Griffin Theatre Company to Stage THE ELOCUTION OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Griffin Theatre Company explores historical narratives with their new stage production
Griffin Theatre Company will open its 2026 season with a 50th anniversary production of Steve J. Spears's classic The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin, starring icon of stage and screen Simon Burke, from Saturday 21 February to Sunday 29 March 2026 at Belvoir's Downstairs Theatre.
A landmark of Australian theatre, Steve J. Spears's tragicomedy scandalised and mesmerised in equal measure when it premiered in 1976—touring the world and collecting awards everywhere it ventured, including three Obie Awards for its Off-Broadway run in New York in 1979. Now, 50 years on from its premiere at the Nimrod Theatre, Simon Burke takes on the towering role that Gordon Chater made infamous.
Robert O'Brien is an elocution teacher whose career is going nowhere fast. Stuck in a dreary cycle of diaphragm exercises and She-Sells-Seashells, every evening he escapes into extravagant fantasies of seducing Mick Jagger.
Then, a new student arrives. Benjamin Franklin. A 12-year-old acting prodigy with a stutter, a pack-a-day smoking habit and some unsettling curiosities about his middle-aged voice teacher. With half of Double Bay already suspicious of their flamboyant neighbour, a ticking time bomb is lit.
Directed by Griffin's Artistic Director Declan Greene (The Lewis Trilogy, Sex Magick), Declan said, “I've been obsessed with Steve J. Spears's masterpiece for years, just waiting for the right moment—and, more importantly the right actor. With its 50th anniversary here, and the great Simon Burke bravely stepping into the role, that moment has finally come. A landmark of Australian theatre, still burning with urgency half a century on.”
Simon Burke added, “Declan sent me this extraordinary play to read about five years ago and we've been daring each other to do it ever since. The sweet synchronicity of now actually performing it at Belvoir Downstairs where it premiered in 1976 exactly 50 years ago, in this theatre where I began my career as an actor two years before that at the age of 12, makes it even more special and exciting for me. This is a mammoth, mountainous, magnificent role of a lifetime, and one I couldn't contemplate tackling without Declan by my side.”
Riotous, and at times deeply poignant, this razor-edged play is a harrowing portrait of persecution. Half a century on, it's just as urgent — and unsettling — as ever.
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