Canberra Rep may be heading into its 82nd season, but the emphasis at Friday’s launch was firmly on youth. Isha Menon – seen recently in Rep’s production of Don Parties On – and Ryan Drum, who’s undertaking a new course in stage (including set building and lights) at the National Institute of Dramatic Art – talked about the value of Rep as a place to learn about theatre and feel part of a community.
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Drum said, ‘‘For a lot of people it’s where you start and then where you end up.’’
Rep president Jim McMullen said for Rep to continue to move forward it needed to attract young people, to stimulate the company itself on stage and off and to stimulate audience growth.
‘‘We wanted to do a really solid season ... with some classics,’’ he said. ‘‘One of the other beliefs is [because] we’re a repertory company, we should be developing a repertoire over a period of some time.’’
Ed Wightman, a professional actor and director and former Rep stalwart who this year directed a well-received production of The Book of Everything there, is returning in 2014 to kick off the season with Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night (March 28-April 12).
He had described the play as one of Shakespeare’s most entertaining plays with twins, romance, chaos and confusion.
One of the play’s best-known speeches begins, ‘‘If music be the food of love, play on’’, and Wightman said he intended music to play a significant role in the production. He encouraged singers and musicians to audition.
McMullen said the variety show Jazz Garters would not been seen in 2014 but the company would still do a musical production.
Showtune, a tribute to the musical theatre of composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, whose Broadway shows included Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage Aux Folles, will be on from June 20 to July 5. A director had yet to be finalised.
Director Aarne Neeme has had a 30-year association with Rep that continues with Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (August 1 to 16). He said he regarded Arcadia as ‘‘one of the masterpieces of 20th-century drama’’ in its exploration of classicism versus romanticism and intellect versus emotion.
The play was last presented by Rep in 2006.
Peter Shaffer’s Equus turned 40 this year and barb barnett will direct it for Rep in 2014 (September 26 to October 11).
She said the play – about a psychiatrist treating a young man who blinded six horses – was one of the most affecting works of late 20th-century theatre.
‘‘It’s a drama of infinite brooding sadness,’’ she said, adding that its use of puppetry was one of the things that attracted her to it.
Lighter is Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit (November 21 to December 6), to be directed by Kate Blackhurst.
‘‘It’s about a man haunted by his first wife while living with his second,’’ she said.
Blackhurst – along with barnett, making her Rep directorial debut – said the play dealt with appearances, facades and relationships and she intended to give it a realistic staging, ‘‘elegant and graceful like a swan gliding beautifully across water’’.
And, just as the final show for the current season, Steel Magnolias, is in early 2014, the final show for the season will be the first show for 2015.
Judi Crane will direct Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (February 20 to March 7).
Canberra Repertory Society 2014-15 season. Subscription packages available. For packages, pricing and audition information phone the box office on 6257 1950, see canberrarep.org.au or visit Theatre 3, 3 Repertory Lane, off Ellery Crescent, Acton.
