After an incredible year in 2024 with knockout seasons of Timon of Athens, Isolde and Tristan, Henry IV Part 1, Richard III and Romeo and Juliet, playing to tens of thousands from across New South Wales, Sport for Jove’s Season 2025 is here, and it is one of the most exciting seasons in our 16-year history.

We kick off our Summer Season XVI with acclaimed Sydney-based director Samantha Young who brings her beautiful and uniquely Australian vision of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing to our Summer Outdoor Season stages. We are also thrilled to be offering a new venue partnership with The Hub at Blue Mountains Theatre in Springwood. This follows our seasons at cherished old favourites – Bella Vista Farm and Leura Everglades, the sites of so many rich experiences over the years.

 In March/April we have an extraordinary Jove Main Stage offering – Shakespeare and Marlowe's History Cycle: The Player Kings – a company of some of Australia’s most revered performers including John Gaden, Peter Carroll, Katrina Retallick, Leilani Loau, Seán O’Shea, Marty Alix, Steve Rodgers, Emma Palmer, Christopher Stollery, Andrew Cutcliffe, Gareth Davies, Lulu Howes, Ruby Henaway, Liam Gamble and more tackle Shakespeare’s epic history of the “Hollow Crown” from Richard II through Henry IV and Henry V, to the “Wars of the Roses”, the masterful study of political chaos that is Henry VI and Richard III. Don’t miss it. This is a short and remarkable season, get in quick, tickets are limited. Huge thanks to Seymour Centre for being our associate partners in this special event.

We follow this with the long-awaited privilege of working with ingenious director Cristabel Sved whose magnificent sensitivity and intelligence is the perfect match for one of the great playwrights of any age, Harold Pinter. Cristabel’s new production of Pinter’s Betrayal will thrill you at the Old Fitz Theatre. Next up, we partner for the first time with Hayes Theatre for the brilliant Steve Martin & Edie Brickell bluegrass musical, Bright Star – electric atmosphere, joyous rhythm and profound humanity.  And we close the year out with Peter Shaffer’s intense, frightening and utterly brilliant Equus, playing in the Shed Theatre at Bella Vista Farm, an incredible and immersive site-specific event directed by Margaret Thanos, whose 5-Star I Hate People; or Timon of Athens was one of 2024’s best shows of the year, and in a hugely exciting piece of news, Timon is back in 2025, playing a strictly limited return season in the York Theatre at Seymour Centre in June. See it for the first time or see it again, but don’t miss it.

Our Education Season is equally adventurous, with a big east coast Australian tour through NSW and Queensland of a brand-new production of Macbeth, directed by company favourite George Banders whose Servant of Two Masters dazzled audiences in 2018. This is preceded by Henry IV and Richard III (extracted from The Player Kings Part 1 and 2) for HSC students at Seymour Centre. And our all-encompassing Symposia series continues of course, a critical partnership with NSW teachers.

Don’t miss out, book early, bring your friends for enchanting encounters and unforgettable nights out.

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Damien Ryan
Artistic Director, Sport for Jove Theatre