The 2022 season from WA’s Black Swan State Theatre Company is a celebration and exploration of connection and family, called KIN.
It’s Artistic Director Clare Watson’s final season of curating works for Black Swan. The season will consist of seven productions, performed across five theatres. Three plays are homegrown, three of them are international smash hits, and one is interactive and online.
“We each carry a narrative within us that comes from our kin. There is a story in us all about how we were loved, and we bring this story with us to our own families, to our friendships, to our workplaces, and to the theatre,” Clare says. “In 2022, we are bringing these stories to the stage.”
Wongutha-Yamatji Meyne Wyatt’s ‘City Of Gold’ returns home. The semi-autobiographical story puts a family on stage with an unbroken lineage through multimillenia, surviving centuries of colonial violence. It asks its audiences to take a stand against racism: “Offend your family, call it out.”
‘Barracking For The Umpire’ from wickedly funny WA writer Andrea Gibbsis about the fragility of our body, our family and our community. It asks what we are willing to sacrifice for the great game. Caroline Brazier, Jo Morris, Kelton Pell, Ian Wilkes and (in her professional debut) Stephanie Somerville star.
Liz Newell’s ‘Toast’ is a story about the family we’re given, and the one we choose for ourselves. Three sisters are left adrift after the sudden death of their mother, as they wrestle with the loss and with each other. It’s a locally-written story and a love letter to those holding our hand in the dark.
International smash hit and eight-time Tony Award-winning musical ‘Once’ is a modern-day urban love story. It tells of a struggling Irish musician on the verge of giving up, until a piano-playing Czech immigrant reminds him how to dream.
Clare Watson will direct Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie’ where we meet the Wingfields, a family trapped in each other’s orbit, held in the slippery grip of memory. It features Mandy McElhinney. “This production will pique our nostalgia and arouse our yearning. It’s like we’re watching ourselves on VHS in a time when we were a little more glamorous and much more devil-may-care,” Clare says.
Comedian Lawrence Leung presents ‘Connected’. It’s a live, online performance taking place on two sides of a screen – Lawrence’s and yours. The interactive piece is performed over Zoom as the idea of ‘connection’ is explored in increasingly awesome and wicked ways.
Last but not least, the co-dependence of mother and child in Ella Hickson’s ‘Oil’ is matched by the co-dependence of us all on one of earth’s most precious and finite resources. It’s an epic drama, asking ‘is blood thicker than oil?’. . . An explosive collision of empire, history and family starring Hayley McElhinney.
Black Swan’s 2022 season begins with ‘City Of Gold’.
