Sydney Theatre Company has announced its 2026 Season – the first for Artistic Director Mitchell Butel – and Australian artists are in the spotlight, along with a few good tunes.
Across thirteen productions, the season includes three World Premieres of brand-new Australian writing:
- Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical by Jack Yabsley
- Bennelong in London by Jane Harrison
- Strong is the New Pretty by Suzie Miller
The season also includes the Australian Premiere of the most awarded play of 2025, Pulitzer and TONY Award-winning Broadway production Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the Sydney premiere of new Australian musical based on Miles Franklins’ My Brilliant Career, adapted by Dean Bryant, Matthew Frank and Sheridan Harbridge, plus recent Australian gems and brilliant contemporary international plays.
With over 80 performers on stage throughout the year – including the return to the stage for Australian stars David Wenham, Miranda Otto and Sam Worthington, the STC debut of rising stars, Googoorewon Knox (Hamilton), Keiynan Lonsdale (Dance Academy) and Sisi Stringer (Mortal Kombat, Vampire Academy). 2026 will also see the return of STC audience favourites Justine Clarke, Pamela Rabe, Helen Thomson, Jonathan Biggins, Ewen Leslie and Guy Simon.
Butel says 2026 is ‘season of dream teams’ that celebrates the brilliance and diversity of Australia’s theatre talent and the power of live storytelling: ”Theatre has the power to touch hearts, challenge beliefs, invite empathy, delight, provoke, inspire, enlighten and, importantly, entertain. I am honoured to have the great privilege of inviting artists and playwrights I respect and admire to bring brilliant, entertaining theatre to the people of Sydney,” he says.
“In 2026, our artists, both onstage performers and creatives behind the scenes, represent the generations from emerging to veterans. My career started as an actor and I’ve been lucky to work for almost every theatre company and performed on stages across Australia but Sydney Theatre Company feels like home.”
“I grew up professionally on these stages and I want to celebrate my theatre elders and peers – the actors, directors and creatives who taught, supported and inspired me – and create those same opportunities for the next generation of artists.”
“In programming this season, some of the themes that have emerged in the works are around change and difference. Experiencing live storytelling in a theatre together allows us to hold space for different and competing views, to foster empathy and perhaps even change our perspective.”
“The stories in our 2026 Season look back at significant moments in history, celebrate those who have fought to make change and explore how telling stories can help us to understand the present and ourselves,” says Butel.
Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 Season:
Purpose
Wharf 1 Theatre: 2 February – 22 March
In an exciting coup, the most awarded new American play of 2025 is heading this way. Fresh from winning the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2025 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Purpose comes directly from Broadway to Sydney Theatre Company in the first new production to be staged since its premiere. An influential African American family stands firmly on the highest pedestal of American politics; producing congressmen, celebrity pastors and civil rights leaders. But when their estranged, youngest son, Nazareth, returns home with an uninvited house guest, decades of secrets and unresolved tensions threaten to topple their empire. Directed by Zindzi Okenyo (Sweat) and featuring actors Deni Gordon, Markus Hamilton, Tinashe Mangwana and Sisi Stringer, Purpose is a “merciless dissection of hypocrisy – you may have trouble catching your breath from laughing so hard” (The New York Times). Australian Premiere.
The Normal Heart
Drama Theatre – Sydney Opera House: 9 February – 21 March
In 1989, The Normal Heart made its Australian premiere at Sydney Theatre Company to roaring standing ovations, in a production that spoke to the terrifying reality of the AIDS crisis. Almost 40 years later, Larry Kramer’s groundbreaking, semi-autobiographical drama returns to Sydney Theatre Company: a monumental tribute to those we lost, a poignant reminder for those who lived through the epidemic and a revelatory insight into the beginning of a world-changing movement. Directed by Dean Bryant, this production comes from State Theatre Company South Australia and stars STC Artistic Director and four-time Helpmann Award-winner Mitchell Butel as Ned Weeks, a New York writer determined to uncover the truth about the mystery illness decimating his community and the lack of government action in response. Butel is joined by an astonishing ensemble cast including Tim Draxl, Keiynan Lonsdale and Emma Jones, making her Sydney Theatre Company debut.
My Brilliant Career
Roslyn Packer Theatre: 21 March – 26 April
Miles Franklin’s classic novel as you’ve never seen it before, with a live soundtrack that’s equal parts contemporary pop, folksy bush band and barnstorming pub rock. Beloved by audiences and showered with five-star reviews, My Brilliant Career was Melbourne’s most in-demand ticket in 2024. This uniquely Australian story has captivated a new generation and will have its Sydney premiere in 2026. Kala Gare plays Sybylla Melvyn, a fiercely intelligent and individual young woman in 1890s Australia who rallies against the idea that her ambition should start and end at finding a wealthy husband. Forced to choose between romance and her career, a family and a future that she defines, she decides she’s having it all. With a joyfully fresh adaptation by Sheridan Harbridge, Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank, expert direction by Melbourne Theatre Company Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks, and stunning set and costume design by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Marg Horwell, My Brilliant Career transforms an iconic literary figure into an effervescent rockstar heroine for the modern age.
