Things I Know to be True program by Belvoir

THINGS I KNOW

TO BE TRUE BY ANDREW BOVELL

Matt Levett

Belvoir presents

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE By Andrew Bovell Directed by Neil Armfield This production of Things I Know To Be True opened at Belvoir St Theatre on Wednesday 12 June 2019. Set Designer Stephen Curtis Costume Designer Tess Schofield Lighting Designer Damien Cooper Composer Alan John Sound Designer Steve Francis Fight and Movement Director Nigel Poulton Stage Manager Luke McGettigan Assistant Stage Manager Georgia Pead Scenic Art Neil Mallard

With Miranda Daughtry Tom Hobbs Matt Levett Tony Martin Anna Lise Phillips Helen Thomson

Things I Know To Be True was first produced by The State Theatre Company of South Australia and Frantic Assembly in 2016 Supported by the Chair's Circle.

We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation who are the traditional custodians of the land on which Belvoir St Theatre is built. We also pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging, and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. PRODUCTION THANKS Lucky Price Creative, Macgyver Models (Rose Bushes), Julie Jenkins, Nellie Jenkins, Cris Baldwin, Kitan Petkovski, Zoe Davis

DESIGN Alphabet Studio PHOTOGRAPHY Heidrun Lรถhr, Michael Kennedy

WRITER'S NOTE ANDREW BOVELL

Neil Armfield has noted that family is the central theme in my work but in Things I Know To Be True the focus on it has never been sharper. The seeds of this play are located in my own childhood, growing up in country towns in WA and in the suburbs of Perth as one of four children. Here, I began to understand the joys and demands of familial love. This understanding has deepened by the experience of bringing up three children of my own with my partner Eugenia. The play began to take shape in an early workshop at the State Theatre Company in Adelaide. Co-directors Geordie Brookman and Scott Graham and I began to map out an emotional world with a group of six actors. We told each other stories about family and life and getting it wrong and getting it right. And we took those ideas into a series of improvisations, which provided the DNA of the work. Most of these actors remained with the project, which premiered at the Playhouse in Adelaide in 2016. These included the late Paul Blackwell, Eugenia Fragos, Nathan O’Keefe and Tilly Cobham-Hervey who were joined by Georgia Adamson and Tim Walters. A role is often shaped by the first actor to play it and I thank them all for their work. It was Tilly in fact, who provided me with the title of the play when she told a story about making a list of the things she knew to be true after having broken up with a boyfriend whilst travelling in Europe. The play is about transition and change and I found the shape to treat this theme within nature. It is set over the course 02

of the four seasons in a single year and takes place primarily in the back yard of the family home. In each season the focus shifts from one child to another as each struggles through a crisis of identity. But the focus is on the impact each crisis has on their parents, Bob and Fran. Theirs is a story of a resilient marriage. They are working class parents who have worked all their lives to ensure their children had more options than they did, only to discover that the choices their children make reject the values by which they have lived. It is a bitter irony and central to the Australian story. But the sympathy of the play does not lie solely with the parents. Love is a powerful force. At its best it holds you through life. At its worst it is a form of control. Here, we see four strong minded children struggle to define themselves beyond the expectations of their parents. Things are said and hearts are broken but they remain a powerful force as a family at the end of it. There is a line at the end of the play that pretty well sums it up. “She thought about love and how sometimes you could give too much and sometimes you couldn’t give enough and knowing the right place in between wasn’t easy”. I’m thrilled that the play has come to Belvoir in its second Australian production under the direction of Neil who, like me and so many of us was brought up, not in the great interior and not in our cities but in that vast place in-between – the suburbs. This play is a homage to that place.

Andrew Bovell

DIRECTORS NOTE NEIL ARMFIELD

What attracted you to Things I Know To Be True in the first place? It’s such a satisfying play because it feels so monumentally complete. The family has this feeling of being a kind of microcosm of society. There is a refrain that goes through the play, one of ‘this garden is the world’, and that is something that is reflected in the manner of the parents and children, and their relationships with one another, and this ongoing interest in what is passed on from parent to a child, which is an enduring obsession of Andrews. In Things I Know To Be True it feels like Andrew has achieved something exquisitely self-contained but which reaches right out into Australian society. My sense of identification watching it, and of all the cast, is really quite profound, in that I keep on being thrown back into my own memories of childhood, my own memories of my parents’ backyard, right down to the green lozenge-shaped plastic table that the events of the play take place around. You say things grow in this garden, what do you think is growing in this garden, of this family? There is love above all, but there is fear and resentment, there is jealousy and striving for identity, there is fighting for self against the ambition or impulse for control the parents have for their children, there is an ongoing struggle to release yourself from that but also to want to hang on to it.

Parents don’t mean to, but they mess you up, each in their own different ways. But Andrew also writes with such love, it’s our job to get all of the angles of pain and power, and the balancing of power that happens within this group, without ever dropping into sentimentality. I love the fact there is an ongoing obsession that the children who are all responding to forces that we see around us, in our country, in our society at the moment trying to hold on to or trying to get yourself material security. The kids are all dealing with what everyone is dealing with in Australia at the moment, and I love the parents insist on the idea that all the children are treated the same - what one gets the other one gets - which was very much the refrain of my parents. What’s it like being back at Belvoir? I’m just loving being back in the Belvoir corner, what this curious asymmetrical playground does to the relationships between characters, it’s fantastic. I did the very first Belvoir play on that stage with Stephen Curtis painting the stage green for Patrick White’s Signal Driver and a few leaves scattered on the floor, and it feels like we’ve come full circle.

