The Stage Show

David Williamson is far and away Australia's most produced playwright. For the past 50 years he's been writing plays at an average of one every 10 months — not counting all the screenplays he has written. Now at the age of 79, David Williamson has retired, and he looks back on his luminous career in a very candid memoir called Home Truths (HarperCollins), in which he throws open the doors to his writing room and takes us inside.

Van Badham is a courageous and funny Australian playwright who, since searching for the humanity of trolls in Banging Denmark at the Sydney Theatre Company, has now adapted George Orwell's Animal Farm for Black Swan in Perth.

Also, historian Michelle Arrow introduces us to two other left-leaning Australian playwrights who raised the ire of the political establishment, Oriel Gray and Mona Brand, and we run through the big winners at this year's Tony Awards.

To mark the return of theatre to New York City, Michael revisits his private tour of Broadway with Audra McDonald, then delivering her Tony Award-winning performance in Porgy and Bess, and Tony Sheldon, who was starring in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Also, we check in with the New York Times' chief theatre critic Jesse Green and preview next week's long-delayed Tony Awards, and we meet the man whose experiences informed Windmill Theatre Co's Amphibian, a play about a young Afghan's journey to Adelaide.

Physical theatre-maker Hanna Cormick performs her show The Mermaid wearing a bright pink and blue tail and a full respirator mask. The image reflects the show's underlying warning about climate change — but without the mask, Hanna might very well die.

Also, we explore some of the unique considerations necessary to translate the work of Shakespeare into sign language and Sarah Houbolt outlines Arts Access Australia's vision for a National Access and Inclusion Code of Conduct.

What can a 60-year-old play about drunk and sometimes spiteful American academics tell us about culture and race relations in Australia? Margaret Harvey introduces her bold vision for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the State Theatre Company South Australia.

Also, ABC Top 5 resident artist Rose Montgomery introduces us to the enduring, physical creative device that is still the stage designer's go-to tool for generating, developing and communicating ideas: the scale model.

Justin Levine is the man behind the music of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Broadway production, nominated for 14 Tony Awards, is soon to open in Melbourne. Justin joins us at the keyboard to demonstrate how he updated some of the film's most iconic moments.

Also, Trent Dalton's acclaimed novel Boy Swallows Universe comes to the Queensland Theatre stage and we check in on the challenges faced by and support on offer to artists and event organisers amid border closures, lockdowns and surging COVID-19 cases.

Live on stage at last year's Adelaide Festival, we're joined by the Olivier Award-winning English star of the stage and screen, Juliet Stevenson. Juliet was performing in the play The Doctor, following its sell-out season at London's Almeida Theatre.

Also, with much of the country back in lockdown, we turn to musical comedian Jude Perl to lift our spirits at the piano and we enjoy a masterclass with actor, director and acting coach Larry Moss, whose coaching has led actors to Academy Award-winning glory.

Incoming Melbourne Theatre Company artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks has a reputation for bringing the best out of people. She speaks about her process with her friend and collaborator, Zoë Coombs Marr — who delights in bringing Anne-Louise down a peg or two.

Also, not content to highlight the work of just one Legend of Australian Theatre, Zoë attempts to double the series' output with a quickfire round and we hear a scene from Finegan Kruckemeyer's timely new play Hibernation at the State Theatre Company South Australia.

When Hugo Weaving and Paula Arundell share the stage, magic happens — not just in performance, but behind the scenes, too. The pair have forged a strong friendship around their insatiable curiosity and shared sense of fun.

Also, Virginia Gay explains why her Cyrano at the Melbourne Theatre Company, based on the French classic, needed a happy ending, and Paula speaks with theatre-maker James Brennan about his work with people with lived experience of the criminal justice system.

Straight out of drama school, Paula Arundell became a mainstay for directors like John Bell, Jim Sharman and Benedict Andrews. Now she treads the boards as one of the most famous characters in literature: Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She joins Kate Champion.

Also, director Rachael Maza and the cast of Ilbijerri Theatre Company's production of Heart Is a Wasteland perform a song in the studio for us ahead of their national tour and we discover a new creative partner for choreographers: artificial intelligence.