The Playwrights Database
ANDREW UPTON
Nationality: Australian
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: United Agents ANZ representative RGM Artists Group
Andrew Upton has established himself as a writer for both stage and screen. His play the Hanging Man was commissioned by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and premiered at the Wharf Theatre in 2002. the STC's 2004 production of Hedda Gabler, which starred Cate Blanchett in the title role, was Upton's third major adaptation for the stage after his celebrated adaptations of Cyrano de Bergerac and Don Juan debuted with the STC in 1999 and 2001 respectively. He wrote and directed the short film Bangers and has developed a number of feature screenplays.
Research: http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/234689
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below is a list of Andrew Upton's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Cherry Orchard, The Children Of the Sun Cyrano De Bergerac Dissident, Goes Without Saying Don Juan Face To Face Gentleman's New Clothes, The (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) Hanging Man Hedda Gabler Maids, The Philistines Present, the Riflemind Through a Glass Darkly Through The Looking Glass White Guard, TheCherry Orchard, The
Ranyevskaya returns more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and regardless of the increasingly hostile forces outside, she and her brother snub the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin, a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, they put up their lives to auction and seal the fate of the beloved orchard. Set at the very start of the twentieth century, the Cherry Orchard captures a poignant moment in Russia's history as the country rolls inexorably towards 1917
Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov
1st Produced:
Wharf 1, Sydney, NSW 13 Dec 2005
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
Faber and Faber Ltd, London (2011) >>> 978-0571277681
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 6 Other: ensemble
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/65603
Top of PageChildren Of the Sun
Protasov, detached and idealistic, wants only to immerse himself in chemical experiments to perfect mankind. He's more or less oblivious to the voracious advances of the half-crazed widow Melaniya and his best friend's unrelenting pursuit of his wife, let alone the cholera epidemic and the starving mob at his gates. While Nanny fusses round, Protasov's admiring circle, variously skeptical, romantic and lovesick, spar over culture and the cosmos. Only Liza, neurotic and patronized, feels the suffering of the peasantry and senses that their own privileged world is in jeopardy. Gone? they're everywhere. Have you heard about the riots? the starvation and the flagrant disregard of authority. This disregard is building walls and barriers between us all. And they are massing. the crowds of angry people. And the hate . . . the hate between us all . . . kills everything. Written during the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905, Maxim Gorky's darkly comic Children of the Sun depicts the new middle-class, foolish perhaps but likeable, as they flounder around, philosophizing, yearning, or scuttling between test tubes, blind to their impending annihilation.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maxim Gorky
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Faber and Faber Ltd, London (2013) >>> 978-0571304875
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/105577
Top of PageCyrano De Bergerac
Synopsis:
Dating from 1897, the story describes the misadventures of the valiant and tragic Cyrano, whose enormous nose prevents him from securing the adoration of the demure and much-admired Roxane. Instead, Cyrano expresses his love by writing billets-doux on behalf of his gorgeous but vapid soldier-friend Christian, which are duly delivered to Roxane in Christian's name. It doesn't help that Roxane was Cyrano's childhood friend, or that Christian's wit is as slow as Cyrano's is fast. Will our Quixotic chevalier win the heart of his beloved, or he be stymied by his own self-loathing?
Notes:
Original Playwright - Edmond Rostand
1st Produced:
Wharf 1, Sydney, NSW 06 Oct 1999
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Translation
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/77093
Top of PageDissident, Goes Without Saying
Synopsis:
A portrait of a mutually-dependent and coercive relationship between mother and son. Will a job take this mummy's boy away from mummy?
Notes:
Original Playwright - Michael Vinaver
1st Produced:
Wharf 2 Theatre, Walsh Bay, NSW 13 Jan 2006
Organisations:
Wharf 2 Loud
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
translation
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/68364
Top of PageDon Juan
Synopsis:
Don Juan has a self-appointed mandate from Heaven to follow his desire wherever it leads. Faced with the delicious agony that the world might not hold enough women to conquer, he swings over the crevice of damnation with all the agility of a high wire act
Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere. Adapted by Andrew Upton And Marion Potts
1st Produced:
Drama Theatre (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW 20 Oct 2001
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/16222
Top of PageFace To Face
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
A film by Ingmar Bergman adapted for the stage by Andrew Upton and Simon Stone.