Neil Armfield

Tom Hobbs

Alan John & Steve Francis

BIOGRAPHIES ANDREW BOVELL Writer Andrew is one of Australia’s most respected and successful playwrights. His work has been produced extensively throughout Australia and internationally. The Secret River premiered at the Roslyn Packer Theatre in the 2013 Sydney Festival. When the Rain Stops Falling premiered at the 2008 Adelaide Festival of the Arts before touring nationally and internationally and going on to win numerous awards. Earlier works for the stage include Holy Day, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, Speaking in Tongues, Scenes From a Separation, Ship of Fools, After Dinner, The Ballad of Lois Ryan and State of Defense. After Dinner received new productions with Sydney Theatre Company in 2015 and State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2018. For film he is currently adapting the American novel Stoner, by John Williams for Blumhouse Productions. Other films include Edge of Darkness, Blessed, The Book of Revelation, Head On, Lust, The Fisherman’s Wake, Piccolo Mondo, Strictly Ballroom, the multi-award winning Lantana, the French language In the Shadow of Iris directed by Jalil Lespert, and A Most Wanted Man starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams. NEIL ARMFIELD Director Neil was co-founder of Belvoir St Theatre and its Artistic Director for 17 years, during which time he directed over 50 productions. Notable productions for Belvoir include Cloudstreet (toured to London twice, Dublin, Zurich, New York), Hamlet (toured Australia), Diary of a Madman (toured to Moscow, St Petersburg, New York), Exit The King (Sydney and Broadway), The Book of Everything (toured to New York), The Judas Kiss (toured Australia in 1999, the West End in 2012 with Rupert Everett, then Brooklyn Academy of Music New York and the Royal Alexandria Theatre Toronto in 2016), as well as The Secret River for STC adapted for theatre by Andrew Bovell. Neil is currently joint Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival with Rachel Healy. He is also a film director of some distinction (Candy, Holding the Man) and one of Australia’s most celebrated opera directors, nationally and internationally. Neil has won two AFI Awards, 12 Helpmann Awards, and many Sydney Theatre, Victorian Green Room and Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Awards. He has Honorary Doctorates from Sydney and NSW Universities, and in 2007 was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia.

MIRANDA DAUGHTRY Rosie Born and raised in the Adelaide foothills, Miranda graduated from NIDA (BDA Acting) in 2015. Miranda’s theatre credits include Three Sisters (Sydney Theatre Company), The Cherry Orchard (The New Theatre), Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Benjamin Sheen), Hysteria (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), A Doll’s House, Macbeth, In The Club and Sense and Sensibility (STCSA) all as a member of the 2017/18 STCSA Ensemble. For her role in A Doll’s House, Miranda received the award of Best Emerging Artist of the Year from the Adelaide Critics Circle and a Helpmann Award Nomination for Best Female Actor in a Play. Miranda is a proud member of Equity (MEAA). TOM HOBBS Mark On stage, Tom has performed in the critically acclaimed Tartuffe (Bell Shakespeare Company), His Girl Friday (MTC) and Macbeth with Jai Courtney (MTC). He was also recently seen in the Foxtel / Amazon series Picnic at Hanging Rock alongside Natalie Dormer. He appeared in Neil Armfield’s feature Holding the Man which premiered at the 2015 Sydney Film Festival, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and Jonathan Teplitzky’s The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Tom made his feature debut in Peter Jackson’s King Kong and worked again with Peter on the short film, Crossing the Line. He also appeared in Lynn-Maree Danzey’s short, Fetch, and the docudrama, Murder on the Blade. Tom’s other television credits include Rake, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Spartacus: Vengeance, Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Neighbours and Winners & Losers. Tom graduated from Victorian College of the Arts in 2010. MATT LEVETT Ben A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Matt most recently starred in the US feature film Caviar and reprised his role of ‘Andrew Swanson’ in Foxtel’s A Place To Call Home. Matt’s other credits include the AACTA and Logie winning miniseries The Devil’s Playground, Wolf Creek, The Secret Daughter, Winners & Losers, Dance Academy, Rescue Special Ops, Bed of Roses, Two Twisted, Home & Away, All Saints and the independent feature films Drown and Sunset People. Matt was the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Heath Ledger Scholarship.

