rave reviews and a sell-out season in Sydney.
• A middle-aged woman develops an irrepressible crush on her rather young Chinese masseur in
Happy Ending, a comedy about desire and misguided obsession. Written by award-winning playwright Melissa Reeves, directed by Susie Dee and starring Keith Brockett, Fanny Hanusin and Gareth Yuen.
In addition to five Lawler Studio productions, the venue will host three Lawler Studio Residencies and MTC's
Cybec Readings series. The residents will each use the Lawler Studio for two weeks at three different points during the year to develop their respective projects.
The Cybec Readings will present three brand new plays in November this year. More details will be available mid-year via the Melbourne Theatre Company website –
mtc.com.au.