‘Demoralised, poorly kept, badly cared for’: Belvoir boss walks Australian theatre’s tightrope

September 7, 2026 — 7:00pmArtistic director Eamon Flack calls it “the highest tightrope that I’ve ever walked in my 20 years” at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre.The Marrickville fire that gutted the theatre company’s main scenery workshop in June was a blow that was partly eased by the generosity of other arts organisations sharing their workshops, and private donors who came forward to replace a forklift, machinery and tools.Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack with, from left, directors Margaret Thanos, Ayah Tayeh and Mehhma Malhi.Sam Mooy“It was a massive financial hit in all sorts of ways – the lost work hours, the additional staff, the loss of everything that was in that building,” Flack said.Then there is the cost of living crisis that has cut short Australian seasons of such musicals as Beetlejuice The Musical and Dear Evan Hansen and forced the closure of vocal ensemble The Song Company and the Australian Design Centre.This is not to mention the cancellation of a season of Runt after author Craig Silvey was arrested and charged with producing and distributing child exploitation material. He later pleaded guilty.Then there was the illness that hit a second actor during the Melbourne season of The Jungle and the Sea that meant flying a late replacement from Sydney last week.“Ever since COVID, the amount of sickness inside casts and rehearsal rooms is just so much higher than it used to be,” Flack said. “I just feel like people’s immune systems were affected by COVID, and life is so much more extreme for artists, so the pressures are just so much higher than they were.”Launching Belvoir’s 2027 season – highlights of which include a new production of A Clockwork Orange, Noni Hazlehurst as the owner of an inner-city pub facing demolition in The Lark and Robyn Nevin and Zahra Newman in Lily Tomlin’s 1991 show The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe – Flack said the company was used to disruption.Belvoir’s 2027 season includes The Lark with Noni Hazlehurst.Daniel Boud“We plan well, and we plan carefully, but we also plan for chaos, and we plan for uncertainty,” he said. “That’s where possibility exists, and we know that no one can really be in control of an artistic process, and it’s foolish to try.”But Flack said the problems for Australian theatre were cultural as much as financial.“I’ve never seen the state of the overall system so demoralised, so poorly kept, so badly cared for,” he said. “From a policy point of view, I really am so pleased that [Federal Arts Minister] Tony Burke is making this great effort to haul the frankly bullshit, outdated, destructive policy settings into the 21st century. But I think that we’re on a knife edge.”Belvoir’s nine main stage productions and two late-night shows next year include a contemporary version of A Clockwork Orange that Tom Wright has adapted from Anthony Burgess’ novel.Belvoir’s 2027 season also features a new adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, featuring Marco Chiappi (at rear) and (from left) Darius Williams, Brittany Santariga and James Thomasson. Daniel BoudFlack and artistic associate Margaret Thanos were touring August: Osage County in Perth when she picked up a copy in a bookshop and realised how much it was relevant to the current debate about young men and violence.She will direct the play, which will be set in the present and use the Nadsat teenage slang of the book and Kubrick’s famous film.“With these Scots [College] boys and the Sydney Swans and the manosphere [the issue is] in the public zeitgeist,” Thanos said.Hazlehurst will star in Daniel Keene’s The Lark, set in an inner-city pub that is facing demolition amid gentrification; and Geraldine Hakewill and Alex Malone will feature in David Adjmi’s Tony-winning Stereophonic, about a 1970s band that strongly resembles Fleetwood Mac recording a legendary album amid cocaine, rivalry and fractured relationships.Geraldine Hakewill (left), and Alex Malone will star in Stereophonic at Belvoir. Daniel BoudDuring Sydney Festival, Rick Davies and Megan Wilding will star in Wilding’s Malthouse hit Game. Set. Match, about the white middle-aged son of a tennis legend meeting an impudent young First Nations cleaner on the evening of her funeral.Shaping as another highlight is by Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here, which centres on five spirited girlfriends facing uncertain futures over 12 years from the start of the Iranian revolution in 1978.Belvoir’s 2027 season includes Wish You Were Here, with Minerva Khodabande (centre) and Violette Ayad (right).Daniel Boud“It’s talking about how Iran came to be [what it is] today and how women fit into that,” director Ayah Tayeh said. Added co-director Mehhma Malhi: “The play forces us to acknowledge what it means to live through wars and revolutions and genocides.”From our partners