PAGE

Imag

TONY MARTIN Bob Tony has had an extensive career in theatre, television and film. He trained at Ensemble Studios tutored by Hayes Gordon and in 1974 he gained a Diploma in Acting. His theatre credits include Capricornia and My Zinc Bed for Belvoir; as well as Mojo (STC); The Seed (MTC); Lips Together Teeth Apart (Ensemble Theatre) and The Hope of the World (Queensland Theatre Company). Tony is best known for his television roles in the ABC’s Wildside for which he received two TV Week Silver Logies for Most Outstanding Actor, Heartbreak High for which he was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Actor in a Television Series, and for his AFI Award winning performance in Blue Murder. His other television credits include Serangood Road, Blood Brothers, Mary Bryant, Jessica and E Street. Tony received a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award Nomination for his performance in the film, The Inverview. His other film credits include Healing, Neil Armfield’s Candy, Closed for Winter, and Parklands with Cate Blanchett. ANNA LISE PHILLIPS Pip Anna Lise is an actor and performer currently dividing her time between Melbourne, Los Angeles and Sydney. Her theatre credits include The Dark Room, The Spook (directed by Neil Armfield), Gates of Egypt, Rhinoceros, and Parlour Song (Belvoir); Wild (MTC); Festen and Romeo and Juliet (STC); Don’t Say The Words (Griffin), and most notably, Andrew Bovell’s When The Rain Stops Falling (Brink). She is currently appearing in ABC crime drama Harrow. Other television highlights include the AACTA award winning Devil’s Playground, Young Lions, The Secret Life of Us, Bastard Boys, US biopic The Three Stooges, The Son (AMC), and Revolution (NBC). Her film highlights include the 2010 Sundance winning Animal Kingdom, Envy (AFI nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), Backtrack, The Boys, The Pack, Walking on Water, US thriller The Tank, and the curmudgeonly lead in Melissa Finell’s comedy Sensitivity Training. Anna Lise won a GLUG Award for her portrayal of Becky Shaw in Ensemble Theatre’s Becky Shaw, and she is a proud member of Equity (MEAA). HELEN THOMSON Fran For Belvoir, Helen has appeared in Hir, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Ivanov, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Measure for Measure. Helen’s other theatre credits include Mary Stuart, Harp in The South, Top Girls, Hay Fever, After Dinner, Children of the Sun, Mrs Warren’s Profession, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), The Splinter (STC); Hinterland, Much Ado About Nothing, The Dutch Courtesan, A View from the Bridge, Othello, The Selection (MTC); The Winter’s Tale, Troilus and Cressida (Bell Shakespeare); Cruise Control (Ensemble Theatre); Footprints on Water (Neonheart

Theatre Company); Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee, Coralie Lansdowne Says No (Griffin Theatre Company); and The Crucible (Queensland Theatre Company). On film, Helen has appeared in A Man’s Gotta Do, Gettin’ Square, Kangaroo Jack, La Spagnola, Strange Planet and Thank God He Met Lizzie. Her television credits include Bad Mothers, Doctor Doctor, Love Child, Top of The Lake: China Girl, Rake, Catching Milat, Wonderland, Mr and Mrs Murder and Bastard Boys. Helen won a Helpmann Award in 2015 for After Dinner (STC) and has received numerous nominations. STEPHEN CURTIS Set Designer Stephen has worked extensively as a set and costume designer for drama, film, opera, dance and physical theatre. He designed the sets for Belvoir’s first production Signal Driver, and subsequently has designed sets and/or costumes for more than 20 Belvoir productions, including Barbara and The Camp Dogs, The Drover’s Wife, Twelfth Night, Gwen in Purgatory and Scorched. Other major theatre credits include The Secret River, A Man With Five Children, The Government Inspector (STC); I Am Eora (Sydney Festival); Lulu, The Cunning Little Vixen, La Boheme (Opera Australia); The Ring Cycle (State Opera of South Australia); The Hypocrite, Two Brothers, The Blue Room (MTC); The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV (Bell Shakespeare); Once In Royal David’s City, Black Diggers and Pygmalion (Queensland Theatre Company). As a production designer Stephen’s film credits include Looking For Alibrandi, Bedevil and Night Cries. Stephen has also published Staging Ideas: Set and Costume Design for Theatre as a guide to the art of theatre design, and The Designer: Decorator or Dramaturg? as a platform paper interrogating the contemporary role of the performance designer. TESS SCHOFIELD Costume Designer Tess’ designs for Belvoir productions, include: The Drover’s Wife, Faith Healer, The Wild Duck, Miss Julie, The Diary of a Madman, Namatjira (Big hART), Toy Symphony, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Waiting for Godot, Cloudstreet, Suddenly Last Summer, The Seagull, Hamlet, Les Enfants Du Paradis and A Lie of the Mind. Some of her other theatre credits include The Secret River, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Spring Awakening, Tot Mom, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Great, Riflemind, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mother Courage & Her Children (Sydney Theatre Company). Her designs for operas include Peter Grimes (Houston Grand Opera / Canadian Opera Company / Opera Australia); Sweeney Todd (Lyric Opera of Chicago / Royal Opera House London); The Triple Bill – The Prisoner / Berio Folk Songs / La Strada (English National Opera); Jenufa (0A) & La Traviata (HANDA Opera). Television credits include Netflix series Tidelands, Harrow S1 & Foxtel’s The Kettering Incident. Feature films include Rams, The Water Diviner, The Sapphires, Radiance and Cosi. Tess has received five AFI Awards, and won Green Room, Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Critics Awards for her designs.

