Melbourne Theatre Company has announced an 11-production 2027 season comprising six world premieres, three Australian premieres and major international works.

“There’s a lot of fun in this season,” says MTC Artistic Director and CEO Anne-Louise Sarks. “It’s playful, it’s edgy and importantly, it asks us to look again at some of the stories we thought we knew.”

Six of the 11 productions have been supported through MTC’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, while five are MTC commissions. Seven works are by Australian writers, including two by First Nations writers.

Stereophonic: Geraldine Hakewill (centre) and Alex Malone (right). Photo © Jo Duck

The season opens in January with the Australian premiere of Stereophonic, David Adjmi’s Tony Award-winning play-with-music featuring an original score by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler.

Directed by Daniel Evans, the play follows a band recording an album as tensions and ambitions collide during a decade-defining creative process. The MTC, Queensland Theatre Company and Belvoir co-production stars Geraldine Hakewill and Alex Malone and plays in the Sumner Theatre from 25 January.

Next, Kate Mulvany returns to MTC and the Fairfax Studio from 13 February with a solo adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by Ian Michael.

Richard III: Kate Mulvany. Photo © Jo Duck

Mulvany played the role for Bell Shakespeare in 2017 to considerable acclaim. This time she will play every character in a production seeking to interrogate the ways power is wielded by disabled and able-bodied people and offering a different perspective on Shakespeare’s notorious monarch.

From 3 April, Sigrid Thornton, Nadine Garner and Erik Thomson lead Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Delicate Balance, directed by Iain Sinclair. The dark comedy centres on a household destabilised when friends arrive seeking refuge from an unnamed terror. Sinclair reunites with the design team from his MTC production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.

May brings a new take on H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, adapted by Wirlomin Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman and co-created and directed by Joe Paradise Lui.

Premiering in the Lawler Theatre from 1 May before touring to regional Victorian schools, the production looks at the classic invasion story through the history of the Palawa people of Lutruwita and the Black War, which influenced Wells’ original novel. The production is part of MTC’s Education & Families program.

Dirty Diamonds: Ruby Henaway and Lila McGuire. Photo © Jo Duck

The season then turns to a real Australian story with Dirty Diamonds, a co-production with Belvoir, in association with Yirra Yaakin and RISING.

Written and directed by Abbie-lee Lewis and inspired by the 1980s Argyle diamond mine heist, the First Nations road-trip crime caper follows two women travelling from Perth to the Kimberley in search of answers. Lila McGuire and Ruby Henaway star from 22 May.

On 5 June, Rebels imagines a private meeting between Bob Hawke, Kerry Packer and West Indian cricket captain Clive Lloyd at Kirribilli House in 1985.

Written by Julian Larnach and directed by Jessica Arthur, the NEXT STAGE-supported three-hander uses the meeting as a starting point to explore questions extending beyond cricket and into ideas about Australian identity and national values. Simon Gleeson plays Hawke; Alpha Kargbo is Lloyd.

Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain receives its Australian premiere from 5 July, directed by Sarks.

The play reframes Arthur Miller’s The Crucible through the teenage girls at the centre of its story. Masego Pitso leads the cast in a production that arrives in Melbourne after attracting seven Tony Award nominations and two Outer Critics Circle Awards in the US.

The Authenticator: Brigid Zengeni, Chika Ikogwe and Mandy McElhinney. Photo © Jo Duck

Next comes the Australian premiere of Winsome Pinnock’s The Authenticator, directed by Zindzi Okenyo and opening 2 August.

First staged at London’s National Theatre, the comedy-infused mystery thriller follows a family dealing with an inheritance and the secrets attached to it. Mandy McElhinney, Chika Ikogwe and Brigid Zengeni star.

September brings with it Hayes Theatre Co’s hit Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical, directed by Sheridan Harbridge and starring Joel Granger.

Fresh from winning Best Production of a Musical at the Sydney Theatre Awards, the production turns the story of Phar Lap into an all-singing, all-dancing musical, with a score drawing on the music of Duke Ellington and Daft Punk. It opens September 9 after a sold-out premiere season at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre.

Andrew Bovell’s Every Second Wednesday follows from 9 October, directed by Sarah Goodes. The new work from the writer of Lantana and The Secret River focuses on the parents, partners and siblings who support someone living with addiction. Ian Bliss, Diana Glenn, Danielle Cormack and Debra Lawrance lead the cast.

The season closes with the world premiere of Clarice, opening 2 November. Rachel Griffiths returns to MTC for the first time in 20 years to play Clarice Beckett, the Australian modernist painter whose work was largely forgotten after her death.

Developed through a collaboration between Griffiths, AACTA Award-winning writer Trudy Hellier and director Simon Phillips, Clarice explores Beckett’s life and work and her relationship with Melbourne. Katherine Tonkin, Darcy Kent and Richard Piper also star.

Sarks says the concentration of new work in her season reflects the company’s role in supporting artists to develop ambitious projects.

“Our new season highlights who we are: a company that backs Australian artists, commissions new Australian work and gives artists the support to continue making ambitious theatre from the ground up,” she says.

“That investment in new work and artists is at the heart of everything we do. And alongside that, we’re bringing major international works to Melbourne – giving audiences the chance to experience some of the most exciting theatre on the global stage.”

For more information on Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2027 season, visit mtc.com.au