Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Mitchell Butel has unveiled his second season for the company – 13 productions in 2027 including four world premieres, six Australian premieres and a return for some of Australia’s most recognisable performers.

Sydney Theatre Company. Photo © Brett Boardman

The season will open and close at Roslyn Packer Theatre with two very different international productions: Robert Icke’s contemporary adaptation of Oedipus, starring Richard Roxburgh and Heather Mitchell, and the Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol, with Tim Minchin as Scrooge.

Alongside the international works, the season has a strong Australian focus, including new plays by Melanie Tait and 2026 Patrick White Playwrights Award winner Disapol Savetsila, and stage adaptations of Jenny Hocking’s The Palace Letters and Pip Williams’ The Bookbinder of Jericho, adapted by Verity Laughton as a sequel to The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Butel said the idea of family and community had emerged as a recurring concern across the season, although he had not set out to program around a particular theme.

“I didn’t design a theme. I...