Jimi

Miranda Daughtry & Tony Martin

Helen Thomson

Anna Lise Phillips

DAMIEN COOPER Lighting Designer Damien designs lighting for dance, theatre, opera and film. Designs for Belvoir include Counting and Cracking, A Taste of Honey, The Sugar House, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, The Great Fire, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Coranderrk, Miss Julie, Private Lives, Conversation Piece, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, Gethsemane and Keating! Career highlights include, among many, Exit The King on Broadway; The Lost Echo at STC, Birdbrain with ADT and Peter Pan at New Victory Theatre in New York. Opera credits include Neil Armfield’s The Ring Cycle with Opera Australia; A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company and Lyric Opera Chicago; The Magic Flute for Lyric Opera Chicago and Peter Grimes for Opera Australia and Canadian Opera Company. Opera Australia credits also include Alcina, Aida, The Merry Widow and the upcoming Madama Butterfly. Damien has worked repeatedly with Sydney Dance Company Artistic Directors, formerly Graeme Murphy and currently Rafael Bonachela, on the creation of major new works with that company and elsewhere. Damien has won three Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Lighting Design, three Green Room awards for Best Lighting Design and two APDG awards for Best Lighting. ALAN JOHN Composer Alan is one of Australia’s most prolific composers for theatre, opera, television and film. Theatre credits include Angels in America, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Stuff Happens, The Tempest, Diary of a Madman, The Judas Kiss (Belvoir); I’m Not Running (National Theatre London); The White Guard, The Season at Sarsaparilla, Mother Courage, Hedda Gabler (Sydney Theatre Company); Hamlet, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing (Bell Shakespeare). Opera credits include The Eighth Wonder (Opera Australia), How To Kill Your Husband, Through the Looking Glass (Victorian Opera / Malthouse Theatre). Musical Theatre credits include The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Jonah Jones, Frankie – An Opera For Young People, Can You Hear Colour? Film credits include Holding the Man, Looking for Alibrandi, The Bank, and most recently Shawn Seet’s feature film Storm Boy. TV credits include The Shark Net, The Farm, and The Beautiful Lie. Awards include 2002 APRA Award for Best Score Feature Film for The Bank, APRA Award for Best Music Mini Series for The Shark Net (2004) and The Beautiful Lie (2016), 2010 Sydney Theatre Award and Helpmann awards for Best Music for Diary of a Madman, and a Sydney Theatre Award for The White Guard.

STEVE FRANCIS Sound Designer Steve has worked extensively in theatre, dance and screen. His Belvoir credits include Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing, The Sugar House, The Book of Everything, The Power of Yes, Ruben Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding, Keating!, Parramatta Girls, Capricornia, Box the Pony, Gulpilil and Page 8. His other theatre credits include The Children, The Weir, The Sublime (MTC); How to Rule The World, Still Point Turning, The Father, The Hanging, Disgraced, Orlando, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, Vere, The Long Way Home, The Secret River, Machinal, Sex with Strangers, The Splinter, Bloodland (STC); Hamlet, Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); and Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues (Griffin). For dance, Steve has composed music for Dark Emu, Bennelong, Our Land People Stories, Lore, Belong, True Stories, Skin, Corroboree, Walkabout, Bush and Boomerang (Bangarra Dance Theatre). Steve has also composed for film and TV. His awards include two Helpmann Awards for Best Original Score in 2012 and 2003 and Best New Australian Work in 2003, as well as Sydney Theatre Awards for Music and Sound in 2011 and 2014. NIGEL POULTON Fight and Movement Director Nigel is an award-winning, internationally renowned fight director, intimacy director (Intimacy Director's International), weapon and movement specialist, stunt performer and actor. Nigel’s stage work includes: Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, Sami in Paradise, The Sugar House, A Taste of Honey (Belvoir); Prize Fighter (Belvoir / La Boite); The Miser, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III (Bell Shakespeare); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Harp in the South, Mary Stuart, Blackie Blackie Brown, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Cyrano de Bergerac (Sydney Theatre Company); Spartacus (The Australian Ballet); Romeo and Juliet (New York City Ballet); Prizefighter (Belvoir / La Boite), Carmen, Tosca (Opera Australia); Hydra (Queensland Theatre), Jasper Jones, Noises Off (Queensland Theatre / Melbourne Theatre Company); Singin’ in the Rain (Dainty Group International), Les Miserables (Cameron Mackintosh); Don Giov anni, Carmen, Il Trovatore (The Metropolitan Opera). Nigel’s film and television work includes: Pirates of the Caribbean V, Deadline Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, The Bourne Legacy, Vikingdom, The Good Wife, Boardwalk Empire.

LUKE McGETTIGAN Stage Manager Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage-managed Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, A Taste of Honey, Sami in Paradise, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, Ghosts, The Rover, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Faith Healer, Twelfth Night or What You Will, The Great Fire, Mortido, Seventeen, Elektra/Orestes, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Brothers Wreck, Once in Royal David’s City, Miss Julie, Forget Me Not, Peter Pan (including New York tour), Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, Babyteeth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Wild Duck (including UK and Europe tours), Namatjira (Belvoir/Big hART), Page 8, The End, That Face, The Promise, Scorched, Antigone, Keating!, The Little Cherry Orchard and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His other credits include The Pig Iron People, The Give and Take, Bed, La Dispute (Sydney Theatre Company); Like a Fishbone (STC/Griffin); The Government Inspector, The Tempest, The Servant of Two Masters, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew (Bell Shakespeare); Paradise City, Through the Wire (Performing Lines); and Alive at Williamstown Pier (Griffin). GEORGINA PEAD Assistant Stage Manager Georgina studied Contemporary and Applied Theatre at Griffith University in Brisbane graduating in 2014. Since returning to Australia, after working for the past two and a half years in the UK, Georgina is thrilled to be working on this production of Things I Know To Be True at Belvoir. Georgina most recently worked on Ambassador Theatre Group’s 2018 production of King Lear on London’s West End. As Assistant Stage Manager, Georgina’s other credits include, Soho Theatre: Wild Bore 2017, Chichester Festival Theatre: The Norman Conquests 2017, Leeds Playhouse: Romeo and Juliet 2017, Global Creatures/Leeds Playhouse: Strictly Ballroom 2016, Ovation: Wallis - A Certain Person 2016, Global Creatures: Strictly Ballroom (Brisbane) 2015. Other credits include, Stage Manager for the Metro Arts productions of Awkward Conversation & Cimarron 2014 and The Danger Ensemble’s: Caligula 2014. Georgina has also performed stage management and crew roles at the Edinburgh, Sydney and Vault Festivals.

