Queensland Theatre to begin 2020 with a David Williamson classic satirising Sydney

Queensland Theatre set to start its 50th anniversary year in 2020 with a David Williamson classic that bags Sydney and has a lot of fun in the process.

QUEENSLAND Theatre will kick off its 2020 season with – of all things – a play about Sydney. What’s with that?

Well, there’s method to this madness says outgoing artistic director Sam Strong who finishes his tenure in November but will be coming back to direct a couple of plays next year including the first.

“It’s the company’s 50th anniversary next year and David Williamson’s 50th year as a playwright so we are kicking off the year with his classic play Emerald City,” Strong says.

“Brisbane enjoys nothing more than being able to have a dig at Sydney and Emerald City is hate mail as well as a love letter.”

Playwright David Williamson and director Zoe Tuffin at the Soleil pool bar in South Brisbane. Picture: AAP image, John Gass

Williamson, 77, who lives at Noosa with wife Kristin and is on the board of our state theatre company is Australia’s most loved and most prolific playwright.

His 1987 play Emerald City is about a young writer from Melbourne moving to Sydney. It will kick off season 2020 for Queensland Theatre opening in the Playhouse, QPAC on February 9. Unveiling the program at Rydges South Bank Brisbane on Sunday, Strong announced the cast including TV stars Nadine Garner and Rhys Muldoon.

Williamson was on hand and says the play is appropriate because “it doesn’t say nice things about Sydney”.

Nadine Garner will star in Emerald City. Picture: David Cook

“Brisbane does get a mention in the play too when the young writer is warned against coming up here by his Sydney agent, “ Williamson says. “This is a co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company which is fair enough because Melbourne and Brisbane love to see Sydney pilloried.”

Young local director Zoe Tuffin, 32, rubbed shoulders with Williamson yesterday and says she’s thrilled to be part of a program that includes him.

She’s directing a play about a nuclear accident called The Children which is on in August.

Next year’s line-up also includes the world premiere of Boy Swallows Universe, a dramatisation of Brisbane writer Trent Dalton’s gritty bestseller which will be directed by Sam Strong.

Trent Dalton with Sam Strong at Queensland Theatre. Picture: Luke Marsden

Shakespeare is on the agenda next year too with Othello, set in the Torres Strait and starring Jimi Bani.

The Holidays by David Megarrity is about a quintessential Queensland holiday and the year will close with a bit of Ancient Greek fare, Katherine Lyall-Watson’s Phaedra starring acclaimed Brisbane star of stage and screen, Angie Milliken.

For more info: queenslandtheatre.com.au