Melbourne Theatre Company's 2024 slate features seven plays by Australian writers, including a musical adaptation of the Miles Franklin classic My Brilliant Career.
The new work comes of the back of several hit shows in 2023, including Anthony Weigh's drama Sunday and the unlikely aged-care musical Bloom.
"At a moment when culture is mostly defined by what we're streaming, people are actually talking about live theatre again," the company's artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks said.
Sarks will direct the adaptation based on Miles Franklin's 1901 novel, in a production designed to capture the spirit of teenage rebellion starring Kala Gare.
Another new Australian work is 37, named for Adam Goodes’s AFL number, which looks at the complex history of Australian Rules football and Indigenous people.
The play by Nathan Maynard will star Ngali Shaw leading a larger than usual cast of 10 actors.
Coming up to two years at the helm of the company, Sarks has programmed a crop of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, including Topdog/Underdog, Cost of Living and the 2023 winner English.
Audiences will be pleased to hear Nikki Shiels, the star of Sunday and The Picture of Dorian Gray (with dramaturg Eryn Jean Norvill) will return to play Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Sarks says Streetcar is a masterpiece and sees the Tennessee Williams classic not as the tale of a crazy lady tipped over the edge, but a woman who has experienced trauma and endures violence.
"It'll be a fresh take on that classic play that I hope will reveal those characters in ways you've never seen before," she said.
The season opens in January with Seventeen, an exploration of teenagehood played by senior actors including Pamela Rabe.
It's followed by two-hander Meet Me at Dawn starring Prima Facie's Sheridan Harbridge, a play billed as a queer love story and philosophical thriller.
In April, there's Kendall Feaver's multi-award-winning The Almighty Sometimes, featuring Nadine Garner and Max McKenna in a coming-of-age story about identity and mental health.
Then following back-to-back sold-out seasons in Sydney and Canberra, Julia, the story of Australia's first female prime minister will come to the stage in Melbourne, starring Justine Clarke.
There's also Golden Blood, the tale of an orphaned girl left in the care of her gangster brother in Singapore, commissioned by the MTC and developed with Griffin Theatre Company.
Resident director Tasnim Hossain directs English by Sanaz Toossi, a play set in language classes in Iran that looks at the impact of language on shaping a sense of self.
There's also Cost of Living by Martyna Majok, which looks at people living with disability and their support workers, starring Mabel Li and Oli Pizzey.
"I love this play because it is so human, it's awkward and it's charming, it's funny and it's devastating," Sarks said.
The season features four co-productions with interstate companies, including Ilbijerri Theatre Company with Blak in the Room.
The MTC's 2024 season kicks off with Seventeen, which opens on January 19.
