Simon Stone
Simon Stone is an Australian film and theatre director, writer and actor.
Early life and education
Simon Stone was born in 1984 in Basel, Switzerland. He grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and Cambridge, England, where he was educated. His father, Stuart Stone, was a biochemist and his mother, Eleanor Mackie, a veterinary scientist. Stuart Stone died of a heart attack aged 45; Stone, aged 12 at the time, witnessed it, and has spoken about the ways in which that trauma has influenced his work.He decided to be an actor at the age of 15, and set to reading the complete works of Shakespeare in chronological order.
Career
Theatre
In 2007 Stone founded the independent theatre company The Hayloft Project and adapted and directed their inaugural production of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. This production was remounted in 2008 at Belvoir St Theatre and was described in The Sydney Morning Herald as "a lean, contained, ultimately furious, liberating production that is well-attuned to Wedekind's poetic rhythms, wit and pubescent discoveries". Other productions Stone adapted and directed for The Hayloft Project include Platonov, 3xSisters, The Suicide and The Only Child, a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf, which won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production.In 2009 he directed Aleksei Arbuzov's The Promise for Belvoir. In 2010 he directed and co-wrote with Mark Leonard Winter, Thomas Henning and Chris Ryan a version of Seneca's Thyestes for The Hayloft Project and Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. He directed The Cherry Orchard for Melbourne Theatre Company in 2013.
In 2011 Stone became the resident director at Belvoir. In his first year he wrote and directed The Wild Duck, after Henrik Ibsen, which has become his calling card production and has played internationally, including at the Holland Festival. In 2011 he also directed Robyn Nevin in Lally Katz's Neighbourhood Watch for Belvoir and adapted and directed Bertolt Brecht's Baal for the Sydney Theatre Company.
For Theater Basel, where he was a house director from 2015, he has directed Angels in America, John Gabriel Borkman, Three Sisters, and Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt. A companion project with the works of August Strindberg, Hotel Strindberg, premiered at Theater Basel in 2018.
For Ivo van Hove's company Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, he has directed Euripides' Medea in his own new adaptation, Husbands and Wives, Ibsen House, a new play by Stone which threads together the plots of several of Ibsen's plays in a new modern scenario, and Flight 49, inspired by the novel Op Hoop van Zegen by Herman Heijermans.
In 2016, Stone premiered an adaptation of Federico García Lorca's Yerma at the Young Vic in London. The production starred Billie Piper in the title role, and was well reviewed, returning for a second run in 2017 before transferring to the Park Avenue Armory in New York in 2018. It won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2017.
Stone directed Luigi Cherubini's opera Médée at the 2019 Salzburg Festival, returning there in 2023 for Martinů's The Greek Passion sung in English.
He took his production of Euripides' Medea, with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2020. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2022 with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, set in present-day America's Rust Belt.
In 2023, he directed Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele for the opening night of the new season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome, Italy.
His updated adaptation of Phaedra was produced at the National Theatre in London from February to April 2023; the company included Mackenzie Davis, Assaad Bouab and Janet McTeer.
Film
Stone appeared in the films Kokoda, Jindabyne, and Balibo, before turning to theatre direction.Stone's directorial debut feature film The Daughter, which he also wrote, premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in Australia on 17 March 2016. He won Best Adapted Screenplay at the AACTA Awards for his work.
He directed the British drama film The Dig in 2021. It focuses on an archaeological dig in Sutton Hoo in 1939.
Television
Stone has acted in the television series John Safran's Music Jamboree, MDA, Blue Heelers, Rush, City Homicide, and the films Jindabyne, Kokoda, Balibo, Blame, and The Eye of the Storm.Philosophy and style
Stone likes to take pieces from the standard theatre canon which, with the help of his cast, he reworks into intimate, almost cinematic performances. He often works from improvisation creating an entirely new script through which the original play nevertheless shines. This practice is sometimes referred to as "over-writing".Stone believes in theatre as a place for polemic: "One can't make theatre based on fear and compromises. Without argument, there is no art."
Yet, at the same time, he acknowledges that his own art has its roots in finding a language for the trauma of his father's death. "I certainly couldn't talk to people about what had happened to me. Especially at a young age, people are very confronted by 'how on earth do I even talk about that absurdly dark thing that happened to Simon?'. Of course, in cinema and literature, you find conversation partners. They're not talking back but they kind of are because they're telling you you're not the only person who's been through that thing".
Personal life
Stone married Jessamy Dyer in 2004 though the marriage ended in divorce. He then married Stefanie Hackl, a dramaturge.Works and performances
Film
DirectorThe Turning The Daughter The Dig The Woman in Cabin 10 ElsinoreStage directorVerdi: La Traviata Die Teufel von Loudun
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2006 | Kokoda: 39th Battalion | Max Scholt | |
| 2006 | Jindabyne | Billy 'The Kid' | |
| 2008 | Nice Shootin' Cowboy | Cormac | Short film |
| 2009 | Balibo | Tony Maniaty | |
| 2010 | A Love Story | Robin | Short film |
| 2010 | Blame | Nick | |
| 2011 | The Eye of the Storm | Peter | |
| 2012 | Being Venice | Lenny |
Television
DirectorNational Theatre Live: YermaStage director
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2021 | Korngold: Die Tote Stadt | TV movie |
| 2022 | The Metropolitan Opera HD Live | Episode "Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor" |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2002–2003 | MDA | Jason Henderson | 5 episodes |
| 2002–2005 | Blue Heelers | Mary Farris / Clayton Sanders | |
| 2009 | City Homicide | Billy Pierce / Will Fenech | 1 episode |
| 2009 | Rush | Ted Holston | 1 episode |
Theater
Dramaturge| Year | Title | Venue |
| 2010–2011 | Human Interest Story | Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Venue |
| 2001 | Antony and Cleopatra | Melbourne Grammar School |
| 2002 | The Bridge | Butter Factory Theatre, Wodonga with HotHouse Theatre |
| 2002 | The Sea | University of Melbourne |
| 2006 | Sugar Mountain | Cinema Nova, Melbourne |
| 2006 | A Kind of Hush | Cinema Nova, Melbourne |
| 2006 | Jet of Blood | Theatre Works, Melbourne |
| 2007 | Ashes to Ashes | Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne |
| 2007 | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney |
| 2008 | Miss Julie | Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney |