Sydney Theatre Company 2026 Season
Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 Season is your chance to see some of Australia’s best theatre makers live and up close. Sydney Opera House’s Drama Theatre will play host to stage legends in four incredible plays, including an inspiring and provocative tribute to the AIDS crisis, a beguiling West End hit, an uproarious Aussie political satire, and a much-anticipated world premiere.
Praised as “a complete triumph” (Stage Whispers) and “the stuff of modern theatrical legend” (The Advertiser), Larry Kramer’s groundbreaking, semi-autobiographical drama, The Normal Heart, is given a triumphant staging by director Dean Bryant. Four-time Helpmann Award-winner and Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Mitchell Butel delivers a “poetically heartbreaking” (Limelight) performance in this timeless testimony on life during the AIDS crisis.
Beloved global star Miranda Otto returns to the stage in Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright, Jez Butterworth’s The River. In this stunning and mercurial play that took the West End by storm, a lovelorn fisherman entertains a woman at his family’s remote cabin. It should be a weekend full of romance and trout fishing, but all is not as it seems.
Pull back the curtain on the real Parliament House in this bold, black comedy hailed an “undeniably Australian and gloriously uncompromising” (The Conversation) 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.
The celebrated Australian playwright behind sell-out smash hit RBG: Of Many, One and international phenomenon Prima Facie, Suzie Miller turns her extraordinary talents to the formation of the AFLW in this world premiere. Strong is the New Pretty is theatre written in mud, sweat, and belief. It’s not just about sport. It’s about revolution.
Upcoming events
The Normal Heart
9 Feb – 21 Mar 2026
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.
The River
1 Mar – 9 May 2026
Beloved global star Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings, Ladies in Black, A Doll’s House) 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 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.
Housework
5 Sep – 17 Oct 2026
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 hailed an “undeniably Australian and gloriously uncompromising” (The Conversation) future classic.
Strong is the New Pretty
22 Oct – 5 Dec 2026
The celebrated Australian playwright behind sell-out smash hit RBG: Of Many, One and international phenomenon Prima Facie, Suzie Miller turns her extraordinary talents to the formation 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.
