Barely nine months into the job, the British director leaves the Australian company in the lurch.

Less than nine months into the job, Jonathan Church has quit as the new Artistic Director of Australia’s premiere theatre company. The British director, who succeeded Andrew Upton at Sydney Theatre Company in January this year, cited “other interests” as his reason for standing down, while his sudden departure leaves the remaining programming for the 2017 season to be completed by the company’s in-house artistic team.

“It has been a great experience working with this wonderful company and getting to know its network of extraordinary artists over the past nine months,” Church said in a press statement. “I expect to maintain close contacts with Australian theatre makers over the coming years, although, regrettably, it has not proved viable for me to continue as STC’s Artistic Director while balancing my other interests as we had hoped. I wish the company and the whole team well for the future.”

Church has been a come and go AD in Sydney to date, juggling the role with his outgoing commitments at the UK’s Chichester Festival Theatre while supervising rehearsals for the Australian tour of his staging of the...