Wife

“The truth is we have to give up parts of ourselves if we want to be with someone.” 

A love-letter to the power of theatre, and a decades-hopping investigation into marriage, queerness and gender.

Daisy is at a crossroads. Her moral compass tells her to go one way, society the other. What she chooses to do next will have consequences not just for her and her husband, but for four couples over the next ninety years.

With Ibsen’s classic drama of marital discord, A Doll’s House, as its unifying device, this bold and inventive play ranges across the fifties, the eighties, the present and the future.

In expat Australian playwright Samuel Adamson’s highly original dramedy, we meet intertwined characters, gay and straight, over generations, all invested in some way with the concept of ‘wife’, Ibsen’s rebellious Nora being the benchmark against which they judge themselves.

New Theatre is delighted to welcome director Darrin Redgate,making his New Theatre debut, along with Assistant Director Caroline L George. The creative team includes set designer David Marshall-Martin,whose previous designs for New Theatre include Loot, Off The Record, Beautiful Thing, Australia Day and The Heidi Chronicles, costume designers Aibhlinn Stokes(The Spook, Ink) and Burley Stokes(Ink), lighting designer Jay Murrin,sound designerMatthew Forbesand dialect coach Benjamin Purser.

The cast comprises returning actors Will Manton (Beautiful Thing) and Pete Walters (Fucking Men), playing the same character 30 years apart, and newcomers Alison Brooker, Henry Lopez Lopez, Imogen TrevillionandJulia Vosnakis.

Director Darrin Redgate said, “I was really drawn in by how the decision one of our characters makes In the 1950s affects the next three generations over the next 90 years. It reminded me of the 78ers here in Sydney. How the decisions and the actions those brave individuals took paved the way for how the queer community in Sydney lives today. It’s a wonderful reminder to never forget the struggles and pay tribute to those that have come before. The play is both hilariously funny and deeply moving. An audience is going to experience the full range of emotions and hopefully leave the theatre thinking about prior generations and the challenges of the times in which they lived, how that’s played a part in shaping their own lives today, and perhaps even the next generation to come.”

Samuel Adamson is an Australian playwright and screenwriter whose plays, musicals and adaptations include: The Ballad of Hattie and James, Wife, Running Wild (a children’s theatre piece based on the book by Michael Morpurgo), Gabriel (created for the trumpeter Alison Balsom), The Light Princess (music by Tori Amos), Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Mrs Affleck (from Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, National Theatre), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (from the Trumane Capote novella), Frank & Ferdinand, Fish and Company, Clocks and Whistles, Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie, Grace Note, Some Kind of Bliss and All About My Mother (from Pedro Almodóvar’s film). His versions of theatre classics include Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters, and Ibsen’s Pillars of the Community and A Doll’s House. He has worked with many of the leading directors of UK theatre, as writer and dramaturg/textual advisor, including Nicholas Hytner, Marianne Elliott, Dominic Dromgoole, Sean Matthias and Thea Shorrock.

CREATIVE TEAM
Cast Alison Brooker, Henry Lopez Lopez, Will Manton, Imogen Trevillion, Julia Vosnakis, Pete Walters
Director Darrin Redgate
Set Designer David Marshall-Martin
Lighting Designer Jay Murrin
Costume Designer Aibhlinn Stokes and Burley Stokes
Sound Designer Matthew Forbes
Assistant Director  Caroline L George
Dialect Coach Benjamin Purser
Stage Manager Radhika Lal
Photos © Bob Seary

SEASON
8 October – 2 November 2024

PERFORMANCES
Thu – Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2pm
Sat 2 November 2pm only

TICKETS
Full $37
Concessions, Groups (6+) $32
Thrifty Thursdays $25
Preview $20
(booking and transaction fees apply)

BOOKINGS
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