Williams, a protege of Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, leaves STC after 13 years next month for Broadway and other adventures, following the runaway international success of The Picture of Dorian Gray in London.
Mitchell Butel, of the State Theatre Company of South Australia, has been named Williams’ successor.
Kip Williams on his final season: “”I think the task of an artistic director is a never-ending act of arm twisting.”Credit: James Brickwood
“I have a number of other projects I’m working on that are going to keep me busy – a film project I’m working on, a TV project and a couple of other stage things,” Williams says. “I’m feeling nostalgic and, to be honest, a little in denial.”
STC has cut this year’s season to 12 shows in 2025 as a cost-saving measure. The company is still reeling from consumer belt-tightening and a donor boycott triggered by a pro-Palestinian protest by three actors in November 2023, which is estimated to have cost it more than $1 million.
The company posted an operating deficit of $1.53 million in 2023 but is bracing for bigger deficits this year despite box-office successes. Two previous hits, RBG: Of Many, One and The Dictionary of Lost Words, are returning in 2025.
In diving deep into the literary canon, Williams has aimed for broad appeal while cultivating new Australian writing talent.
His long-time collaborator, the scriptwriter and actress Kate Mulvany, will adapt Darcy Niland’s The Shiralee, the story of a swagman and his young daughter travelling the Australian outback. After a 16-year absence from the stage, Mulvany also takes on the role of Marge.
Mulvany said The Shiralee was a fitting bookend to a body of stage work including Harp in the South and Playing Beattie Bow that had begun in 2015 when she shared a tiny office space with Williams at The Wharf as the company’s new resident director.
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“It’s a very character-driven story, about a little girl challenging male toxicity in the 1960s,” she said. “I plan to turn the perspective to her and see what it is to walk through the world with such violence. The character of Buster is so wily and wise and sassy.”
Speaking from Los Angeles, Mulvany said there was a palpable international buzz about Williams since Dorian Gray’s West End debut. “He’s got the whole world in his hands and they are just waiting for him,” she said.
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