Welcome to the 51st blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! Up until this point, we’ve had guest bloggers as your guides, but December’s culture selector is one of our own: Time Out’s new national arts and culture editor, Ben Neutze. Every week in December, Ben will be sharing some of his cultural experiences and telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendation, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him.
Last week I went to the launch of a brand new digital arts publication: Audrey Journal. Created by two stalwarts of Sydney’s theatre scene – journalist Elissa Blake and critic Jason Blake – the publication will focus entirely on Sydney theatre, in all its forms. The Blakes have been an integral force in supporting live performance in this city for many years, and were leading theatre coverage for the Sydney Morning Herald until last month.
Audrey was created in response to shrinking localised theatre coverage in mainstream media, and it's something I also care a lot about. I’m personally invested in ensuring that our arts media remains a landscape of many different voices. So although I want you to show Time Out’s arts and theatre coverage plenty of love, please go and share some with Audrey. It’s run by two of the best and I can’t wait to see what they create and how it evolves.
But the reason I’m talking about this is that the launch took place at the Old Fitzroy Hotel, which is home to the Old Fitzroy Theatre.
Last week I started writing about the new indie theatre district around Kings Cross, and the Old Fitz is one of the most important spaces.
The Hotel has been the watering hole of local legends for decades upon decades, and it’s become a bit of a local legend in itself. The theatre is located in the basement – I’ve always assumed it was formerly a cellar, but I’ve never had this confirmed – and has been operating for 20 years under a few different companies. It seats just 60 people, but has been a breeding ground for major talent; Tim Minchin wrote his first ever musical for the Old Fitz, called This Blasted Earth.
There is no theatrical experience quite like going to the Old Fitz: you enter through the front room of the pub, walk through to the backroom and queue up at the top of the stairs. When the bell rings, you walk down into the basement space and find a pew.
The theatre is currently under the artistic directorship of Andrew Henry, who’s reinvigorated the space with his company, Red Line Productions. The company started with some exciting explosions of masculine power and capital-A acting, but over the course of the last 12 months – and certainly in its 2018 season – has expanded its outlook a fair bit further.
The last show for the year is Henry's own show, Vertical Dreaming, a grungy cabaret sharing stories of mental health. Unfortunately I'm not going to get along to see it given the chaos of this time of year, but there are plenty of highlights I'm looking forward to next year, not least of which is the Australian premiere of Sarah DeLappe's Pulitzer finalist The Wolves. That's the beauty of Sydney theatre: sometimes you can see the local premiere of a Pulitzer finalist in the basement of a pub.
Tickets to all the shows in next year's season are just $28 if you book before December 31. After then, they go up to $45, but once you add the price of a pint and a hearty pub meal, it's still not a super expensive night out.
See what else is on stage this month, and check out our hit list of the best art in Sydney right now.
While you’re here, check our 52 Weeks of #SydCulture challenge, and let us know what you're seeing/loving on Instagram via the hashtag #SydCulture.