A BOLD MIX OF INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES, FRESH VOICES, AND AN AUSTRALIAN REVIVAL

Melbourne’s iconic Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre has announced its 2025 season, unveiling five compelling stage productions that promise to engage and inspire. The program will celebrate a landmark anniversary and showcase new international plays alongside two world premieres as part of its INK program, dedicated to championing original Australian works.  

The announcement comes after a wave of achievements for the Theatre in 2024, including a historical commercial transfer of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to the Comedy Theatre andsubsequent first-time partnership with Sydney Theatre Company. Plus, a string of celebrated productions and increases in overall box office sales. 

Expressing her excitement for the upcoming season, Red Stitch Artistic Director Ella Caldwell, shared: “Red Stitch 2025 showcases the brilliance of local artists, and the high quality that the company is known for. Each of these plays is going to be electric in our intimate space. We have selected five thought-provoking scripts that pack an emotional punch. And they will be brilliantly performed – as you’ve come to expect from our artist-led theatre.”

HONOUR by Joanna Murray-Smith
15 Feb – 16 March

The season will open in February with a 30th anniversary production of Honour, a defining work by one of the country’s most accomplished playwrights, Joanna Murray-Smith (Julia, Switzerland). Multi-award-winning director Sam Strong (commissioned and directed Boy Swallows Universe; commissioned FANGIRLS, QPAC) will return to Red Stitch for the first time in over a decade to direct this revival, which brings Murray-Smith’s poignant exploration of infidelity and identity back to Melbourne after it first captivated audiences in 1995. Featuring Red Stitch ensemble member Caroline Lee (The Newsreader, Bogan Pride, The Dressmaker), alongside Peter Houghton (The Newsreader, Newstopia) this timeless and razor-sharp play examines what unfolds when everything that once defined a person suddenly falls away.

THE COMEUPPANCE by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
26 Apr- 25 May

The Comeuppance by American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will get its Australian debut, following its acclaimed world premiere at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre last year. Directed by the award-winning Gary Abrahams (Iphigenia In Splott, Red Stitch; Yentl, Arts Centre Melbourne; Admissions, Melbourne Theatre Company), this masterful new work centres on a group of friends who gather on the night of their 20th high school reunion. What unfolds is a haunting, timely satire that tests friendships, while mortality looms at the edge of the party. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Jacobs-Jenkins’ astute script is brilliantly witty and theatrical.

SUPER by Emilie Collyer
11 Jun – 6 Jul

Super is a bold new work by celebrated playwright, essayist, and poet Emilie Collyer. Directed by acclaimed theatre maker Emma Valente (Co-Artistic Director of THE RABBLE)and featuring Caroline Lee and First Nations actor Laila Thaker (Five Bedrooms, Wentworth), this hilarious show follows Phoenix and Nel. Two friends who both have superpowers, they take a lot of care and do a lot of good. But when celebrity chef Rae arrives at one of their weekly support meetings, she turns their world upside down. As they transform from stealth crusaders to global superstars their powers escalate beyond control.      

WHAT’S YOURS by Keziah Warner (INK Production)
26 Jul – 24 Aug

In this intimate new work by talented Melbourne playwright, Keziah Warner (Control, Red Stitch), Jo and Simon are in love for eight years before breaking up. Simon later falls for Jo’s best friend, Lia. Ten years, a broken friendship, and several failed IVF attempts later, Simon and Lia ask happily child-free Jo to donate her eggs. What’s Yours captures the fallout of this simple but oh-so-complicated question.

Written specifically for ensemble member and Helpmann award-winner, Christina O’Neill (Hour of the Wolf, Malthouse Theatre; Bloom & My Brilliant Career, Melbourne Theatre Company; Calamity Jane, Arts Centre Melbourne), and directed by Isabella Vadiveloo (Wolf Play), this funny, heart-breaking, and hopeful play offers a new and unique insight into the growing childfree-by-choice movement, celebrating the enduring power of women’s friendship and lives lived on their own terms.

JOB by Max Friedlich
13 Sep – 12 Oct

A psychological thriller, Job centres on Jane, who, after being put on leave due to a viral workplace incident, is desperate to return to her Big Tech job. However, her therapist, Loyd, holds the power to approve her return and starts to question whether the job is causing more harm than good.

After a sell-out season on Broadway earlier this year, Max Friedlich’s critically acclaimed play will premiere in September starring Green Room Award winner and ensemble member Jessica Clarke (Iphigenia In Splott), with direction by Nadia Tass (Film: Malcolm, The Big Steal; Theatre: Disgraced, MTC; Uncle Vanya & The Flick, Red Stitch). Job is a provocative and riveting new American play that examines what it means to be a citizen of the internet, and the obligation individuals have to help those who need it most.

Further to the above plays, a national tour of Emily Sheehan’s Monument has been announced as part of Red Stitch’s in-house touring model. The new work developed through the INK program will be the sixth new Australian play that the company has toured nationally or internationally, and will be heading to Tasmania, Regional NSW, Regional Victoria and WA in the second half of 2025. The company’s sell-out production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will also be playing at the Sydney Theatre Company from 7 November 2025.

The 2025 season will be accompanied by a major fundraising campaign, Long Live Big Little Theatre.  A multi-year $2 million campaign to secure Red Stitch’s future and continued artistic independence, Long Live Big Little Theatre will ensure the company continues to transform Australian theatre for generations to come. For more information and to donate, visit:https://www.redstitch.net/long-live-big-little-theatre-compaign

Tickets for the Red Stitch 2025 season are now on sale via https://www.redstitch.net/