There’s something quite special about seeing top-quality theatre in an intimate setting, with the backdrop of Sydney Harbour in full view.
The Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli has been a stalwart of the Sydney arts scene for 66 years, surviving the challenging COVID-19 years and continuing to produce some outstanding original theatre.
Led by artistic director Mark Kilmurry, in recent years the Ensemble has engaged in an ambitious program, with great support from renowned Australian playwright David Williamson, and an emerging group of talented female writers.
For next year, the Ensemble is offering a mix of 10 classic and new plays, including a world premiere by Williamson who is finding it hard to put down the pen after ‘retiring’ three years ago. New work Aria examines the relationship of former opera talent Monique with her three daughters in law who she despises. Fly Girl takes us back to the 70s when aviation was a boys’ club – but pilot Deboarah Lawrie has other ideas, spurring on a boycott of Ansett and beyond. The story of this pioneering pilot deserved to be told, Kilmurry says, and he got the ‘funniest people on Earth’ to write it – Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore – who will also star in the comedy (pictured).
Another highlight will be television darling Georgie Parker putting on her A Country Practice hat of sorts in How To Plot a Hit in Two Days – a romp around a screenwriter’s room where the ‘perfect death’ of the beloved Molly Jones character is plotted.
The Ensemble is a ‘writer’s theatre for good plays well written,’ Kilmurry says, but that also comes with risk as it is selffunded. The theatre needs more patrons to dampen a growing deficit, and while the majority of punters come from the North Shore, it increasingly draws in visitors from around Sydney and even the Central Coast. It has tried to make the theatre as accessible as possible, with ticket costs well below some of the bigger Sydney theatres like Belvoir and the STC. ‘Val the Matinee Bus’ conveys patrons from Milsons Point station down to McDougall Street, and it has introduced ‘Friday Fantastix,’ with $30 tickets on sale between 3pm to 5pm for shows the following week.
Thursday nights, university students can get a free drink with their ticket, and there is of course the reasonably-priced Bayly’s Bistro downstairs where you can have a meal before a show. So give it a go, and support fantastic acting and theatre right on your doorstep.
Ensemble Theatre
78 McDougall Street, Kirribilli
ensemble.com.au
