Sydney’s Belvoir has announced its 2027 season – nine mainstage productions and two late-night offerings that bring together more than 100 artists across a year of Australian writing, First Nations storytelling, international theatrical hits and new interpretations of classic works.

The season, announced today, 7 September, will range from a Malthouse Theatre hit arriving for Sydney Festival to a Tony Award-winning Broadway phenomenon, alongside new Australian plays and productions featuring some of Australia’s finest performers including Noni Hazlehurst, Robyn Nevin and Tamsin Carroll.

Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack said the season was driven by a belief in theatre as a uniquely human art form.

“Theatre is the opposite of the internet. Theatre is AI proof. Theatre is real,” Flack said. “Australia needs more great theatre, more artistic licence, more of the joyful and sometimes hard work of holding many truths in one place among many people.”

Megan Wilding and Rick Davies in Game. Set. Match. Photo © Daniel Boud

The season opens with Megan Wilding’s Game. Set. Match. (7–24 January), a Malthouse Theatre production co-presented with Sydney Festival. Directed by Jessica Arthur and starring Rick Davies and Wilding, the play follows two strangers who meet at the funeral of Josh’s tennis-legend mother and spend a bittersweet night trading memories, revelations and serves.

Noni Hazlehurst will star in Daniel Keene’s The Lark (10 February–7 March), directed by Matt Scholten. Set in a small inner-city pub threatened by gentrification, the play (“utterly compelling”, according to Limelight‘s reviewer Patricia Maunder) explores one woman’s attachment to a disappearing world.

Belvoir will then stage David Adjmi’s Stereophonic (20 March–25 April), co-produced with Melbourne Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre. Directed by QTC’s Daniel Evans and starring Geraldine Hakewill and Alex Malone, the five-time Tony Award-winning drama follows a rock band attempting to make the album that could define a generation while its members’ relationships begin to fracture.

A Clockwork Orange. Photo © Daniel Boud

Anthony Burgess’s dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange follows from 8 May, in a Tom Wright adaptation directed by Margaret Thanos. The cast includes Paula Arundell, Marco Chiappi, Rose Riley, Brittany Santariga, James Thomasson and Darius Williams.

Another theatrical landmark arrives from 12 June–18 July with The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Jane Wagner’s celebrated 1985 comedy, made famous by Lily Tomlin, will star Robyn Nevin as Trudy, the streetwise bag lady at the centre of its satirical portrait of humanity. Simon Phillips (Grief is the Thing with Feathers) directs, with Zahra Newman also appearing.

Dirty Diamonds. Photo © Daniel Boud

First Nations storytelling takes centre stage in Dirty Diamonds (from 31 July), co-produced with Melbourne Theatre Company in association with Yirra Yarkin Theatre Company. Written and directed by Abbie-lee Lewis, the road-play follows Noongar DJ Jordan and Kalkadoon forensic investigator Cassie as they flee Perth for the Kimberley. Ruby Henaway, Lila McGuire and Ian Michael star, with Flack as associate director and Bobbi Henry as assistant director.

Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here (from 28 August), directed by Mehhma Malhi and Ayah Tayeh, turns to Iran in 1978, where a group of women navigate friendship, marriage and the increasingly urgent question of whether to leave their homeland. Violette Ayad and Minerva Khodabande star.

Grace Chapple’s The Landlord (25 September–24 October), directed by Hannah Goodwin and starring Ariadne Sgouros and Zoe Terakes, brings the action closer to home, examining family, housing and power through the residents of two neighbouring Surry Hills terraces.

Dancing at Lughnasa. Photo © Daniel Boud

The mainstage season concludes with Brian Friel’s modern classic Dancing at Lughnasa (from November), directed by Flack and starring Tamsin Carroll, Luke Mullins and Matilda Ridgway. Set in rural Ireland in 1936, the play follows five sisters whose lives are briefly transformed by the prospect of a harvest dance.

Belvoir’s late-night program returns with Redfern Renaissance, its third annual celebration of the artists, storytellers and cultural leaders of Redfern, alongside Up Late with Bianca Hunt, a three-night combination of talk show, comedy and live music. Both are co-presented with Sydney Festival and go on sale in November.

For Flack, the season represents a deliberate investment in artists and stories beyond established brands.
“Some of these names may be new to you,” he said, “but that’s the thing I’m proudest of with this season – the artists of the future stepping up for the first time, the plays and stories taking their place because they deserve it, not ’cause they’re known brands.”

For more information and bookings, visit belvoir.com.au