The River
Drama Theatre – Sydney Opera House: 30 March – 9 May
Beloved global star Miranda Otto returns to the Sydney Theatre Company stage in this thrilling play by one of the world’s greatest living playwrights. On a moonless night, a lovesick fisherman (Ewen Leslie) entertains a woman at his family’s remote cabin on the cliffs. The energy between them crackles like the flames in the fireplace. It should be a weekend full of romance and trout fishing, but all is not as it seems. From Jez Butterworth, Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, this lyrical and sublime drama is directed by rising star Margaret Thanos, offering a sleek and surprising interrogation of the mysteries of intimacy, love and connection.
An Iliad
Wharf 1 Theatre: 13 April – 30 May
A wry, witty and world-weary poet introduces himself as a storyteller, bound to recount the myth of the Trojan War until humanity can overcome its rage for violence and destruction. Award-winning international star David Wenham returns to Sydney Theatre Company as the Poet: a man who has spent millennia walking through battlefields, trenches and cities torn to the ground, spreading his story to every corner of the world. Finally, he attempts to quit telling this tale. Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s acclaimed and dynamic adaptation transforms Homer’s Ancient Greek saga of heroes, gods and battles into an urgent and personal exploration of difference, disagreement and the devastation of war. Led by one of Australia’s most innovative directors, Damien Ryan, and accompanied on stage by a live musician, this is Sydney’s opportunity to see Wenham up close in the intimacy of the Wharf 1 Theatre.
Doubt: A Parable
Roslyn Packer Theatre: 30 June – 2 August
Stage and screen icons Sam Worthington and Pamela Rabe go head-to-head in one of the most iconic and electrifying plays of the twenty-first century. The Bronx, NY, 1964. Sister Aloysius (Rabe), the iron-fisted headmistress of St. Nicholas Church School suspects a progressive priest of inappropriate behaviour with the school’s sole Black student, Donald Muller. The charismatic Father Flynn (Worthington) denies the allegations entirely. In a brand-new production of John Patrick Shanley’s titanic drama, powerhouse Australian director Marion Potts makes a grand return to Sydney Theatre Company, joining forces with a quartet of the nation’s finest actors to wrestle with the gaps between belief and truth. Twenty years on from winning the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, Doubt has “never been more urgent” (Variety) than it is today.
Wharf 1 Theatre: 18 July – 16 August
A tenacious young actor (Guy Simon) is preparing for the role of a lifetime in his tiny apartment. Well, at the moment, it’s just an audition, but he’s hopeful! As he readies himself to become one of Australian history’s most iconic figures, his imagination conjures to life Bennelong himself (Googoorewon Knox): a man forced to navigate his way through two cultures colliding at breakneck speed. Both travel back to the 1780s where Bennelong, now a young Wangal man, is abducted by Governor Phillip. Bennelong becomes his go-between with the Eora people and later, the first Aboriginal man to visit Europe and return. And the eventual husband of a woman called Barangaroo. Jane Harrison, the singular voice behind the award-winning The Visitors and Stolen, reunites with Ian Michael, to depict this time-bending conversation and burgeoning friendship between two First Nations men seeking to understand each other, themselves and the art of auditioning along the way. World Premiere.
Housework
Drama Theatre – Sydney Opera House: 5 September – 17 October
Sex scandals, culture wars, motherhood and Machiavellian manipulation – it’s all in a day’s work inside the House. Playwright Emily Steel and director Shannon Rush pull back the curtain on the real Parliament House in this bold, black comedy future classic. Brought to brilliant life by some of Australia’s most beloved comic actors, Housework follows a group of political dynamos through the backstabbing and backroom deals of a high-stakes sitting week in Canberra, whilst balancing family crises just as frantic. With Susie Youssef as first-time MP Ruth Mandour, Emily Taheny as her overworked Chief of Staff and iconic media polymath Indira Naidoo as… well, you’ll see, this is Aussie political satire at its very best.
