Sydney
Festival 2027
The Theatreflections Guide
7–25 January 2027 · 63 programme listings · part of 140+ events and experiences
More than a list of things to see
Sydney Festival is a city-wide collision of theatre, dance, music, visual art and public experience. This guide helps you navigate the complete public programme while paying particular attention to what the work is asking: who holds power, whose histories become visible, what bodies can communicate and how theatrical form carries meaning.
Theatreflections is an independent publication and is not affiliated with Sydney Festival.
Programme information was checked against the official Festival listings on 25 October 2026. Prices exclude booking fees where shown and may change or sell out.
Start with Theatreflections’ picks
Eight works with especially strong sociological, cultural or craft-based possibilities. These are editorial selections—not a public record of where or when Theatreflections will be attending.
DEAF REPUBLIC
Language, silence and resistance collide in a production where accessibility is part of the theatrical form.
THE LINE
Frontier violence moves across time in Nathan Maynard and Rachael Maza’s world-premiere reckoning.
Contre-nature
A study of trust, grief and dependence expressed through bodies catching, carrying and releasing one another.
A Loved Woman
Autobiography becomes a live negotiation between queer identity, motherhood and inherited ideas about the body.
MONGA
Jéssica Teixeira confronts the history of the freak-show gaze and claims the stage on her own terms.
Truck Driver
A changing Australia seen through an outback character whose certainty may be less stable than it first appears.
F*cking Future
Club culture meets military drill in an attack on masculinity, conformity and authoritarian power.
Ngurragabu
Marrugeku imagines climate futures through Country, intercultural performance and a monumental mangrove world.
The big questions
The Festival becomes more interesting when productions speak to one another.
Who gets to
tell Australian
history?
THE LINE · Redfern Renaissance · Vigil · EMILY IN SYDNEY · Waynapuni Pools
How do bodies resist?
DEAF REPUBLIC · MONGA · F*cking Future · We Wear Our Wheels With Pride · A Loved Woman
How can form carry memory?
Haribo Kimchi · Breathing Archive · Ngurragabu · ATOPIA · Sonic Rituals
What does a city celebrate?
The yard · The Party · ONEFOUR · Future Fiestas · Silah
63 shown
Browse the full programme
Every distinct production, concert, installation, talk and workshop currently listed in the official online programme.
Outsider
Rachid Ouramdine
A daring high-wire ballet that defies belief.
DEAF REPUBLIC
Dead Centre & Zoë McWhinney
Silence is resistance in this electrifying fable.
Waynapuni Pools
Benjamin Paul with Palawa Youth
From wrecked metal to healing ritual.
15 | 18
Tao Ye
Calligraphy in human form: sweeping, gorgeous, precise.
THE LINE
Nathan Maynard & Dr Rachael Maza AM
A border drawn in blood cuts through time.
CROSSOVER
(LA)HORDE
The latest banger from France’s hottest choreographers.
Ali Sethi
Ali Sethi
Sufi soul, pop heart – prepare to be transported.
Hannah Gadsby
Hannah Gadsby
The icon who rewrote the rules of comedy is back.
ONEFOUR & the Penrith Chamber Orchestra
Made Men
Western Sydney’s rap gods flow on heavenly strings.
The yard
Meet, mingle and taste the best of Sydney.
Kite Choir
Holly Austin
A chorus of dreams carried on the wind.
He's So Unusual
Salty Brine
Ghouls just want to have fun!
The Others
Paul Grabowsky, William Barton, James Morrison, Kram
Four masters, no rules and no repeats.
Haribo Kimchi
Jaha Koo
A sweet-sour Korean slice of life served hot.
WAVERIDER
Joshua Thomson
Get swept up in an exhilarating ocean adventure.
Silah: For as long as you are here
Wasielah Noorsjamsi
Turning a threshold into a communal recreation retreat.
Contre-nature
Rachid Ouramdine
A sweeping ode to loss.
Game. Set. Match.
Megan Wilding
A big serve of laughs with a brutal backhand.
Make a Kite & Record a Wish
Holly Austin
Join a global symphony of kites and dreams.
EMILY IN SYDNEY
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Rarely seen works from one of our most important artists.
A Loved Woman
Emma Maye Gibson & Karmyn Gibson
A queer icon – and her mum – bare all.
Maldonne
Leïla Ka
Five dancers. Forty dresses. One breathtaking rebellion.