Miranda Daughtry

Roses by Macgyver Models

BRINGING THE ROSES TO LIFE STEPHEN CURTIS

Bob loves roses. They are his pride and joy; over weekends and in retirement he has tended them lovingly. They say a lot about him, and because of the way that Andrew writes – telescoping from the intimate and personal to the universal – they say a lot about Australia. As the play unfolds we track the passage of time over the seasonal changes of the rose bushes, from full bloom in Summer where the play begins, through Autumn, Winter, into Spring and turning full circle back to Summer; a whole year in the life of the Price family in Hallett Cove. In our Belvoir backyard where the garden has been stripped back to a singular visual gesture the four rose bushes correlate to each of the four Price children, linking the seasonal changes with their stories.

Of course there was discussion about what colour the roses should be. Red was wrong – too much of Valentine’s Day and Carmen, white too much of weddings and funerals. In the end pink was chosen for personal reasons – the Queen Elizabeth hybrid grew outside my sisters’ bedroom at home, and Neil has it growing too. And as I started looking over people’s fences during the design process, I came to understand how much it is a standard of the Australian gardener. I also liked the way pantyhose are used as stake ties. A lot can happen in a year, and our four rose bushes needed to do a lot: going from full flowering, stripped back to pruned winter bareness, then bursting back in bud and full bloom. Neil and I talked about the changes, feeling that the cast needed to be able to physically transform the rose bushes themselves within the transitions between the seasonal movements. We needed a skilled props maker to problem-solve the technicalities of each change. Simon Macgyver developed a prototype which was run through its paces in the rehearsal room to explore the physical language of the transitions, and to devise a system that the cast could manage easily and would survive a (theatre) season. Back in his workshop he added more detail: the texture of old and new growth, the expressive pruned knuckle at the end of the stem, thorns. It’s all fake, but by the time he’s finished won’t look it. 17

Tom Hobbs, Matt Levett, Helen Thomson, Tony Martin, Anna Lise Phillips & Miranda Daughtry

Tess Schofield, Stephen Curtis & Neil Armfield

Photo Caption

LIFE OF

GALILEO 3 AUG - 15 SEP

Written by Bertolt Brecht Adapted by Tom Wright Directed by Eamon Flack With Ayeesha Ash Peter Carroll Colin Friels Miranda Parker Damien Ryan Damien Strouthos Vaishnavi Suryaprakash Sonia Todd Rajan Velu Supported by

TRUTH & POWER

IN AN AGE OF LIES

THEATRICALITY. VARIETY OF LIFE. FAITH IN HUMANITY. Belvoir is a theatre company on a side street in Surry Hills, Sydney. We share our street with a park and a public housing estate, and our theatre is in an old industrial building. It has been, at various times, a garage, a sauce factory, and the Nimrod Theatre. When the theatre was threatened with redevelopment in 1984, over 600 people formed a syndicate to buy the building and save the theatre. More than thirty years later, Belvoir St Theatre continues to be home to one of Australia’s most celebrated theatre companies. In its early years Belvoir was run cooperatively. It later rose to international prominence under first and longestserving Artistic Director Neil Armfield and continued to be both wildly successful and controversial under Ralph Myers. Belvoir is a traditional home for the great old crafts of acting and storytelling in Australian theatre. It is a platform for voices that won’t otherwise be heard. And it is a gathering of outspoken ideals. In short: theatricality, variety of life, and faith in humanity. At Belvoir we gather the best theatre artists we can find, emerging and established, to realise an annual season of works – new Australian plays, Indigenous works, re-imagined

classics and new international writing. Audiences remember many landmark productions including The Drover’s Wife, Angels in America, Brothers Wreck, The Glass Menagerie, Neighbourhood Watch, The Wild Duck, Medea, The Diary of a Madman, Death of a Salesman, The Blind Giant is Dancing, Hamlet, Cloudstreet, Aliwa, The Book of Everything, Keating!, The Exile Trilogy, Exit the King, The Sapphires, The Rover, Faith Healer, The Sugar House, Counting and Cracking and many more. Today, under Artistic Director Eamon Flack and Executive Director Sue Donnelly, Belvoir tours nationally and internationally, and continues to create its own brand of rough magic for new generations of audiences. We are proud to be creating work that speaks to the fullness of life and experience in Australia and abroad, continuing our commitment to deliver diverse stories to diverse audiences. Belvoir receives government support for its activities from the federal government through the Australia Council and the state government through Create NSW. We also receive philanthropic and corporate support, which we greatly appreciate and welcome. belvoir.com.au

