Four decades ago we nearly missed the possibility of Belvoir. There was nearly a block of flats instead. But at the crucial moment two arts workers, Sue Hill and Chris Westwood, decided to gather 600 people to buy the theatre and save it from re-development. In the space of a few weeks in 1984, forty years and counting of the future of Australian theatre was made possible.

Is a new Belvoir St possible now? I find myself asking this question a lot lately. Not just because it would be hard for a theatre to win against a block of flats in Sydney today. Not just because it would take more like 6000 people to buy this bit of Surry Hills now. Not just because most artists and arts workers can barely or not at all afford to live in Sydney any more. But also because the sense of possibility has gone out of the air of this city. Though maybe that’s not just Sydney…

But at Belvoir, possibility is all we’ve got. Hopes and wishes and desires and ideas and intimations and hunches and belief and faith and goodwill. They’re the currency of this place. We take real money and turn it into thin air and applause and a sense of possibility that the next show might be as good, or much better, either way that there will be a next show. Whatever the outcome, the sense of ongoing possibility is what counts.

We make theatre in order to make more theatre.

’Cause Sydney without places like Belvoir is just real estate.

The shows we’re offering this year come from artists asking, what can we make possible?

Can we make a place in this country for Black men to be both strong and vulnerable in public? Can we rouse the ghost of Chrissy Amphlett? Can art outwit the authority of the state? Can the dead speak of war? Can animals make justice? Can we figure out how to survive the overthrow of nature? Can we overthrow the patriarchy? Can a dog perform at Belvoir St? Can the proud Black spirit of Redfern live on?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, why not, hopefully, yes, yes, yes!

Nine shows, plus two special late-night shows. Over half the season with casts bigger than eight – big casts mean bigger stories and more jobs for actors. Over a hundred artists given licence to go for broke: the great Olga Tokarczuk, Pamela Rabe, Paula Arundell, Isaac Drandic, Jimi Bani,
S. Shakthidharan, Anandavalli, Nadie Kammallaweera, Sheridan Harbridge, Neil Armfield, Craig Silvey, Grace Chapple, Vivian Pham…A national tour of Mandela Matthia’s Lose to Win. Redfern Renaissance is back. Griffin Theatre Company as our house guests. A new generation of artists coming to the fore. Anything is possible.

ONWARDS.

Eamon Flack
Artistic Director