New artistic director Mark Kilmurry announces his first Ensemble Theatre season for 2016

New Ensemble Theatre artistic director Mark Kilmurry has announced his first season with a few surprises among the old favourites

Ensemble Theatre announces 2016 season

AFTER 30 years Ensemble Theatre artistic director Sandra Bates has at last passed the baton, with Mark Kilmurry announcing his first season of plays at the Kirribilli-based company this week.

However, despite her retirement, Bates will be back in action for Ensemble, to direct a return season of Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks, starring Todd McKenney and Nancye Hayes at The Concourse in February.

Other highlights of the season, with subscriber packages now on sale and single tickets to become available on November 2, include in-demand young director Shannon Murphy tackling brilliant young British playwright Nina Raine’s 2010 play Tribes, which stars Ana Maria Belo and deals with budding romance between a young deaf man and a woman from a deaf family who is also losing her hearing.

In June, Australian Theatre For Young People artistic director Fraser Corfield will direct Mark Kilmurry’s adaptation of Tony Davis’s 2013 novel for teens, The Big Dry, the first time ATYP and Ensemble have worked on a co-production together. The work, a world premiere, follows a teenager and his brother as they wait for their father to come home in a city devastated by the effects of extreme drought.

Another Sydney premiere, later in the year, has film director Nadia Tass (Malcolm, The Big Steal) helming a production of Jane Cafarella’s e-baby, starring Angie Milliken in a story about a wealthy woman who wants a baby and the complications around the decision she makes to make her dream come true.

The program also includes works from regular favourites Alan Ayckbourn, Neil Simon, David Hare and David Williamson.

Kilmurry also announced to new awards to help up-and-coming talent, with a new writing commission supported by David Williamson and the Australian Writer’s Guild (submissions open from October 1, 2015), and the Sandra Bates Directors Awards (submissions open from September 7). Another innovation is the introduction of the Boatshed Program, which will include tours, workshops and lunchtime readings, with details released over the year.

Season 2016 subscriber packages now available, single tickets from November 2, ensemble.com.au/whats-on, 9929 0644