BELVOIR STAFF 18 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Email mail@belvoir.com.au Web belvoir.com.au Administration (02) 9698 3344 Facsimile (02) 9319 3165 Box Office (02) 9699 3444 Artistic Director Eamon Flack Executive Director Sue Donnelly Deputy Executive Director & Senior Producer Aaron Beach BELVOIR BOARD Patricia Akopiantz (Deputy Chair), Sue Donnelly, Eamon Flack, Alison Kitchen, Kate Champion, Johanna Featherstone Michael Lynch AO, Sam Meers AO (Chair), Stuart O'Brien, Peter Wilson BELVOIR ST THEATRE BOARD Ian Learmonth, Stuart McCreery, Angela Pearman (Chair), Sue Rosen, Nick Schlieper, Mark Seymour, Susan Teasey ARTISTIC & PROGRAMMING Artistic Associates Tom Wright Dom Mercer Head of New Work Louise Gough Andrew Cameron Fellow Carissa Licciardello Artistic Administrator Carly Pickard Balnaves Foundation Fellow Kodie Bedford ADMINISTRATION Office Manager and Executive Assistant to Eamon Flack & Sue Donnelly Vyvyan Nickels

EDUCATION Education Manager Jane May Education Coordinator Stevie Bryant FINANCE & OPERATIONS Head of Finance and Operations Penny Scaiff Finance Administrator Shyleja Paul CRM & Insights Manager Jason Lee MARKETING Head of Marketing Amy Goodhew Marketing Manager Aishlinn McCarthy Marketing Coordinator Rosanna Quinn Content Coordinator Michael Kennedy BOX OFFICE & CUSTOMER SERVICES Head of Customer Experience & Ticketing Andrew Dillon Ticketing Systems Administrator & CRM Coordinator Tanya Ginori-Cairns Customer Service Coordinator Jacki Mison Box Office Coordinator Oliver Lee Box Office Staff Paige Ahearn, Alison Benstead, Lucy Gleeson, Nathan Harrison, Melissa Mills, Millicent Simes, Erin Taylor, Jessica Vincent

FRONT OF HOUSE House Manager, Venue & Events Julie O'Reilly Assistant Front of House Manager Scott Pirlo Front of House Assistants Alison Benstead, Summer Bonney-Tehrani, Emily David, Stella Encel, Felix de Gruchy, Will Hickey, Patrick Klavins, Sally Lewis, Rhiaan Marquez, Meredith Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly, Amelia Parsonson, Sam Parsonson, Tori Walker, Chelsea Zeller DEVELOPMENT Philanthropy ManagerW Joanna Maunder Development Coordinator Anthony Whelan PRODUCTION Head of Production Gareth Simmonds Production Manager Elizabeth Jenkins Technical Manager Aiden Brennan Senior Technician Raine Paul Resident Stage Manager Luke McGettigan Costume Coordinator Judy Tanner WORKSHOP Stefan Von Reiche Mac Nordman Mark Drew Jacqui Hudson Tim Dawes

WANT MORE?

BELVOIR BRIEFINGS

Belvoir Briefings are your chance to hear directly from the artists about every show before it hits our stage. For each production, the creative team talks about why they wanted to tackle the story, how it’s evolved in the rehearsal room, and what audiences can expect from the show. It’s your ticket backstage. 22

Belvoir Briefings are FREE but we’d like you to book online at belvoir.com.au/events/belvoir-briefings so we can save you a spot. Our next Belvoir Briefings are... Life of Galileo 6:30pm, Thursday 25 Jul Fangirls 6:30pm, Tuesday 8 Oct

Rehearsal Set

POST-SHOW Q&A

Have you ever wished you could sit down with the cast and crew after the performance, hang out and ask questions about what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve just seen? Guess what? You can! Directly following one performance of each production, select cast and crew will return to the stage for an informal chat led by Belvoir Artistic Associate Tom Wright. This is your chance to ask about the show and to delve deeper into the performance.

Just stay in your seat after these performancesâ&#x20AC;Ś Things I Know To Be True Tuesday 25 June Life of Galileo Tuesday 20 August

ONE BUILDING 35 YEARS THOUSANDS OF STORIES We rely on our community's support to tell our stories. The impact of Belvoirâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is special, it happens in many ways, on and off the stage - and we owe it to you. Donate today and be part of our future.

SUPPORT US BELVOIR.COM.AU/SUPPORT To discuss your donation, please contact our Philanthropy Manager, Joanna Maunder on 02 8396 6209 or joanna@belvoir.com.au.

Costume Designs by Tess Schofield

BELVOIR DONORS WE GIVE OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO ALL OUR DONORS FOR THEIR LOYAL AND GENEROUS SUPPORT. CHAIR'S CIRCLE $10,000+ Patty Akopiantz & Justin Punch Robert & Libby Albert*** Sophie & Stephen Allen The Balnaves Foundation Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM & Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis Jessica Block Catherine & Philip Brenner Anne Britton Jillian Broadbent AC Andrew Cameron AM & Cathy Cameron David Gonski AC & Associate Professor Orli Wargon OAM Sarah Henry & Charlotte Peterswald Anita Jacoby AM John Kaldor AO & Naomi Milgrom AO Alison Kitchen Knights Family Jabula Foundation Matthew & Veronica Latham Ian Learmonth & Julia Pincus Helen Lynch AM & Helen Bauer Nelson Meers AO & Carole Meers Sam Meers AO & Richard Kuo Catriona Mordant AM & Simon Mordant AM Kerr Neilson Stuart and Kate O’Brien Cathie & Paul Oppenheim Dan & Jackie Phillips Susanna & Matthew Press Andrew Price Andrew & Andrea Roberts Sherry-Hogan Foundation Rob Thomas AO Mark & Jacqueline Warburton Weir Anderson Foundation The Wiggs Foundation Kim Williams AM & Catherine Dovey Rosie Williams & John Grill Peter Wilson & James Emmett Cathy Yuncken

