Third Venue Added For Sport For Jove's Summer Season

Sport for Jove has announced they will be adding a third venue to our ever-popular Summer Season this year. For the month of February their heart-stopping new productions of Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night will play in repertory on the rolling green behind Old Government House, the oldest public building in Australia. Conveniently located in Parramatta Park this lovely venue will be a delight for audiences this summer.

"For many years we have performed at the National Trust's Leura Everglades in the Blue Mountains," said Sport for Jove Artistic Director Damien Ryan. "We are thrilled to be extending our partnership with the National Trust by adding this beautiful venue to our Summer Season in 2020.

"This new venue offers easy accessibility and with Lachlan's Restaurant overlooking the green, theatre-goers will have the opportunity to enjoy dinner on the veranda while watching the shows."

Two of Shakespeare's best-loved plays will light up Sport for Jove's Summer Season. Sport for Jove's Artistic Director Damien Ryan will direct a tumultuous and youthful Romeo & Juliet and Christopher Stollery will direct a side-splitting take on the riotous Twelfth Night filled with music and mayhem.

The existential crisis facing our world today, the product of a lack of practical leadership from our earth's elders, has triggered a deafening chorus of 'How dare you!', screamed from the heart of our planet's youth. And it's not just about climate issues. What can children teach us in their struggle to be heard?

This furiously energetic new production of Romeo & Juliet is characterised by a true vision of today's youth - the rarely seen innovation of actual teenagers playing the play's children -all aged 14-18, and surrounded by an extraordinary cast of experienced players, gives this production an authenticity and honest rawness, danger and the genuine awkwardness of youth.

"This production takes on the spirit of a filthy Italian opera, lead with an original acapella score," said Ryan. "You will be transported to a backcountry Verona, a profoundly insular town, staring out at the future a moral pollution at its heart. Only its children's courage to express themselves will bring change."

The twelfth night is the last day of the Christmas cycle, a night of madness where the world turns upside down, where grief and joy and laughter and tears are all one. When mere mortals have the power to choose who they are, what they believe in and who they may love.

In the chaos of this disruption, people begin to feel things they are not supposed to feel and behave in totally unexpected ways. The puritan dances in yellow stockings, the Duke falls in love with his pageboy and so does the Lady Olivia. Moral rectitude is upended as the puritanical Malvolio goes head to head with Sir Andrew and his band of permissive louts.

Desire, disguise and revelation are a heady mix as this Twelfth Night subverts Shakespeare's play on gender by casting women as Malvolio and Sebastian, retaining some of the original humour and confusion from the cross-casting of Shakespeare's day.

Sport for Jove's Summer Season has been a glorious festive season treat for our audience for ten years. Gathering as a community outdoors each summer to delight in the comedies and weep over the tragedies has become a beloved annual tradition. In this eleventh festival we are thrilled to present two such firm favourites of Shakespeare's repertoire in faithful but innovative ways. See you under the stars!

21-30 Dec Bella Vista Farm BOOK NOW

11-26 Jan Leura Everglades BOOK NOW

2 Feb-1 March Old Government House, Parramatta Park BOOK NOW