Arlington
Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre
From the Tony Award-winning writer of Once, Empress Theatre and Seymour Centre are thrilled to present the Australian premiere of the acclaimed dystopian drama Arlington, playing at Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre from 2nd to 24th August.
This Beckett-meets-Black Mirror thriller by Irish playwright Enda Walsh premiered in 2017 at the Galway International Arts Festival before opening in New York for a smash-hit run.
Walsh shot to fame when he won both the George Devine Award and the Stewart Parker Award in 1997 with his play Disco Pigs, which starred Cillian Murphy. The Guardian named Walsh “one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre.”
Arlington follows Isla as she waits out her days in a state-controlled tower block, trading her dreams for a chance to live. Her only companion is the anonymous young man who records her stories from the other side of the wall. As he offers glimpses of the world beyond the tower, an unexpected love story takes hold, forcing an unthinkable fate.
Director Anna Houston says, “I’m thrilled to be directing the Australian premiere of Enda Walsh’s dark fable of surveillance, isolation – and hope. Like all of his best work, Arlington is both funny and deeply unsettling – he’s a singular playwright that disarms, tickles and terrifies in equal measure.
Enda wrote this beautiful play in 2016, as the tide of Trumpism and Brexit gathered momentum. Now, in 2024, the work remains as urgent and prescient as ever. Arlington uncannily captures our collective anxiety about loss of art and community, and the omniscience of technology – yet even the darkest shadows throughout the play are laced with hope and humour. This is Enda Walsh at his dizzying best, and I can’t wait to share Arlington with Sydney audiences.”
PLAYWRIGHT Enda Walsh DIRECTOR Anna Houston CHOREOGRAPHER Emma Harrison ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Saz Watson STAGE MANAGER Justice Georgopoulos SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER Kate Beere LIGHTING AND VIDEO DESIGNER Aron Murray COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER Steve Toulmin EMPRESS THEATRE PUBLICIST Sean Hall CAST Phaedra Nicolaidis, Jack Angwin, Georgina Symes, Emma Harrison.
