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Four world premieres including a special commission for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the Australian premiere of a major new international production from the world’s greatest director Peter Brook and three reinvigorated classics form the core of State Theatre Company of South Australia’s 2014 season. The season features a number of casting coups including star of the Harry Potter movies Miriam Margolyes, Adelaide born Xavier Samuel making his first stage appearance since shooting to stardom in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Australia’s greatest trouper Nancye Hayes, the unique talent of Paul Capsis and Adelaide favourites Rosalba Clemente and Nathan O’Keefe.

The season, the second for Artistic Director Geordie Brookman and CEO/Producer Rob Brookman builds on the success of 2013, which has seen an increase of 30% in attendances from 2012.

Geordie Brookman said, “for 2014, which will see the season expand further with a “State Extra” production in addition to 7 main-stage works, an Education production and a State Umbrella production, our focus is on combining the Company’s style of direct, emotive storytelling with a program that spins around themes of community, connection and love.

We want to give our audience the best Adelaide, Australia and the world has to offer and also to give the world the best South Australia has to offer. Through an ambitious co-producing and touring program we’re further connecting the company locally, nationally and internationally with a season of productions of the highest calibre.”

Rob Brookman said “we have been absolutely delighted with the way that Adelaide audiences have embraced State Theatre Company with its expanded and re-energised programs. Our number of productions and performances are up, subscriber numbers are up and single ticket sales are way up. Most importantly, the response from theatre-goers has been very enthusiastic and we have felt really encouraged to further develop our program accordingly. 2014 represents an exciting progression and takes us to a great new level.”

State Theatre’s 2014 season opens with rising young star Xavier Samuel starring as Konstantin, and Rosabla Clemente as Arkadina in Anton Chekhov’s classic The Seagull. This new adaptation by leading Australian playwright Hilary Bell marks the first time in more than fifteen years that a professional production of The Seagull has played in Adelaide. Presented in association with the Adelaide Festival The Seagull will be performed in an intimate traverse mode in the State Theatre Company Scenic Workshop.

In an Adelaide exclusive international star of stage and screen Miriam Margolyes joins State Theatre Company for the first time in a new production of Neighbourhood Watch (Helpmann Award nominee - Best Play) by prolific young Australian playwright Lally Katz. This comedy about hope, death and pets will be directed by Helpmann Award winner Julian Meyrick in the Dunstan Playhouse.

Little Bird is a brand new commission for and starring Australian stage legend Paul Capsis in his first performances with State Theatre Company. Presented in association with the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in Her Majesty’s Theatre Little Bird is a one man play with songs written by Nicki Bloom with music by Aria Award winning musician Cameron Goodall and renowned theatre composer Quentin Grant.

After a 20 year absence Oscar Wilde’s comedy of love, manners and mistaken identity The Importance of Being Earnest returns to the Dunstan Playhouse stage. Starring grand dame of the Australian theatre Nancye Hayes OAM as Lady Bracknell and one of South Australia’s most exciting comic actors Nathan O’Keefe as Algernon, this all new production will be directed by Geordie Brookman and tour to Canberra, Geelong and Wollongong.

In an Adelaide exclusive State Theatre Company will host the Australian premiere of Peter Brook’s and Theatre Des Bouffes Du Nord’s internationally acclaimed production of The Suit. Brook, the world’s greatest living theatre director, premiered this English language production of The Suit in 2012 at London’s Young Vic and it has gone on to conquer stages around the world. A story of adultery and betrayal, The Suit is based on the novel by Can Themba which was banned in his native South Africa during the apartheid era. It will be the first English language production by Peter Brook to visit Adelaide since Adelaide Festival’s The Mahabharata 25 years ago.

Kryptonite is a new Australian play by Sue Smith (The Kreutzer Sonata) which will be directed by Geordie Brookman and co-produced with Sydney Theatre Company. A fast paced, politically charged two hander, Kryptonite follows the relationship between two university students over two decades from Sydney University, to China and then to Parliament House Canberra as their careers and relationships intertwine, peak and implode. The production will be rehearsed and built in Adelaide and then transfer to Sydney ahead of the Adelaide run.

The final production of the 2014 mainstage season will be a contemporary and very Australian production of one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, Othello, directed by State Theatre Company Artistic Associate Nescha Jelk in her main-stage directing debut. Played in a contemporary military setting, Othello dives deep into themes of human prejudice, paranoia and our ability to give way to our shadow-selves. The production will once again combine Hazem Shammas and Renato Musolino (the Dromio twins in from 2013’s The Comedy of Errors) in one of Shakespeare’s most compelling pairings, Othello and Iago.

In 2014 State Theatre Company will premiere its first ever Education Program commission. Jesikah, by Adelaide-born Patrick White Playwright Award winner Phillip Kavanagh is a new black comedy which looks at fame obsessed overexposure in the You Tube age through the lives of two school girls to be played by Kate Cheel and Elizabeth Hay. The production will be directed by Nescha Jelk and tour metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia ahead of a season in the Space Theatre.

Marking the centenary of the beginning of World War One State Theatre Company will present the Sydney Theatre Company and Australian Department of Defence’s historic endeavour, The Long Way Home. Directed by Britain’s Stephen Rayne and written by multi-award winning Australian playwright Daniel Keene, The Long Way Home features a cast of servicemen and women alongside professional actors. The production will be created from first-hand accounts, interviews and improvisations with service personnel deployed on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor.

State Theatre Company’s second State Umbrella Production will see support given to a new production of Between Two Waves by Sydney playwright Ian Meadows at The Bakehouse Theatre. Between Two Waves won acclaim at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre in 2012. In a new production, directed by Corey McMahon, the play looks at the ‘climate change generation’ connecting personal neurosis with the challenges of climate change.

State Theatre Company will join once again with Windmill Theatre to present their 2012 co-production Pinocchio as part of Sydney Theatre’s 2014 season at the Sydney Opera House. The Company will also welcome local independent companies isthisyours? And Flying Penguin Productions as part of its ongoing State Resident program.