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT FUND $10,000+ Anonymous (1) Patty Akopiantz & Justin Punch Sophie & Stephen Allen Max Bonnell*** Anne Britton**

Andrew Cameron AM & Cathy Cameron*** Jane & Andrew Clifford The Horizon Foundation Anita Jacoby AM* Ingrid Kaiser Helen Lynch AM & Helen Bauer** John Pickhaver Cecilia Ritchie Sherry-Hogan Foundation* Victoria Taylor*** Robert Thomas AO Shemara Wikramanayake & Ed Gilmartin Kim Williams AM & Catherine Dovey*** Peter Wilson & James Emmett* Cathy Yuncken*

$5,000 – $9,999 Merhdad & Roya Baghai Jill & Richard Berry* Hartley Cook** Sue Donnelly Bob & Chris Ernst** Eamon Flack The Hand up Foundation Bill Hawker Don & Leslie Parsonage**

$2,000 – $4,999 Justin Butterworth Janet & Trefor Clayton* Michael Coleman** Victoria Holthouse** Ruveni & Craig Kelleher Lisa O'Brien Penelope Seidler AM

$500 – $1,999 Colleen & Michael Chesterman** Sandra Ferman Lisa George Knight Family Jabula Foundation Stuart McCreery Steve & Belinda Rankine** Richard, Heather & Rachel Rasker*** Sally & Jonathan Rourke Lisa Hamilton & Rob White*

B KEEPERS $5,000+ Claire Armstrong & John Sharpe*** Ellen Borda* Louise Christie** Margaret & Bernard Coles Constructability Recruitment Bob & Chris Ernst** Marion Heathcote & Brian Burfitt** Bruce Meagher & Greg Waters* Don & Leslie Parsonage** Greg & Chantal Roger*** Jann Skinner**

$3,000 – $4,999 Anonymous (1) Chris Brown* Jan Burnswoods*** Michael & Suzanne Daniel** Tom Dent Firehold Pty.Ltd.** Michael Hobbs OAM** Colleen Kane** Jennifer Ledgar & Bob Lim*** Peter & Jan Shuttleworth** Merilyn Sleigh & Raoul de Ferranti* Judy Thomson**

$2,000 – $2,999 Antoinette Albert** Gae Anderson Max Bonnell*** Danny & Kathleen Gilbert** Cary & Rob Gillespie* Sophie Guest** David Haertsch*** Libby Higgin* Ken & Lilian Horler Maria Manning & Henry Maas Professor Elizabeth More AM** Dr David Nguyen** Timothy & Eva Pascoe*** Angela Pearman Michael Rose* Lesley & Andrew Rosenberg* Ann Sherry AO*

$1,000 – $1,999 Anonymous (4) Gil Appleton Allen & Julie Blewitt Robert Burns Mary Jo & Lloyd Capps*** Jan Chapman AO & Stephen O'Rourke***

ti*

Jane Christensen* Annabel Crabb & Jeremy Storer* David & Kathryn Groves** Lisa Hamilton & Rob White* Wendy & Andrew Hamlin*** Judge Joe Harman Kevin & Rosemarie Jeffers-Palmer *** Margaret Johnston*** A. Le Marchant*** Stephanie Lee*** Ross McLean & Fiona Beith* Genie Melone Cajetan Mula (Honorary Member) Kylie Nomchong SC Jacqueline & Michael Palmer Greeba Pritchard* Richard, Heather & Rachel Rasker*** Alex Oonagh Redmond** David Round Elfriede Sangkuhl* Jennifer Smith*** Chris & Bea Sochan** Camilla & Andrew Strang Sue Thomson** Lynne Watkins & Nicolas Harding* Richard Willis Paul & Jennifer Winch***

THE GROUP

THE HIVE $2,500+ Elizabeth Allen Aaron Beach & Deborah Brown Justin Butterworth Dan & Emma Chesterman Este Darin-Cooper & Chris Burgess Julian Leeser MP & Joanna Davidson Hannah Roache & Luke Turner Matthew Rossi Chris Smith Peter Wilson & James Emmett*

EDUCATION DONORS $10,000+

John Peluso Nicole Philps Richard, Heather & Rachel Rasker* Julianne Schultz Margie Seale Peter & Janet Shuttleworth* Chris & Bea Sochan** Titia Sprague* Cheri Stevenson Sarah Walters*

GENERAL DONORS $10,000+ Anonymous (1) Ross Littlewood & Alexandra Curtin*

Anita Luca Belgiorno-Nettis Foundation Doc Ross Family Foundation Kimberly & Angus Holden Susie Kelly Ian Learmonth & Julia Pincus* Sam Meers AO & Richard Kuo Stuart & Kate O'Brien

