National Theatre of Parramatta
ICYMI: Sydney has a major new performing arts player. By Dee Jefferson
Sydney’s newest theatre company aims to speak for, to and on behalf of Australia – and has the name to match. As the artistic team said in their launch statement, “Western Sydney is the fastest growing centre in Australia and a microcosm of the nation.” The National Theatre of Parramatta, they go on, “is embracing the spirit of the national, raising the profile of performance and the imagination and creative ideas of Western Sydney, across the nation and beyond.” Operating out of Riverside Theatres, and funded for the next four years (by Arts NSW, Parramatta City Council and the Crown Resorts Foundation), the National Theatre of Parramatta has an artistic directorate of four theatre makers with connections to Western Sydney. They are Wayne Harrison AM (artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company 1990-1999); Paula Abood; S Shakthidaran (artistic director of hybrid arts company Curious Works); and Annette Shun Wah (Performance 4A) ( below, with executive producer Joanne Key second from left). But NTofP’s debut season
is anything but parochial, and in fact kicks off with the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe hit Swallow, by Olivier Awardwinning Scottish playwright Stef Smith ( Roadkill). The script itself comes with the following mandate: “All the characters are in their thirties or forties. They can be any race… There are no stage directions, imagine it as you wish.” “I guess because I come from a cross-artform background, that freedom of interpretation is very appealing for me,” says Kate Champion, who is directing the Australian premiere of Swallow for NTofP – her first project since leaving her artistic director role at Force Majeure in 2015. Champion and 12 women (of a team of 15) will bring the piece to stage, including actresses Valerie Berry, Megan Drury and Luisa Hastings Edge. “I love the fact that [this play] could easily be therapy on stage and it isn’t; it has a lot of humour.”
Swallow Riverside Theatres, Cnr Church & Market Sts, Parramatta 2150. 02 8839 3399. riversideparramatta.com.au. Wed-Fri 7.30pm; Sat 2.30pm & 7.30pm. Thu Apr 28 6.30pm. $35-$49. Apr 21-30.
“Western Sydney is a microcosm of the nation”