The Talented Mr Stone

THE TALENTED MR STONE follows controversial young theatre director Simon Stone during his time as Resident Director at Sydney’s famous Belvoir Street Theatre. Filmed over 6 months, we see one of Australia’s hottest new talents at work on 3 productions: Ibsen’s Wild Duck, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Stone’s radically re-written version of Wild Duck has been invited to Norway to the Ibsen Festival in Oslo. The other two plays are transferred to bigger theatres after sell out seasons at Belvoir. But though his productions are hugely popular, not everyone approves of the way Stone alters classic plays to suit his needs. The program features comment on the controversy, from theatre ‘elder statesman’ Neil Armfield and writer/director Andrew Upton, Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company, as well as actors and Stone collaborators, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz.