(Adapted from a Media Release)
State Theatre Company has this morning announced a premiere show for their 2013 program, the first from new Artistic Director Geordie Brookman, which will include the world premiere of Vere (Faith), by acclaimed Australian writer John Doyle (Roy and HG) and star Adelaide’s Paul Blackwell in the title role, to be performed from 12 October – 2 November 2013 at the Dunstan Playhouse.
A co-production with Sydney Theatre Company (the first in eight years) and directed by talented Australian director Sarah Goodes, it will then transfer to Sydney for a season at the Sydney Opera House from 6 November – 7 December.
“We’re enormously excited to be collaborating with Sydney Theatre Company on John’s moving and bitingly funny new play. To have Paul return to the State Theatre Company stage makes the project even more special.” Geordie Brookman said.
Vere is at the top of his game: a well respected university physics professor with a brilliant mind and the job of a lifetime lined up at Switzerland’s CERN Laboratory. However when his last day on campus also brings the shocking news that he is suffering from dementia, he suddenly realises that the months ahead will reveal challenges he and his family could never have dreamed of.
This touching and deeply personal world premiere by John Doyle also showcases his trademark wit, covering a wide variety of issues including religion, mathematics and astronomy, as well as a timely reminder that the brightest stars can still be extinguished in an instant.
Co-artistic Directors of Sydney Theatre Company, Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett said: “National collaborations are of utmost importance to us at Sydney Theatre Company. We are excited, after some time, to be collaborating with the State Theatre Company of South Australia, to present Vere (Faith), John Doyle’s soulful and soul searching examination of the fragility of existence. And we can think of no-one finer than the wonderful Paul Blackwell to inhabit the eponymous role. With Geordie and Rob at the helm of State Theatre Company we look forward to a terrific collaboration.”
Playwright John Doyle said: “When travelling through the Blue Mountains I came across a gardener working in the front yard of a very fine house, who informed me it was the home of Vere Gordon Childe, the father of Archaeology. I knew nothing about him. Later that day, while walking along the rim of the Grose Valley I stumbled upon the point at which he chose to end his life. It set me thinking about how a brilliant mind reacts to the intrusion of physical decline. The play explores these challenges - the horror and the humour of academic brilliance in unchartered waters.”
Doyle is also the acclaimed writer of such programs as ABC’s Changi and Two Men in a Tinnie, as well as the hit 2008 play Pig Iron People produced by Sydney Theatre Company.
The full State Theatre Company 2013 season will be announced on 27 September at Her Majesty’s Theatre, with subscriptions on sale from 5pm that night. Single tickets will be on sale from 12 November.