Girls & Boys
Wharf 1 Theatre: 17 September – 1 November
A ticking time bomb, Girls & Boys is an engrossing, one-woman play from Dennis Kelly that shifts gears from romantic comedy to shock in a matter of seconds. She meets him in an airport queue and sparks fly. Their passionate love affair takes them to marriage, mortgage and children – an ordinary family life. Her natural working-class wit works to her advantage and unexpectedly, she starts rising above her allotted rung on the British social ladder. But as the power dynamic between them shifts, imperceptible cracks become yawning gulfs. When the home they built begins to fall, nothing prepares her for what happens next. The incredible Justine Clarke, whose versatility shone on stage in Julia delivers this edge-of-your-seat monologue that will leave you breathless.
The Unfriend
Roslyn Packer Theatre: 29 September – 31 October
Comedic genius Helen Thomson is back on board at Sydney Theatre Company to challenge everything you thought you knew about good manners. Directed by Simon Phillips, The Unfriend is the stage debut of Steven Moffat, the writer behind mega hits Doctor Who, Sherlock and Douglas is Cancelled. On a cruise ship, Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa, a sassy and less than sensitive American widow who demands they stay in touch. When Elsa invites herself to stay a few months later, they look her up online and learn that she’s been putting more than mushrooms into the odd casserole, with poisonous results. Now, the couple must race to protect their family whilst avoiding the greatest faux pas of all: being, well, a bit impolite? Because guess who’s coming to… murder! This deliciously dark comedy takes a hilarious bite out of middle-class England’s obsession with being “nice”, no matter the cost. Australian Premiere.
Strong is the New Pretty
Drama Theatre – Sydney Opera House: 22 October – 5 December
The celebrated Australian playwright behind sell-out smash hit RBG: Of Many, One and international phenomenon Prima Facie and Inter Alia, Suzie Miller turns her extraordinary talents to the birth of the AFLW in this world premiere. In 2010, an official report into the state of Australian Rules Football recommended the creation of a national women’s league. Seven years and a whole lot of grit, passion and fancy footwork later, the AFLW was born. This is the untold story of how the league went from a pipe dream to a sensation the sports world could no longer ignore. With her gift for docudrama and trademark insight and warmth, Miller reunites with the Aussie theatre-makers behind the original Prima Facie: director Lee Lewis and star Sheridan Harbridge. Now fielding a brilliant line-up of eight players including Lucy Bell and Amy Ingram, this dream team writes a love letter to a game and a community. It’s theatre written in mud, sweat, and belief. It’s not just about a sport. It’s about a revolution. World Premiere.
The Gospel According To Paul: The Second Coming
Wharf 1 Theatre: 6 November – 20 December
A soufflé might not rise twice, but this hit comedy will! The sermon on the mount returns to Sydney for a victory lap as Jonathan Biggins – co-creator and star of The Wharf Revue and one of Australia’s favourite comic actors – transforms into the visionary, reformer and rabble-rouser, Paul Keating. Exploring the former PM’s landmark political achievements and personal obsessions, The Gospel According to Paul takes the light on the hill and shines it on a man who grew up in the Labor Party at the knee of Jack Lang, approached economics as an artform, and demanded we confront the wrongs of our past. This production from Soft Tread Enterprises captures Keating’s eviscerating Question Time wit and wraps it up in a Zegna suit. With fresh takes on Keating’s recent media moments and zeitgeist zingers, no scumbag is safe in this show, not even our humble narrator.
Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical
Roslyn Packer Theatre: 15 November – 20 December
John Farnham. King of Pop. Australian hero. The voice of a generation. But as a cash-strapped, middle-aged father in the midst of an Australian rock revolution, it could have gone a very different way. In an outer Melbourne suburban garage in 1986, Farnham, with a new band and manager Glenn Wheatley, began work on an album and a song called You’re the Voice that would transform his career and their lives. This is the story of an overnight sensation, 20 years in the making. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the highest-selling Australian album of all time, Whispering Jack, Sydney Theatre Company and Artistic Director Mitchell Butel join forces with Michael Cassel Group (Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), TalentWorks (Finding the Voice) and acclaimed writer Jack Yabsley (Gold Diggers) to bring Farnham’s life, mischief and musical genius to the stage. Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical is a celebration, not just of hits like Pressure Down, Age of Reason, Two Strong Hearts and That’s Freedom, but also of friendship, family and a great Australian artist’s desire to shine a light on the world around us. World Premiere.
For more information about Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 Season, visit: www.sydneytheatre.com.au for details.
Images: Sisi Stringer, Tinashe Mangwana, Markus Hamilton and Deni Gordon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Purpose – photo by Holly Ward | Miranda Otto in Sydney Theatre Company’s The River – photo by Holly Ward | Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon in Sydney Theatre Company’s Bennelong In London – photo by Holly Ward | Sheridan Harbridge in Sydney Theatre Company’s Strong is the New Pretty – photo by Holly Ward
