Kill the pig. Cut its throat. Spill its blood.

The Sydney Theatre Company has just dropped it’s 2019 season catalogue which promises some powerhouse performances. Among them, Nigel Williams’ stage-adaptaion of William Golding’s allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. The cast includes both male and female actors. Film star Mia Wasikowska makes her Australian stage debut playing the lead role, Ralph.

A common reading of Golding’s novel is that it is an allegory for humanity’s dark, primal side. STC Artistic Director and director of the play, Kip Williams, is quick to dimiss this interpretation. “I think the story is so often talked about as the piece that reveals the innate animal within humans. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the action that unfolds on this island is born of some innate, cruel, dark animal within us. It’s born of the behaviour these boys have been indoctrinated into before they reach the island. I think it’s bullying behaviour. I think it’s behaviour that’s been modelled off their fathers. Behaviour that’s been modelled off a patriarchal power structure that they’re going to inherit when they come back to society.”

As for the decision to reinvent an old story for a modern audience? William says, “I think certainly with the re-emergence of certain fascist ideologies internationally, there’s an important context in which to be telling this story”.

Lord of the Flies will be performed at the Rosyln Packer Theatre in July/August 2019.

Check out the full 2019 STC season line-up.