The Blind Giant is Dancing
13 February - 20 March
Upstairs Theatre
By Stephen Sewell Director Eamon Flack
About
Warning: this production contains the smoking of herbal cigarettes, a live gunshot, haze, loud industrial noises and political despair.
Brutality in the workplace, rage in the streets, seething in the home. The vulnerability of political parties when they’ve forgotten why they’re there. The intellectual torpor of modern Australia. How power corrupts.
Stephen Sewell’s play is an angry and tender depiction of an idealist who becomes so embroiled in a party power struggle that he loses sight of what’s at stake. When it premiered in 1983, The Blind Giant is Dancing felt like a sharp slap in the face. And in an age of ICAC, Union credit cards, speculative housing bubbles, a pulverised working class, vapid leadership… it’s definitely time for another look at this Australian classic.
Artistic Director Eamon Flack begins his tenure with a company of eleven of the country’s great actors and one of the country’s great plays.
Winner of the 1985 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award.
Cast
Michael Denkha
Ivan Donato
Andrew Henry
Emma Jackson
Russell Kiefel
Genevieve Lemon
Geoff Morrell
Zahra Newman
Dan Spielman
Yael Stone
Ben Wood
Team
By Stephen Sewell
Director Eamon Flack
Set & Costume Designer Dale Ferguson
Lighting Designer Verity Hampson
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Fight Choreographer Scott Witt
Stage Manager Melanie Stanton
Assistant Stage Manager Grace Nye-Butler
Performance Times
Tuesday 6.30pm
Wednesday to Friday 8pm
Saturday 2pm & 8pm
Sunday 5pm
Previews (bookable)
8pm, 13 February
6.30pm, 14 February
8pm, 16 February
Opening night (invitation only)
8pm, 17 February
Unwaged performance
2pm, 25 February
Captioned performance
2pm, 5 March
Audio-described performance
2pm, 12 March
Sunday Forum
3pm, 20 March
RUNNING TIME
Approx 2 hrs, 40 mins (including two intervals of 10 and 15 minutes)
Prices
Belvoir’s ticket prices can be dynamically adjusted either up or down without notice. This can apply to a small number of tickets in response to demand for a specific performance date or time.
Prices listed on the Ticket Prices page account for the majority of tickets but please contact Box Office for current prices on all tickets available. Full ticket terms and conditions are also available on the same page.
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Reviews
Spielman makes riveting theatre of Allen’s slow corruption and transformation into the kind of power-for-power’s sake political operator he once despised.
Jason Blake | The Sydney Morning Herald
All the questions about family, marriage, power and personal need that Sewell poses are just as relevant as ever, thirty years later. Eamon Flack’s production is powerful and moving. Highly recommended.
Rebecca Whitten | Australian Stage
It is epic, wild, paranoid and passionate, full of personal and political hope and despair.
John McCallum | The Australian
The Blind Giant Is Dancing is an electric, unmissable piece of theatre.
★★★★☆
Hannah Story | The Music
A brilliant cast brings life to this 30 year old play.
★★★★☆
Liam McLaughlan | ArtsHub
Flaws and all, Spielman, the play and the rest of the cast give great night out. Don’t miss.
Diana Simmonds | Stage Noise