The Sydney Opera House at Bennelong Point is the city's most recognisable landmark. It is, as well, an icon of the arts, particularly the performing arts.
For visitors and Sydneysiders alike, this is that unique white building with roofs that look like sails against the blue of the sky. We see it from west Circular Quay, and from along the curve of Sydney's harbour, southside and northside; and we see it from the air, from a plane or helicopter, or from a bus or car on Bradfield Highway as it traverses the Sydney Harbour Bridge southward before entering the Cahill Expressway.
Here is where a trek through Sydney theatres begins, from the Opera Theatre and the Concert Hall to the Playhouse, the Drama Theatre, and thence to its newer performance space, the Studio.
Performing arts centre
The Sydney Opera House is the centre of Sydney's performing arts. It is in Sydney's physical centre as well, finely balanced between the northern and southern suburbs, and between the western suburbs and the vast Pacific.
Northwards across the harbour lies the home theatre of the Ensemble Theatre, right on the water's edge at Kirribilli. Farther north is the Glen St Theatre at Belrose near the suburb of Frenchs Forest.
But it is in the near vicinity of the Opera House, within a radius of seven or so kilometres, that most of the better-known Sydney theatres are: the new Sydney Theatre and the two Wharf Theatres at Walsh Bay; the Theatre Royal, on King St; the huge Sydney Entertainment Centre by Darling Harbour, which converts easily into a theatre for Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as well as for musical concerts; and the large art deco Capitol Theatre close to Chinatown.
From the Cross to the west
Across Elizabeth St and into Surry Hills, one finds Belvoir St Theatre within walking distance of Central Station; and then at Kings Cross lies the smaller Stables, home of the Griffin Theatre Company. Closer to the central business district, and a short walk from Town Hall Station, is the Genesian Theatre, a converted church and home of what was originally a Catholic theatre group.
Westward along Broadway lies the Footbridge Theatre (now only occasionally used), not too far away from the three theatres at the Seymour Centre along City Rd, and conveniently close to the Glebe Point Rd restaurant row of multicultural cuisine.
Serious theatre then jumps across several suburbs to Parramatta Riverside Theatres in the west and, further still, to the Q at Penrith, at the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
But these aren't all
But these are not all the venues for the performing arts in Sydney. One must also look at the new performance spaces at CarriageWorks in Eveleigh near Redfern; the Parade Theatre complex of the National Institute of Dramatic Art at the University of New South Wales; the Enmore Theatre in Newtown, the Pavilion at Bondi Beach; and the numerous other theatres in quite a number of Sydney suburbs.
Residents and visitors alike thus have a wide variety of performing arts venues spread across the Sydney landscape, offering as many different types of theatre and entertainment as would suit any discriminating, specialist or populist theatre-goer.
This is Sydney, theatre city. Let the performance begin.
And see what's on in Sydney now.