The Party
A sweet and sweaty summer all-nighter.
Roof Piece
Trisha Brown
A postmodern masterpiece that changes the architecture.
Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker & Radouan Mriziga
Vivaldi's masterpiece meets a world on fire.
Soirée D’études
Cassiel Gaube
Study the joy at the heart of house.
Future Fiestas
Leeroy New
Turn waste into wonder at Darling Harbour.
Test Kitchen: The Slow Digest
Yujin Kim & Jaha Koo
Fermenting food and story on shifting terrain.
The Boy Who Found His Way Home
Jillian Boyd-Bowie
A wise-cracking homecoming full of heart.
Of Busy Bodies Speaking in Tongues
Vicki Van Hout & Raghav Handa
Contemporary dance isn’t as scary as you think.
Chatter
Spencer Novich
Slapstick absurdity that is shockingly real.
Mahjong Nights
Nø Flowers 麻将 Mahjong Club
Good tiles. Better company. No experience necessary.
Holding Space: Socially Engaged Practices
Leeroy New, Holly Austin & Benjamin Paul
Art doesn't always need an audience. Sometimes it needs accomplices.
MONGA
Jéssica Teixeira
Sometimes loving yourself is the most daring act.
We Wear Our Wheels With Pride
Robyn Orlin
A rickshaw ride you’ll never forget.
Mo'Ju sings Bill Withers
Blak & Blues
Bill Withers through MO’JU’s eyes.
Shaiva Koothu
Kapila Venu
A ritual dance drama with a 2000-year history.
Access as Festival Practice
Amy Claire Mills, Bashir Moukarzel, Lisa Kelly & Jéssica Teixeira
Beyond compliance, towards possibility.
Redfern Renaissance
Angeline Penrith
A vital tribute to Redfern’s revolutionary National Black Theatre.
Truck Driver
Jonny Hawkins
Your favourite outback oracle’s cracker yarn.
CORIN / Maggie Tra
Sonic Rituals: DIWA Live AV & Srey’s Refuge, Home At Last
A diasporic double-bill of ancestral electronica.
F*cking Future
Marco da Silva Ferreira
A pulsating anti-fascist fever dream.
Wasia Project
The celebrated duo make their full-band Australian debut.
Up Late with Bianca Hunt
Bianca Hunt
Late night so good you won’t want to sleep.
Test Kitchen: What’s Cooking?
Shishir, Vanessa Marian, Billy Bain & S.Shakthidharan
Ideas on the boil with Western Sydney’s most sought-after artists.
Budjerah sings Donny Hathaway
Blak & Blues
Budjerah in musical conversation with Donny Hathaway.
Maggie Tra
Srey’s Refuge, Home at Last
A sonic homecoming, remixing the past and future.
Club Shetu
ZAINAB, Munasib, Surya Sen
Free yourself on a dance floor that covers the world.
Nothing Like A Game
Gillian Cosgriff
An interactive comedic games night. Chic AF.
Solchld sings Etta James
Blak & Blues
Etta James through the prism of SOLCHLD.
Asia Pacific Arts Awards 2027
Part of Sydney Festival 2027.
Long Distance Relationships: Asia Pacific Engagement in the Arts
Nithya Nagarajan
Does distance make the heart grow fonder?
Industry Matchmaking
Artist Mixer
Three dates. Thirty minutes. Endless possibilities.
Ngurragabu
Dalisa Pigram & Rachael Swain
The earth rewilded, humanity reimagined.
Tarot Reading
Angela Dix (MYSDIX)
A little divination for uncertain times.
My Fierce Ignorant Step
Christos Papadopoulos
A stirring celebration of what keeps us together.
Deep Surface
Jemima Wyman
An intricate dive into patterns of dissent.
ATOPIA
Marcus Whale
A doom-metal electronica opera to the underworld.
Breathing Archive
Jamie James & Victoria Spence
Inhale the wild edges of 90s queer Sydney.
Western Sydney Spotlight
Wasielah Noorsjamsi, Marcus Whale, Toby Chapman & Talia Smith
No centre, no margins.
Festival Commons
Supporting the next generation of festival-makers, curators and cultural conveners.
Fiesta Aliens!
Leeroy New
Calling all earthlings, oddballs and aliens!
Vigil
Truth-telling by firelight. Listen. Remember. Heal.