Kate Champion, the Artistic Director of Black Swan State Theatre Company, has revealed the company’s 2025 program featuring a wide range of productions.
The company has enjoyed several acclaimed seasons in 2024 with high praise for their productions of two Susie Miller plays, RBG: Of Many, One and Prima Facie, and the recent production of The Children.
Among their 2025 season is work from playwrights Deborah Frances-White, Tracy Letts, Thomas Weatherall, Andrew Bovell, Andrea Gibbs and Jonathan Biggins.
“It has a huge range; it’s got a lot of light and shade.” Artistic Director Kate Champion said of the program she’s put together.
Opening the 2025 season will be a play that Champion describes as one of her top five favourite plays of all time, August: Osage County.
Written by playwright Tracy Letts the play made its debut in 2007 at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and when the show was produced on Broadway it was named Best Play at the 2008 Tony Awards.
The play tells the story of a family in Oklahoma who face tragedy and complex relationships over several weeks.
“We all think our families have problems and issues with particular relationships. This story will make you feel that your family’s quite okay.” Champion said.
The staging will be a co-production with Belvoir St Theatre and will feature seven WA actors alongside members from the Sydney production. The Sydney staging of the show will open in November and feature Pamela Rabe, Helen Thomson, Tasmin Carroll, and Bert Labonté.
For the Perth season Caroline Brazier, Bee Cruse, Geoff Kelso, Amy Matthews, Hayley McElhinney, Will O’Mahony and Ben Mortley are in the cast.
Directed by Eamon Flack and presented in association with Perth Festival, the play runs from 27 February to 16 March in the Heath Ledger Theatre.
The company’s second production for 2025 will be Blue, which is described as a beautifully insightful and tender monologue written by proud Kamilaroi man, and Heartbreak High star, Thomas Weatherall.
This life-affirming story delves into a young person’s journey through life, loss, mental wellbeing and early adulthood. Ian Wilkes directs what is described as a surprisingly uplifting production that will run from 23 May to 8 June in the Studio Underground.
Weatherall’s play made its debut in 2019 and it’s based on Weatherall’s teenage diary entries. Weatherall performed the work for its Sydney and Brisbane seasons, while Callan Purcell starred in a South Australian production earlier this year. Black Swan has not announced who will be performing the play when it makes it’s Perth debut.
“It’s a beautiful coming of age, coming to terms with grief and why to go forward with life, which is not only something that is very previous for a man in their late teens, early twenties, but really honestly for all of us.” Champion said of the work.
“I programmed Blue because I think it’s important to have a range of generational voices.” Champion said of her decision to include the play in the upcoming season, describing Weatherall’s voice as one that speaks to his generation and beyond.
Champion herself will direct Never Have I Ever, the debut play from feminist podcaster and comedian Deborah Frances-White.
The play was first staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2022 and has been described as “savagely funny”. It sees a couple, whose boutique restaurant is about to go bust, host one final dinner to let their friends who invested in the project know that they’ve lost their investment.
The Australian premiere of the play will be with a Melbourne production in February 2025, the separate Perth production directed by Champion will come in June.
After sold out shows around the country, in July Jonathan Biggins brings The Gospel According to Paul to WA for the first time.
Love him or love him less, no-one can deny the intriguing complexity of Paul Keating’s personality. A leader who changed the course of our country and who to this day can still ruffle feathers.
The play is laden with Keating’s acerbic language and unmatched eviscerating witticisms. Directed by Aarne Neeme the show runs from 23 July to 3 August in the Heath Ledger Theatre.
Actor Humphrey Bower will direct a production of Andrew Bovell’s play Speaking in Tongues. The play was adapted into the award-winning film Lantana. Bovell is a member of the Black Swan board.
The cast will feature Alexandria Steffensen, Catherine Moore, Matt Edgerton and Luke Hewitt, as will also feature music and sound design from Ash Gibson Greig.
Black Swan State Theatre Company received a lot of acclaim for its 2023 production of Bovell’s Things I Know to Be True.
Bringing a touch of the Kimberley to Perth will be Raised in Big Spirit Country, curated by Black Swan’s Broome-based Artistic Associate Naomi Pigram-Mitchell.
Born amongst the artistic giants who created the ‘Broome sound’ and who were integral to legendary Black Swan productions such as Bran Nue Dae and Corrugation Road – Pigram-Mitchell’s life has been steeped in the riches of this bountiful creative legacy. This vibrant musical concert will highlight the work of First Nation performers.
The final production of the year will be a new play from local writer Andrea Gibbs who scored a hit with her debut play Barracking for the Umpire.
Adam Mitchell will direct her new work Alice which tells the story of a woman obsessed with Christmas. Its season will run in the Health Leger Theatre from 22nd November.
Find out more about Black Swan State Theatre’s 2025 program at their website.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the company’s Artistic Director as Kate Cherry, instead of Kate Champion. OUTinPerth apologises to both Kate Champion and former Artistic Director Kate Cherry for the error.
