The Year of the Apprentice

I have a sneaking suspicion that Company B Artistic Director Neil Armfield has been watching a lot of Donald Trump's The Apprentice. If next year's season is anything to go by, Armfield has programmed not only one of the most adventurous and least commercial programmes of the last few years but has armed the programme with some of the newest theatre talent currently working in Sydney.

It truly is the year of the apprentice with the graduation of young directors and writers from Downstairs Belvoir, as well as other independent venues up the wooden hill to Company B.

As Sydney Arts Journo reported a couple of weeks ago, Kate Mulvaney's The Seed makes its way from Downstairs Belvoir with the full cast. And even though Armfield is keeping a careful eye on burgeoning director Iain Sinclair it is a key acknowledgement of the creative class emerging from the independent sector.

Chris Kohn is another apprentice with a well deserved guernsey as director who walks upstairs after a number of successful collaborations with Lally Katz in the Downstairs theatre. He's directing Antigone - but whether he got the gig due to his nagging or being approached by the company is a little less clear.

After the success of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, director Craig Ilott also secures a spot with Company B. He already made his way from the independent sector with a show at the Ensemble Theatre but this time is given the greater challenge of the Martin McDonagh play, The Pillowman.

There is quite a lot of pressure on Ilott to get this production right. This play is a huge favourite with actors for its vibrant and fleshy text, so every single actor that doesn't get cast will be looking very carefully at who he selects. As well as this, the last Company B production of a McDonagh play missed the mark by such a phenomenal distance that many fans of the Irish canon will be waiting in the wings with hurling sticks if they get it wrong again.

Much of this new transition can be attributed to the vision of Lyn Wallis, who curated the Downstairs season for the previous nine years. Just prior to her move to Casula Powerhouse, Wallis implemented the Boiler Room project which led to the development of directors and creative teams, with a view to them developing projects over the course of a number of consecutive years. This broke the trend which had plagued the independent theatre sector of lacking continuity in the development of artists.

Company B's programme is also a huge acknowledgement to the Indigenous talent that have been fostered by the company over the last few years. It also tips its hat to some of the exciting Indigenous projects that are emerging from around the country. Indeed, the pin-up girl for the Comapny B marketing and promotion is the wonderfully talented and absolutely gorgeous Ursula Yovich.

The opening production of 08, in collaboration with the Sydney Festival and Big hART, is Ngapartji Ngapartji (I give you something, you give me something). It has already toured the country and received an excellent review from Theatre Notes who describes the piece as "theatre that calls on its ritual roots. You are not buying a ticket to a show: you are being invited to participate in a ceremony." It looks and sounds fascinating.

Deborah Mailman, now ex-STC Actors Company will return to tread the Belvoir boards after giving birth to her son this year, as Antigone. Dallas Winmar, who last presented her play Aliwa! at Belvoir in 2001, has written another cracker of a tail in Yibiyung which centres around the life of her grandmother after researching 'Government file'. It will be directed by Wesley Enoch.

Armfield directs just one production this year, and it is a play discovered by a Sydney Opera House producer who believed it was better produced by Company B than the more conservative harbour-side venue. Scorched, written by Lebanese French-Canadian playwright has been compared to Jean Giraudoux and Jean Anoulih and Company B seems to have acquired a coup in presenting one of the hottest plays of the moment. It stars Paula Arundell and Arky Michael.

The year finishes up with a double-bill from Ridiculusmus duo John Haynes and David Woods who present a mad version of The Importance of Being Earnest and then dive a bit more seriously into Tough Time, Nice Time which is set in a jacuzzi in Bangkok. God only knows where it will go from there.

Armfield has curatored one hell of a programme which is exciting, diverse and adventurous. It has all the potential to push theatrical and thematic boundaries but I suppose the only thing really missing from the line-up is a female director... which is a shame.