1st Produced:
Sydney Theatre, Millers Point, NSW 07 Aug 2012
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/105426
Top of PageGentleman's New Clothes, The (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme)
Synopsis:
A loose and fresh contemporary translation of Moliere's 1670 play
Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere. Translated by Marion Potts and Andrew Upton
1st Produced:
Belvoir Street Theatre, Surry Hills, NSW 27 Aug 1993
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
translation
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/22298
Top of PageHanging Man
Synopsis:
Hanging Man opens the morning after the death of a family matriarch. Her death leaves the estate of her long dead husband, a (fictional) famous and contentious Australian artist, in the hands of his three sons. At the core of their fathers legacy is a series of paintings of which the eponymous Hanging Man is the centrepiece. At the time of its first showing, the painting, depicting Governor Daveys 1816 speech to the Aborigines, has caused enormous controversy. The eldest surviving son, art dealer Thomas, is on the brink of selling to a famous expatriate Australian actress, while his half brother, Robert, has been charged (by his mother) with reuniting the scattered series and gifting it to the nation. The narrative surface of Hanging Man is a family trying to cope with grief in the wake of the death of its upper generation, but its deeper political themes articulate a vision of contemporary Australia facing the buried, guilty secrets of the past. Who stands to make what? How culpable is the present for the actions of past generations? What right does the present have to whitewash the past?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Wharf 2 Theatre, Walsh Bay, NSW 23 Aug 2002
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/ 978-0992383862
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
full length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/23250
Top of PageHedda Gabler
Synopsis:
the story of a beautiful woman who has decided to marry Jorgen Tesman, an academic of limited skill and ambition who adores her, rather than his brilliant, drunken colleague Lovborg, who actually loves her. Tesman, a historian who spent most of his honeymoon doing field work, is desperate for a University appointment so that he can continue to keep Hedda in the style to which she would prefer to become accustomed. Lovborg, who has thrown off the drink with great difficulty, has (with a lover and silent partner) written a fabulously successful treatise and is ready to introduce an even more significant work. Hedda, recognizing that her old lover is a threat to her new husband's prosperity, reintroduces Lovborg to the sauce, and after that the bad things happen.
- Tim Treanor, dc theatre scene
- Tim Treanor, dc theatre scene
Notes:
Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen
1st Produced:
Wharf 1, Sydney, NSW 27 Jul 2004
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/64078
Top of PageMaids, The
Synopsis:
Two maids, Claire (Cate Blanchett) and Solange (Isabelle Huppert) indulge in sexual fantasies, taking turns playing the role of their mistress (Elizabeth Debicki) who has enslaved them. Both maids dream of freedom but do either of them have the nerve to actually kill their mistress when she returns? The Maids is an adaptation by Andrew Upton and Benedict Andrews of the 1947 play by Jean Genet which is loosely based on a real life murder, carried out by maids. Genet was quite the devious individual himself. He was made a ward of the state before he was one year old and became a thief and prostitute during his early adult life. Jean-Paul Sartre read one of his first novels, and lobbied for his release from life in prison, declaring him a thug of genius. So began Genets career as a writer. The Maids is both a piece of absurdist theatre and a psychological character study. This house is the maids life. They know the outside world only in shadowy fragments. They are simultaneously grateful for the kindness of their mistress and repulsed by the way she has enslaved them .
Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean Genet. Translated by Benedict Andrews and Andrew Upton
1st Produced:
Sydney Theatre, Millers Point, NSW 04 Jun 2013
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
translation
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/105399
Top of PagePhilistines
Sung at a funeral and a wedding today. the full gamut of the human experience from the ridiculous to the utterly pointless. A restless bunch of young radicals hang out, have sex, dance, drink, moan and philosophise at the home of a prosperous decorator. While Pyotr, a sometime student of law, falls for the lovely, loose-living lodger, his sister carps on about the tedium of life, lusts after Nil - who's blind to her charms but in pursuit of the servant - and botches her own suicide. Life. People shout, fight, eat and go to bed. When they wake up? they start shouting again. In this house everything fades quickly. Tears, laughter. Everything. Dissipates. the last sounds ringing out over the lake. then nothing. A banal hum.A household falls to pieces as the personal and political turmoil of pre-revolutionary Russia gathers pace. Gorky's darkly comic first play of 1902, banned from public performance under the Czarist regime, is seen here in an exuberant new version by Andrew Upton.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maxim Gorky
1st Produced:
Organisations:
National Theatre Company
1st Published:
Faber and Faber Ltd, London (2007) >>> 978-0571238675
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 9 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PagePresent, the
Synopsis:
Anton Chekhov's first play was a sprawling, unstructured epic but it marked out the style and themes he would return to in his later masterworks from The Seagull toThe Cherry Orchard. It remains a mysterious, unpolished gem. The manuscript, left unpublished until almost two decades after Chekhov's death, lacked a title. Over the years it has inspired various adaptations - Wild Honey, Fatherlessness, The Disinherited -but it is most commonly referred to as Platonov, the name of the man at its centre. And yet, the play has always contained another extraordinarily rich and complex character - that of Anna Petrovna. Taking on these roles are the fearsome talents of Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh. Irish director John Crowley, renowned for his work on the West End and Broadway, brings his lean and precise theatrical vision. And, as with his 2010 adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Andrew Upton lends his distinctive voice, brimming with vitality, to this tale of yearning, vodka and shattered dreams.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov after Platonov
1st Produced:
Sydney Theatre, Millers Point, NSW 04 Aug 2015
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/110552
Top of PageRiflemind
John was once the frontman in one of the world's biggest bands, Riflemind. Now John and his wife Lynn are safe from the world in their walled country house. Money and anonymity, however, won't protect them from themselves or their past. As a comeback tour nears, a weekend of music-making is planned. As soon as the band and associated spouses, lovers and hangers-on arrive, it's a rock'n'roll circus. With their apparent affluence, preposterous egos and rock-god lifestyles, each of them struggles to find redemption. Over this weekend they will open old wounds, lose their way, play great music and, perhaps, stumble into a more certain future.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney 05 Oct 2007
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre Company
1st Published:
Currency Press, Australia >>>, 2007 978-0868198231
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/70522
Top of PageThrough a Glass Darkly
Synopsis:
Karin is a young wife, an older sister and an only daughter, whose kaleidoscopic interior world is a constantly changing picture where the boundaries between the ordinary and extraordinary are becoming increasingly blurred. Haunting and sensual, Through a Glass Darkly is the iconic 1961 film by legendary Swedish director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman
Notes:
based on Ignmar Bergman's film
1st Produced:
Almeida Theatre, London, Eur >>> 16 Jun 2010
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageThrough The Looking Glass
Synopsis:
In this unprecedented rendering of a much-loved classic, Malthouse Theatre and Victorian Opera produce an event as unique as the material at its heart. On a boating trip with seven year old Alice Liddell, Carroll gifted her with the fantastic story which would soon be indelibly associated with her name - a gift that would re-cast her as a pawn in the fantastic underworld of The Looking Glass. This glass is as much kaleidoscope as mirror, where space and time are refracted, splintering into chaos as rhyming flowers, roaring royals and reluctant foodstuffs wage war on sense and sensibility.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Merlyn Theatre, Southbank, VIC 17 May 2008
Organisations:
Malthouse Theatre and Victorian Opera
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
libretist of Opera
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 10 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/76034
Top of PageWhite Guard, The
In Kiev during the Russian civil war, the Turbin household is sanctuary to a ragtag, close-knit crowd presided over by the beautiful Lena. As her brothers prepare to fight for the White Guard, friends charge in from the riotous streets amidst an atmosphere of heady chaos, quaffing vodka, keeling over, declaiming, taking baths, playing guitar, falling in love. But the new regime is poised and in its brutal triumph lies destruction for the Turbins and their world.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Mikhail Bulgakov
1st Produced:
Lyttelton, National Theatre, London, Eur >>> 23 Mar 2010
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Faber and Faber Ltd, London (2010) >>> 978-0571268597
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 20 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/91936
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