Award-winning actor David Wenham makes his highly anticipated return to the Sydney Theatre Company stage for the first time in over two decades to perform in An Iliad.
Playing STC’s Wharf 1 Theatre from April 13, the production brings Homer’s epic into contemporary focus in a work described as “shocking, glorious, primal and deeply satisfying” (Time Out New York).
Adapted by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, An Iliad transforms one of the oldest works known in Western literature into a solo performance that interrogates the human cost of war. Directed by Damien Ryan and featuring live music composed and performed by double bassist Helen Svoboda, An Iliad sees David Wenham take to the stage as the wry, world-weary Poet. Compelled to retell the story of the Trojan War until humanity overcomes its violence, The Poet wanders through battlefields and broken cities, longing to lay the tale to rest – yet remains bound to its telling.
David Wenham says he is thrilled to be collaborating with director Damien Ryan and musician Helen Svoboda on a piece of theatre he hopes will ‘’both entertain and move audiences’’:
“An Iliad embraces the key ingredient for theatre throughout the centuries – storytelling. Using Homer’s epic tale as an allegory, An Iliad not only questions humanity’s constant thirst for conflict, it also is an examination of who we are – and the possibility maybe, just maybe, one day compassion will triumph over rage.”
Artistic Director and Co-CEO Mitchell Butel said: “AN ILIAD by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare is a melding of Homer’s original tale and a contemporary investigation of war and its effects. It asks what generates violence and what might end it. We are thrilled about the team gathered to ask you these questions in one of the most celebrated plays of our times. And we’re delighted that we have been able to lure David Wenham, one of our finest actors, back to us in such a smart, humane, wry and timely work.”
Reflecting on the power of the play, director Damien Ryan described An Iliad as “what theatre is for”:
“It’s a really wonderful piece of writing, exceptionally powerful in an extraordinarily cumulative way. Its challenge is to our imaginations, to our empathy, to the communal sharing in something ancient yet startlingly modern and frightening. Something that again and again, as a species, we fail to examine with enough attention to our own responsibilities.
It’s also such a remarkably apt piece for David Wenham— his gifts as a storyteller, his wonderful voice – I could hear him in it immediately — his versatility and characterful gifts, and his exceptional capacity to capture that ‘everyman’ quality, to make characters belong to us.”
Alongside the direction of Damien Ryan, with composition by Helen Svoboda, An Iliad is brought to life by an accomplished creative team: Designer Charles Davis, Lighting Designer Alexander Berlageand Sound Designer Brady Watkins, with Ian Michael as Associate Director.
An Iliad plays at STC’s Wharf 1 Theatre from 13 April 2026. Tickets are on sale now at sydneytheatre.com.au
AN ILIAD
By Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare
Adapted from Homer’s Iliad
Translated by Robert Fagles
Directed by Damien Ryan
Director Damien Ryan
Designer Charles Davis
Lighting Designer Alexander Berlage
Composer Helen Svoboda
Sound Designer Brady Watkins
Associate Director Ian Michael
With David Wenham
Musician Helen Svoboda
Wharf 1 Theatre, 15 Hickson Rd, Sydney New South Wales 2000
Previews 13 April – 16 April 2026
Season from 18 April 2026
Box Office (02) 9250 1777 / sydneytheatre.com.au