$5,000 - $9,999

Anonymous (10) Annette Adair* Colin Adams Victor Baskir* Baiba Berzins* Maxine Brenner Kim & Gil Burton Darren Cook Tim & Bryony Cox** Carol & Nicholas Dettmann Jane Diamond* Emma Domoney Anton Enus Gillian Fenton Tim Gerrard Peter Gray & Helen Thwaites** Priscilla Guest* Jill Hawker Linda Herd Elaine Hiley Dorothy Hoddinott AO** Robert Kidd Cheryl L* Anne Loveridge Peter Mitchell Patricia Novikoff** Judy & Geoff Patterson* Christina Pender Leigh Rae Sanderson Rachel Scanlon Eileen Slarke & Family***

Anonymous (1) Patty Akopiantz & Justin Punch Louise Mitchell & Peter Pether David & Jill Pumphrey Rob Thomas AO

$4,000+

$2,000 – $4,999

Patty Akopiantz Sophie Allen Catherine Brenner Jillian Broadbent AC Margaret Butler Sally Cousens Kate Donnelly Holly Kramer Robin Low Sam Meers AO Sarah Meers Naomi O'Brien Jacqui Parshall The Phillips Family Cecilia Ritchie Katriina Tahka Cathy Yuncken

Estate of the late Angelo Comino John B Fairfax AO Kiera Grant & Mark Tallis Julie Hannaford*

$500 – $1,999 Anonymous (12) AB* Ian Barnett* Sabina Donnelley Drama NSW Sandra Ferman Valmae Freilich Geoffrey & Patricia Gemmell* Judge Joe Harman Bill Hawker Dorothy Hoddinott AO** Sue Hyde* David Jonas & Desmon Du Plessis* A Juchau Ruth Layton Jennifer Ledgar & Bob Lim*** Christopher Matthies* Cynthia Mitchell & Elizabeth Harry Patricia Novikoff**

Lou-Anne Folder

$2,000 – $4,999 Anonymous (4) Robert Burns Raymond McDonald

$500 – $1,999

BELVOIR DONORS

Continued

GENERAL DONORS $500 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; $1,999 (Continued) Chris & Bea Sochan** Geoffrey Starr Paul Stein AMQC Leslie Stern Mike Thompson* Suzanne & Ross Tzannes AM* Louise & Steve Verrier

Chris Vik & Chelsea Albert Louisa Ward Lynne Watkins & Nicholas Harding* Professor Elizabeth Webby AM* Brian & Trish Wright

* 5+ years of giving ** 10+ years of giving *** 15+ years of giving List correct at time of printing.

BELVOIR SUPPORTERS Our patrons, supporters and friends are right there behind us, backing Belvoir in bringing to life the great old theatrical crafts of acting and storytelling. Thank you. Learn more about supporting Belvoir at belvoir.com.au/support-belvoir

KEY SUPPORTER Indigenous theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves Foundation

TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS AMP Foundation Andrew Cameron Family Foundation Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Doc Ross Family Foundation Gandevia Foundation The Greatorex Foundation

Macquarie Group Foundation Naomi Milgrom Foundation Neilson Foundation Nelson Meers Foundation Oranges & Sardines Foundation Thyne Reid Foundation Walking Up The Hill Foundation

Belvoir is very grateful to accept donations of all sizes. Donations over $2 are tax deductible. If you would like to make a donation or would like further information about any of our donor programs please call our Development Team on 02 9698 3344 or email development@belvoir.com.au

SPECIAL THANKS We would like to acknowledge Cajetan Mula, Len Armfield and Geoffrey Scharer. They will always be remembered for their generosity to Belvoir. We also thank our Life Members, who have made outstanding contributions to Belvoir over more than thirty years. They have changed the course of the company and are now ingrained in its fabric: Neil Armfield AO, Neil Balnaves AO, Andrew Cameron AM, David Gonski AC, Rachel Healy, Louise Herron AM, Sue Hill, Geoffrey Rush AC, Associate Professor Orli Wargon OAM and Chris Westwood. These people and foundations supported the redevelopment of Belvoir St Theatre and purchase of our warehouse. Andrew & Cathy Cameron (refurbishment of theatre & warehouse)

The Gonski Foundation & Nelson Meers Foundation (Gonski Meers Foyer)

Hal Herron (The Hal Bar)

Russell Crowe (redevelopment of theatre)

Andrew & Wendy Hamlin (Executive Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office)

Fred Street AM (Upstairs dressing room)

Geoffrey Rush (redevelopment of theatre)

BELVOIR PARTNERS GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

MAJOR PARTNERS

RESEARCH & ENGAGEMENT

MEDIA PARTNERS

YOUTH & EDUCATION PARTNER

ASSOCIATE PARTNERS

PRODUCTION PARTNERS

ACCOMMODATION PARTNERS

NCC Network Computing & Consulting

EVENT PARTNERS

For more information on partnership opportunities please contact our Development team on 02 9698 3344 or email development@belvoir.com.au Correct at time of printing.

Project Blue Book Now Streaming

belvoir.com.au 18 & 25 Belvoir Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 Email mail@belvoir.com.au Administration (02) 9698 3344 Fax (02) 9319 3165 Box Office (02) 9699 3444

/belvoirst @belvoirst @belvoirst Cover image by Heidrun Lรถhr