{"id":346154,"date":"2026-09-14T10:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346154\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:03:56","slug":"queens-secret-whitlam-correspondence-inspires-sydney-theatre-company-play-in-2027-australian-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346154\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen\u2019s secret Whitlam correspondence inspires Sydney Theatre Company play in 2027 | Australian theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six years after the Australian historian Jenny Hocking won her legal battle to release secret correspondence<\/a> between Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm Fraser and the governor general John Kerr, her fight to reveal the truth about Gough Whitlam\u2019s dismissal is being adapted for the stage.<\/p>\n

The Palace Letters, announced on Monday as part of Sydney Theatre Company\u2019s 2027 program, will have its world premiere at Sydney Opera House in April. It will star Georgie Parker as Hocking, with Jonathan Biggins playing Whitlam.<\/p>\n

STC\u2019s artistic director, Mitchell Butel, described the play as Hocking\u2019s \u201cErin Brockovich journey through the court system\u201d, with the first half following the historian\u2019s case and the second taking place immediately after the dismissal.<\/p>\n

Heather Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh will star in Oedipus in STC\u2019s 2027 season. Photograph: STC\/Holly Ward<\/p>\n

All together, the STC\u2019s 2027 program boasts four world premieres and six Australian premieres, including Robert Icke\u2019s modern retelling of Oedipus<\/a>, which starred Lesley Manville and Mark Strong in the West End and Broadway productions. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most electric pieces of theatre I\u2019ve seen,\u201d said Butel, who has cast Heather Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh as Jocasta and Oedipus.<\/p>\n

The adaptation takes the Sophocles tragedy and propels it into a contemporary setting, where Oedipus is a politician awaiting election results. It will be staged at Roslyn Packer Theatre in January and February before heading to Adelaide festival in March.<\/p>\n

The comedian Celeste Barber<\/a> will make her STC debut in The Book of Liz, a 90-minute off-Broadway comedy written by the sibling duo David and Amy Sedaris. Barber will play Sister Elizabeth Donderstock, a runaway from a religious sect who is \u201cclueless about sex and the modern world but armed with a formidably sunny disposition\u201d.<\/p>\n

STC\u2019s global hit The Picture of Dorian Gray will return to Roslyn Packer Theatre, with the former artistic director Kip Williams back in the director\u2019s chair. Nikki Shiels, who was the understudy for the original Dorian, Eryn Jean Norvill, will step into the spotlight for its homecoming run, playing all 26 characters in the marathon cinetheatre show, which will also tour to Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Celeste Barber makes her STC debut in The Book of Liz, written by David and Amy Sedaris. Photograph: STC\/Holly Ward<\/p>\n

Norvill is also making her return to STC, this time playing all the characters in Vanya \u2013 the Olivier award-winning adaptation of Chekhov\u2019s Uncle Vanya. The actor will co-direct the play with Helpmann award-winning director Marion Potts.<\/p>\n

Tim Minchin \u2013 last seen on stage for STC in 2013\u2019s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead \u2013 is taking on the role of Scrooge in the British playwright Jack Thorne<\/a>\u2019s adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Matthew Warchus, the British director of Minchin\u2019s hit Matilda the Musical, will direct the Sydney show, which runs from November to Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

A brand-new stage version of Miss Fisher\u2019s Murder Mysteries is also on the bill, with Mama Does Derby<\/a>\u2019s Amber McMahon donning a black bob to play Phryne Fisher. The play takes place on a cruise ship and is adapted from one of Kerry Greenwood\u2019s books which didn\u2019t make it into the Essie Davis TV series. The show premiere will in Brisbane before making its way to Sydney in May.<\/p>\n

Tim Minchin \u2013 last seen on stage for STC in 2013\u2019s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead \u2013 is taking on the role of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Photograph: STC\/Holly Ward<\/p>\n

Also on the program is a new Australian version of the Broadway hit John Proctor is the Villain, about a class of high school students grappling with Arthur Miller\u2019s The Crucible,<\/a> heading to both Sydney and Melbourne. Becky Shaw, a \u201ccracking dark American comedy about dating and sex and romance and family\u201d straight from Broadway, is also on the cards, as is a Thelma and Louise-style story called Amah and Nanna, starring Home and Away\u2019s Lynne McGranger.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the program is \u201ca study of masculinity that isn\u2019t toxic\u201d, Butel said: The Fifth Step, a two-hander starring Ashan Kumar and Erik Thomson as a young man and his AA sponsor. The play, by the Northern Irish-playwright David Ireland, was performed by Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden<\/a> in London last year.<\/p>\n

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams, a co-production between STC and State Theatre Company South Australia, will also head to Sydney<\/a> and Adelaide. And Logan St, written and directed by Jacob Boehme, about friendship found in the grounds of Australia\u2019s oldest mosque, comes to Sydney after its debut in Adelaide this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely think this is a season that will dazzle on a sensual level,\u201d Butel said. But I really hope the themes speak to who we are as a species and as a nation now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six years after the Australian historian Jenny Hocking won her legal battle to release secret correspondence between Queen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-346154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}