HEISENBERG Comes to MTC

Kat Stewart (Offspring) stars as the audacious and spontaneous Georgie opposite Peter Kowitz (Janet King) as routine-loving Alex in the Australian premiere of Heisenberg, directed by Tom Healey (The Spook).

Opening on Thursday 23 May at Arts Centre Melbourne, Heisenberg is the intimate and surprising romantic comedy from Tony and Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) that explores life's intangible mysteries and the peculiarities of the human heart.

Tom Healey said, 'As the erstwhile king of "in-yer-face" gritty, British modernity, Simon Stephens transfigures his familiar themes into an ode to the possibility of transformation. Heisenberg is about staring down loneliness, defying convention, and the high-voltage rush of leaping into uncertainty. I am super excited to be working with Kat Stewart and Peter Kowitz on this exquisite, life-affirming jewel of a piece.'

At a bustling London train station, 42-year-old American Georgie kisses the neck of a much older Irish man, Alex. This electric encounter thrusts two perfect strangers into a fascinating and unlikely relationship, part friendship, part love-affair. But is Georgie really all she seems?

Tom Healey's directing credits include American Song and Jumpers for Goalposts (Red Stitch Actors' Theatre), Let's Get it On (room 8), Doris Day - So Much More Than the Girl Next Door (Boldjack), Disarming Rosetta (Hothouse), Turns (CDP) with Nancye Hayes and Reg Livermore, Good Evening (Token) with Shaun Micallef and Stephen Curry, the world premieres of Falling Petals, The Fat Boy, Insouciance and Elegy (Playbox), Helpmann Award-winning The Man In Black (Folsom Prison Productions), The Kid (Griffin Theatre Company), The Spook (Malthouse Theatre), The Shape of Things (Red Stitch and national tour), Eddie Perfect's solo shows, Drink Pepsi, Bitch (Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh, Melbourne Comedy and Adelaide Cabaret Festivals) and Angry Eddie (Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne Comedy Festival).

Simon Stephens is a prolific British playwright whose work has been produced extensively around the world. His adaption of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Oliver and Tony Awards for Best New Play and premiered in Melbourne in 2018 presented by MTC and Arts Centre Melbourne. In 2015, Heisenberg opened at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, transferred to the Friedman in 2016 and opened in the West End in 2017. His many other plays include Song from Far Away, Pornography, Punk Rock, Bluebird, Herons, Country Music, Motortown, Harper Regan, Sea Wall, Carmen Disruption, and Birdland (which had its Australian premiere at MTC in 2015). Other credits include adaptations of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera. In 2017 his plays Nuclear War, Fatherland, his English language version of Obsession and his new adaptation of The Seagull all opened in theatres around the UK. Simon is Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court.

Tickets: mtc.com.au or 03 8688 0800