Sydney Theatre Company back on stage with Wayne Blair and Hugo Weaving

It’s a gothic fable of mystery and revenge ... and it’s set to put the legendary Australian actor back in the spotlight.

Hugo Weaving, Wonnangatta director Jessica Arthur, Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Kip Williams and Wayne Blair on stage at Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney. Picture: Prudence Upton.

Sydney is returning to the theatre, in socially-distant fashion, with state flagship the Sydney Theatre Company due to reopen next month with a new Australian play featuring Wayne Blair and Hugo Weaving.

The premiere of Wonnangatta at the Roslyn Packer Theatre will mark the company’s return after a six-month lockdown, the longest period STC has been offstage in its history.

The play has been moved from the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House to the Roslyn Packer Theatre, which STC manages, to allow for social distancing and a nightly audience of just 147 in the 880-seat auditorium. It opens on September 21.

Wayne Blair and Hugo Weaving in Wonnangatta. Picture: Sydney Theatre Company

But STC warns that it cannot go ahead with a full theatre season under current health guidelines, which allow only one person for every four square metres.

The premiere of Wonnangatta, by Melbourne playwright Angus Cerini and directed by Jessica Arthur, is possible because of its relatively low cost and having only a cast of two. It’s described as an “Australian gothic fable” of mystery and revenge.

Another Sydney theatre, Belvoir, also is reopening with a two-hander, an adaptation of A Room of One’s Own featuring Anita Hegh and Ella Prince.

“While the theatre industry has consistently maintained that the economics of socially distanced theatre do not stack up, in the case of Wonnangatta we have weighed the pluses and minuses and decided to continue,” said STC executive director Patrick McIntyre.

“But unfortunately this isn’t a solution for all the remaining shows in 2020 — and certainly we could not contemplate planning a new season under these restrictions.”

The company is planning to stage later in the year delayed productions of Rules for Living and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, featuring Eryn Jean Norvill.

Productions this year of The Wharf Revue and A View from the Bridge, with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, have been cancelled and may be rescheduled next year.

Artistic director Kip Williams said he was thrilled the company would be returning to the stage with Wonnangatta, a “phenomenal” new Australian play.

“The past five months have been extremely challenging for STC and our industry,” he said. “I’m so excited to have our artists, crews and production departments back doing what they do best: making theatre.”