Griffin Theatre Firm will stage its 2026 season of recent Australian tales at Belvoir St Theatre’s Downstairs Theatre, as a part of a newly introduced year-long residency.
Griffin’s Kings Cross house, the SBW Stables Theatre, is at present being rebuilt from the bottom up to make sure its accessibility and increase its seating capability by 44%. The brand new theatre is because of reopen in 2027.
As direct descendants of Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre Firm, Belvoir and Griffin’s lengthy affiliation first started in 1974 when Nimrod expanded its operations in Kings Cross to Belvoir Road, leading to two hubs for brand spanking new Australian storytelling. Griffin has occupied the theatre the place the Nimrod was beforehand primarily based, in Nimrod St, Darlinghurst, since 1986.
The brand new partnership between Belvoir and Griffin – which displays the 2 internal metropolis Sydney firms’ shared historical past and values – was introduced on Monday (8 September). That night, every firm launched their 2026 seasons at Belvoir.
Griffin and Belvoir: celebrating Australian storytelling
‘Australian theatre has at all times thrived when firms again one another,’ stated Belvoir’s Creative Director Eamon Flack.
‘Belvoir and Griffin are each the kids of the legendary Nimrod Theatre Firm, each firms are rooted in Australian storytelling, and each firms are geared in the direction of discovering additional potentialities for Australian theatre. So Griffin’s residency isn’t just a sensible association. It’s about ensuring that artists have the area to take dangers, and that audiences get to see the easiest of what’s coming subsequent. Thanks too to everybody who chipped in to our lobby renovation final yr: all that additional area goes to turn out to be useful…’
Learn: 2026 season announcements: our rolling guide to the performing arts
Griffin Theatre Firm’s Creative Director Declan Greene added: ‘At a time the place theatre is commonly pressured to be greater, sparklier, shinier, we’re leaping from our tiny venue to… a good tinier one. And we couldn’t be extra thrilled.
‘For many years, intimacy has been the defining function of the Griffin expertise. It’s an astonishing incubating power for brand spanking new performs and the Downstairs Theatre can attest to this too, with its personal legacy of unbelievable new performs. That is the DNA that each Griffin and Belvoir share. John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken and Lillian Horler paved the way in which for each our firms to thrive and create devoted areas for Australian tales – a legacy that we’re greater than proud to proceed over 50 years on. We’re past grateful, then, to Belvoir, for his or her huge generosity – permitting their cousins to crash on their sofa for a yr,’ Greene stated.
Griffin and Belvoir: rebuilding the SBW Stables Theatre
Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre seats 80 individuals. Previous to its deliberate demolition as a part of the rebuild, Griffin’s SBW Stables Theatre seated a most of 105 individuals.
As soon as accomplished, the brand new SBW Stables Theatre will seat 138; the theatre may even be accessible through an elevator, and for the primary time, the Griffin Theatre Firm constructing may even supply an onsite rehearsal area.
As a part of the partnership, Belvoir and Griffin may even mix their impartial theatre applications 25Aand Lookoutfor 2026, in an effort to make sure that alternatives for the subsequent technology of artists are maintained within the new yr.
Each Belvoir and Griffin Theatre Firm launched their 2026 seasons at Belvoir on Monday 8 September. Go to the Belvoir and Griffin web sites for particulars.
Additionally on ArtsHub:
Life is a Dream assessment: a basic comes alive at Belvoir
Life is a Dream, produced by Fervour and working now at Belvoir’s 25A, is an adaptation of Calderon de la Barca’s 1635 La vida es sueño.
The unique is a dramatic meditation on the character of actuality, on ethical philosophy and social and familial relationships, and different large chewy matters. It’s a Spanish Golden Age basic; one thing alongside the strains of A Midsummer’s Evening Dream or King Lear.
These existential issues are carried over into this model, together with the premise: Segismundo (Ariyan Sharma) is a younger man who has spent his life imprisoned in his bed room, oblivious to the truth that he’s the prince of Poland… Read more.
